I recently got several years of reviewing commerical loans for a bank approved as qualifying work experience. While I do think it is applicable, it is definitely BARELY qualifying.
I did NOT get approved 2 years of graduate work studying passive fund implementation of hedge fund strategies. While I did not actually get anything published, it did require a minimum of 20 hours of work a week and was foundational in forming the investment philosophy I utilize for clients today. It also took just as much work and preparation as teaching a beginning level finance class which is qualifying work experience.
I think it’s lame. And now even if I passed Level III in June I get to wait another 1.5 years to earn my charter…blah
I would agree in theory, although I would require that the candidate submit a copy of his/her thesis for review by CFAI and would limit the amount of WE awarded to a set period of time, say 1 or 2 years.
I don’t know. Using school experience as work experience is kind of a stretch. You really need a few years of work to become credible in any field.
Some exceptions to the 4 year rule might be reasonable - for instance, if your work experience is truly exceptional. Normal graduate school sounds pretty inapplicable though.
So if Markowitz had developed his efficient frontier as a graduate student and presented it as his thesis, you guy’s wouldn’t consider that credible experience? Let’s not forget that Nash’s Equilibrium was developed while he was a graduate student.
Well, we can give those guys PhDs (which they did get, and which for academics, is much better than a CFA). The CFA is a professional certification, not an academic certification.
They give the CFA to academics whose work qualifies and as the OP mentions teaching an entry level finance class qualifies. However he mentioned it was 20 hours a week which is for me part time and according to current rules does not qualify.
On a related point can someone tell me if you’re already a CFAI member when you get your email from CFA telling you you passed L3 does that mean you are from that moment a Charteholder?
This makes sense to me. That way it proves your work was relevant.
I also should have clarified. I was a paid graduate assistant for the Finance Department doing research for the MSF program. I was not referring to general studies. The MINIMUM work was 20 hours/week. I know plenty of professors and professionals who are barely breaking 30 a week.
This is a logical argument. I guess it depends on the purpose of the work experience. Is it to obtain the knowledge or the industry experience? The implication is it is the experience, which is fair since you are supposed to get the knowledge from the program.
I can accept this, does not make the wait any easier though…
I think there is a huge difference between research done by an MBA or MSF candidate and reaearch done by a true academic with a PhD… Most MBAs are not coming up with any true research and are only studying things like Revenue - Expenses = Profits and things like “leadership”!!! Come on, granted my MSF program was subpar, but most of the students could barely pass level I if they even tried and could not tell you where to begin on how to value a plain vanilla bond or what free cash flow was by the time they were through with the program.
This is true of everything. I think my MSF program was pretty good and there were a few students (graduate assistants even) that had no clue what they were doing. If it were to count as work experience a requirement would obviously have to be a written reference from your advisor attesting to the work you accomplished, but again, I think I now agree with the concensus opininion it does not qualify for the sole reason that WE is for the Experience, not the academic knowledge