I’ve been a software developer for 25 years. I’ve been thinking seriously about sitting for the CFA exams, and I’ve done enough research to know what the process entails in terms of effort and expense. What I haven’t been able to find out is what professional benefits there are to getting a CFA at this point in my life. When I finish the L3 exam I will be 50 years old at least. At that age, what career choices would I have? Is there any way to combine my decades in Silicon Valley with a charter? Is it even worth doing? I’m willing to endure the grind and sacrifice of getting the charter, but if there’s no professional benefit, I’d rather know now.
a. You are functionally involved in software development related to finance and specifically investment field and that is why you felt inclined to do CFA in particular;
b. You have basic understanding of future scope and some idea as to how to apply your experiential and expert (however less it may be) knowledge to exploit the advanced skill, knowledge and applications you will acquire from studying for CFA (please note, I am not saying from getting the Charter). This I am saying keeping in view you ’ve “already done enough research to know what the process entails in terms of effort and expense” and so you must have also got rough idea about the contents and curriculum that you would be covering in CFA. At this moment it may only seem like a perceived gain but ultimately unless CFA somehow supplements or even compliments your future objectives (career related or otherwise) it would be a meaningless pursuit at the end.
c. With 25 years in software development field you have reached a pretty advanced stage in your career in terms of status, position and earnings due to it so CFA will be an add on to “combine my decades in Silicon Valley with a charter” more for professional growth and widening of horizon rather than seeking a “total “ switch over to atypical career choice differing widely from the current field. Your main concern, therefore, should remain to get best of both the world – software-development and specialised financial /investment application supported by in-depth knowledge and expertise from both. Any other way it is simply not worth doing – considering the hard work and sacrifice that you may be prepared to undergo.
d. Honestly speaking at the age you are planning for CFA (“I will be 50 years old at least”) question of career choice is secondary and your primary concern is how to think out of box and come out with some opportunity to exploit the tremendous strength you have by virtue of 25 years’ software development expertise plus the knowledge and deeper understanding of the ‘logic and thinking’ behind the investment process es you will gain from CFA instead of limiting your justification for doing or not doing CFA to merely the question “ what career choices would I have? “ You don’t have to necessarily think in terms of arriving at some traditionally recognised designation or tasks that a 25 year old would aspire for.
e. Whether you have any “ professional benefits (by) getting a CFA at this point in my life” will depend totally on to what advanced and innovative use can you put your current professional expertise (at some level software development is also finding innovative solution to routine problems / issues) by completing CFA. The “Charter” itself may not really help much in your career choice if you are looking for a new one, but the CFA certainly can add value to your professional standing and career growth if you have the courage to be ingenious and resourceful find the way yourself to gain from it without limiting yourself to routine tasks and designations.
So, think it over, it may not be as tough to answer as you are thinking. The answer is hidden within your future perspective, initiative and plans, not outside. In all probability as you will go ahead you will find more ways to advance your career even at 50 than you may contemplate now.
I passed Level III in 2006 @ age 62. I was already a (non-traditional) CPA (no audits, no tax returns, no accounting services, etc.) and have an MBA. Have also owned my own consulting practice for > 20 years. Frankly, I didn’t expect to learn much in the CFA curriculum - I was an experienced, well-published, and nationally known business-valuation professional, but I got on the CFA track because I simply could not abide what I see as the pervasive corruption at the senior-management levels of the American Institute of CPAs. I was sick and tired of being embarrassed by its dimwitted policy stances, the conflicts of interests of senior executives, the lack of transparency, and the ongoing opaqueness surrounding how those on the AICPA Council and Board of Trustees were selected. AICPA’s machinations make the College of Cardinals’ process of choosing a new Pope look like a televised gathering with live mikes.
Well, becoming a CFA charterholder is not only the hardest intellectual task of my life (it’s tougher than the Ph.D. program I was in for a half-decade). It’s also the best thing I ever did for my career. And, contrary to what I expected, I learned more useful technique and ideas in the testing processes than I ever thought possible. It’s opened doors that were not open to me before.
In addition, the CFA Institute is everything the AICPA is not: it is transparent, participatory, and investor-oriented. It publishes its financial statements. It even sends out a proxy statement each year disclosing the pay and perks of its five highest-paid executives. Anyone who thinks the AICPA would ever do something like that hasn’t spent any time around it. The CFA Institute also puts its policy stances where they should be: squarely in the interests of the American public and of investors. I’ve disagreed with one or two of those stances, but the CFA Institute has never embarrassed me even once the way the AICPA did on an ongoing basis. And I’m a Marine, so I’m no starry-eyed idealist.
With your background in software, I believe that the CFA offers a worthy and rigorous broadening. It will take you places you never dreamed possible. You’ll be as proud of your charter as the typical Eagle Scout is of his achievement. And I’d wager that there are some private-equity funds and other outfits (e.g., Kleiner Perkins, KKR, et al.) that would welcome someone with your unique perspective and knowledge with open arms.
“Well, becoming a CFA charterholder is not only the hardest intellectual task of my life (it’s tougher than the Ph.D. program I was in for a half-decade)”
What?
“the CFA Institute is everything the AICPA is not: it is transparent”