I dont regret it, but i think i’m tending towards a career more in corporate treasury or something opposed to equity research… the markets are rigged man… the most perfect model can be screwed over in a single day by idiot politicians and special interest groups
Honestly everyone loves to bitch about the time commitment, but to me 250 hours is not that much when spread out over 6 months. We’re talking about 80 minutes per day people! If it wasn’t for L2 I would have wasted that much time fiddling with my fantasy baseball team or watching youtube anyway.
nirjraina Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Honestly everyone loves to bitch about the time > commitment, but to me 250 hours is not that much > when spread out over 6 months. We’re talking about > 80 minutes per day people! > If it wasn’t for L2 I would have wasted that much > time fiddling with my fantasy baseball team or > watching youtube anyway. very true. so it makes sense to invest in yourself and your education. but for the record i put definitely more than 250 hours in. way more…
yaoyao Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I dont regret taking L2, but I will not retake L2 > if I fail, or take L3 if I pass. Like tsttse, I’m > not in the industry. The possibility of switching > career at the time is very slim. I always love > finanial related stuff, but L2 is too much for > that. L1 is enough for gaining the knowledge. I > may still pursue CFA after I switch to the > industry. CFA is too much??? I think CFA only scratches the surface of a lot of topics (not sure how much deeper CFA gets on L3). I might be biased because I have undergrad in Finance and Accounting but most of the concepts were straight from the undergrad. Yes, CFAI built up on some of them a bit. Overall I’d say CFA is a mile wide and an inch deep in finance field.
+1 – CFA=NOLIFE nails it yet again. You can’t solve all of life’s problems / wishes with just a test; life (and the Finance field) is harder than that. This test is as much about process as it is about anything else. If you don’t like learning and growing and improving the way you understand Finance, then this test is not for you. CFA=NOLIFE Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You can only regret taking it if you missed out on > a bigger opportunity because of it. > > You do have to decide how you will benefit from > this designation. It’s not going to give your > dream job or make you rich, it’s just an exam that > somewhat educated person with some free time can > take and pass. > > It’s also not about the designation but about the > experience, learning about your abilities and > things you like and don’t like. This also keeps > your brain active by learning new things. > > I have never heared a person say “I wish I didn’t > learn this…” You never know what you might end > up doing. > > Lastly, it is benefit in itself that you took it > and realized that it’s not for you. The only way > to find out that something is not for you is to do > it. Otherwise you will be guessing for the rest of > your life.
I do somewhat regret doing it as I don’t think I have really benefitted from it - be it from the knowledge perspective or the career perspective. I believe that I can still be learning and keeping my brain cells active without sitting for an exam.
yes i agree with you all on all your points! Take a guess on what I do =). I make video games for the console (software engineer)! I love finance and thus I started on CFA. But my point is that maybe my 300+ hours of time wasted could have spent doing more fun stuff. Like learn something else, chill out with friends, or purely just don’t be stressed out? I am one of those people (like many of you) who starts on something and will not give up on it until the bitter end. I can certainly say I tried hard on level 2 and I will be surprised if I failed… However the point here is not the final score. It is rather if i maximized my time. 300+ hours is a lot of time that can be used for many things! Perhaps study technical books, even make an iphone app, VBA? At this point I don’t see myself ever using the Treynor Black, FF or pension adjustments… And certainly all of this stuff will be forgotten by ALL of us in 1 month time. This is why I think level 1 was so much more useful than level 2. Level 2 stuff is very indepth and hard to remember… Anyways, these are 300 hours I will not get back. I would have certainly regretted it more if I gave in the final 2 months.
Do you regret taking CFA tests? …Can you repeat the question in English please?
tsttse Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > yes i agree with you all on all your points! Take > a guess on what I do =). > I make video games for the console (software > engineer)! > > I love finance and thus I started on CFA. But my > point is that maybe my 300+ hours of time wasted > could have spent doing more fun stuff. Like learn > something else, chill out with friends, or purely > just don’t be stressed out? I am one of those > people (like many of you) who starts on something > and will not give up on it until the bitter end. > I can certainly say I tried hard on level 2 and I > will be surprised if I failed… > > However the point here is not the final score. It > is rather if i maximized my time. 300+ hours is a > lot of time that can be used for many things! > Perhaps study technical books, even make an iphone > app, VBA? At this point I don’t see myself ever > using the Treynor Black, FF or pension > adjustments… And certainly all of this stuff > will be forgotten by ALL of us in 1 month time. > This is why I think level 1 was so much more > useful than level 2. Level 2 stuff is very > indepth and hard to remember… > > Anyways, these are 300 hours I will not get back. > I would have certainly regretted it more if I gave > in the final 2 months. If I could I’d rather be playing my XBox games (does that make you excited???)than studying. So like you, regardless of the outcome I don’t think I’d be registering for any exam until it becomes a must, unless I get impulsive when I see my peers doing the same. But then again…I think I have been doing what OTHERS thought were right, and not what I thought was right and best for me.
HydrogenRainbow, if i do get excited knowing ppl play video games, then I wouldn’t be taking CFA =)… Watching the market tick is way more exciting!
tsttse Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > HydrogenRainbow, if i do get excited knowing ppl > play video games, then I wouldn’t be taking CFA > =)… Watching the market tick is way more > exciting! Definitely - but it isn’t fun if you are making big losses. But my point was that playing games is more exciting than studying, isn’t it?
I don’t play video games on my spare time hahaha… i rather read a book or learn something thus CFA =) HAHAHA thats how sad my life is…
yep. the moment I sit in the exam hall, I was thinking why I was there. It will not help my career much given my current stage and also, I already will have a finance degree. Ya. sure CFA is helpful to go to that industry, but then for me, I’ll have to accept lower pay and start all over again. And the key to really do that work is to start doing internship first, because nobody will hire a full time at this period of time and won’t be so for the next few years, given so many financiers laid off. And the risk is, how do u know u’ll do well in that profession, if I have to give up my current expertise which gave me pretty good income and life. And the problem with it is, after so much money on it and time on it, i may not even pass it. and the skills learnt in it is not practical. no practice = useless when going to work. why learn sth useless? so, if i fail my level 2(first attempt), i will not take it again. if i succeed, I will still consider whether i’ll go for level 3. I can never recover the time lost studying those things, worst if i don’t pass it.
tennis_ball Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > yep. > > the moment I sit in the exam hall, I was thinking > why I was there. It will not help my career much > given my current stage and also, I already will > have a finance degree. > > Ya. sure CFA is helpful to go to that industry, > but then for me, I’ll have to accept lower pay and > start all over again. And the key to really do > that work is to start doing internship first, > because nobody will hire a full time at this > period of time and won’t be so for the next few > years, given so many financiers laid off. > And the risk is, how do u know u’ll do well in > that profession, if I have to give up my current > expertise which gave me pretty good income and > life. > > And the problem with it is, after so much money on > it and time on it, i may not even pass it. and the > skills learnt in it is not practical. no practice > = useless when going to work. why learn sth > useless? > > so, if i fail my level 2(first attempt), i will > not take it again. > if i succeed, I will still consider whether i’ll > go for level 3. > I can never recover the time lost studying those > things, worst if i don’t pass it. Same here - I was thinking, “Why am I doing this?”, but I was questioning myself during the preparations, given that I too have degrees in Economics and Finance, and that I have not benefitted from the program. At Level 1 I thought it is an investment. Now I think it is an unfunded liability. Sad eh?
[x] I am most likely to overstate how much i regret doing level two [translation : dont regret it at all - least i hope thats the translation]
I wish they had more material on practical things instead of theories with no evidence to back them up or models which are highly sensitive to inputs you will never be able to estimate with the required accuracy.
I regret it. I feel that the time spent preparing for the exam may have been better spent on a Masters perhaps. Make no mistake, the charter will make a difference to my career, it’s just that the effort-return tradeoff is too heavily skewed to the negative. I’m also not convinced that the way the course is structured is ideal, with way too much emphasis on short-term memory retention at the expense of higher-level understanding and interpretation. I’m also pretty much fed up with the games the Institute feels it has to play in the exams. Still, now that I’ve started, I’m determined to kill this f*cker and I’ll be damn proud of myself when I do.
kaklan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You should only regret it if you had an > alternative activity that would add more to you > professional development. It should not depend on > passing the exams. +1
I rather look at my decision to write the L2 exam as holding a call option. Sure, there’s no intrinsic value to the option right now because no one is hiring in the midst of a recession, but my option does not expire for a long while. I will simply wait for the recession to be over and my CFA option will be of value again. In the meantime, I’ll read finance books and keep my L2 knowledge sharp and ready to strike. IMO, regret is a feeling valid only for people who have no intention of exercising this “option”.
Even if I didn’t pass I won’t regret it. I’m happy with the knowledge I’ve gained and can honestly say that I feel like I’m more competent in my current position (as I can utilize a lot of the knowledge learned). If I didn’t pass, I’ll be back next year to give it another shot.