Hey guys,
Wanted to see if there was anyone else on here that took CAIA or CFA with zero financial background.
I have been working for about 5 years as an economist focusing primarilly on timber and renewable energy. I have an MS in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics - what I would broadly consider applied microeconomics. I took one MBA elective class in financial accounting but that is all of my formal financial education.
I have gotten more and more interested in finance as I have done some consulting and due dilligence work for renewable energy projects. I started looking into CAIA as a way to learn a lot about finance very quickly. The ciriculum seemed to fit my areas of interest very well. I work in timber and forest products (real assets and commodities) and have done work for PE and VC firms for renewable energy projects. I see CAIA as a way to potentially expand on consulting and due dilligence offerings at my current position or as a springboard into a firm that works in one of the areas where I have a lot of experience (TIMOs, timber REITs, renewable energy focused PE funds, etc.).
I am currently using Kaplan for the exam prep. So far I have found that if I try to test an area that I havent studied yet I literally know nothing, but do fairly well after the material is covered. I have always been a good standardized test taker so I hope that helps. What do you guys think about how important a financial background is for these types of designations. I am sure there is going to be a random question that Kaplan didnt cover that will seem easy to some folks with a generalized business degree from a 100 level udnergrad class and I will have no clue, but overall I think this is do-able. I sure hope so considering I shelled out of pocket for this endeavor 