Hi all Two weeks into my preparation and I am already losing my ming, waking up in the middle of the night with heteroskedasticity, Durbin-Watson et al in my head loool I am starting to ask myself questions whether all this is worth it. CFAI suggests 300 hours preparation. I spent nearly 500 for Level 1 and assuming Level 2 is twice as difficult I expect at least 700 and 1000 for Level 3 respectively, which is 84 days LOL Considering I am not yet employed in the industry and noone will hire me just on the fact that I passed CFA I wonder whether I have completely lost my freaking mind??
I remember having nightmares when I was doing L2. Seriously, I would wake up in the middle of the night because I dreamed about being 15 min for the exam or something. So don’t think you are the only one who is going through this $hit. As far as whether the exam is worth it or not, it really depends on a lot of factors. What was the reason you started the program? Do you envision yourself working in an industry where the charter will help? Do you have anythting going on in your life that is worth doing?
well what think is CFAI meant by this 250 hrs is just to read the material, without making notes, memorizing, doing EOCQs… Just plain reading… then 3000pages / 250 = 12p per 1 hr (1p = 5 minutes) is quite understandable…
I began my preparation for the CFA when I was doing my MSc in Financial Management. I never fooled myself that CFA would get me a job. I though starting it early would pay off as I would not have enough time for preparation once I am employed, however, time has passed I graduated and I am still unable to find job in financial services sector. I guess my circumstances have long changed. I still like it and even though I am unemployed I can’t just give up in the middle of it. What else I gotta do
You could engage in classical networking activities such as joining “Ecademy” which seems to be a mainly UK-based business network.
Thank you MehdiOchre. I did not know that one!
just keep plugging away, things always work out, sometimes you gotta take the longer route. just move onto corpfin or equities, you’ll relax more. but i’m basically in the same boat. actually…i can’t even get work cause “no office experience”. so much for trekking the world for a few years out of school. how old are you anyway??
well I am 28 now 
I got out of the graduate school when I was 26, Lehman had just collapsed and so had the British and US economies. So no experience in Finance. I come from Mathematics and Engineering background and wanted to change careers, figured that with mathematics in my background I would be a good analyst. Uh well It didn’t turn out the way I’d envisioned it
I’d like to think that math and engineering and finance would be an advantage, almost ideal, to land a job with some insurance company; it might be you’re looking in the wrong direction. Only yesterday I listened to a speech given by two hard-core mathematicians on the subject of Solveny II (see CEIOPS’ site). They were outlining the basics for how to perform solvency tests on insurance companies, in general mathematical terms (which is also what will be necessary; number crunching of variables that contain stochastic components). So, from what you just wrote, you’re probably well positioned for the future in terms of both age and education. If you go to CEIOPS’ site and check out the standards and /now closed/ consultation papers it’ll become clear to you why I would see it that way… Start by checking out “Solvency II Final L2 Advice” at http://www.ceiops.eu/ (it’s under “publications”). It’s a long list so for simplicity & fun you might want to start with those that describe the asset side and market risk. CEIOPS stands for Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pension Supervisors by the way.
I thought about insurance. I modelled technological processes, stochastic systems, non-linear systems, chaos, you name it, while doing my undergraduate, Sooo boring, probably that’s what made me reconsider what I wanted to do for a living. I was actually thinking about pursuing FRM this fall, however, no one seems to be interested in me and just collecting diplomas is not probably the best way. The last three months I’ve had only one interview - with Bloomberg. Don’t know what the problem is.
Might it be that you want a more people-oriented job? Modelling stochastic systems must be pretty reclusive, at least if you do it in a school’s classroom. Anyway, you stand a good chance of breaking in into some finance firm just BECAUSE you have knowledge of stochastic variables AND the asset side in finance (“Level 1”). Use that advantage, and once inside you can sidle away to whatever area you’re more interested in - like building a large network of business friends or aiming for working with (or be) the general management of financial firms. I’d suggest you’d focus less on the thoughts of it being boring and instead jot down a flow-chart of what possibilities might open up if you try to make use of your advantage. Join LinkedIn and join some ten or twenty groups (risk- and insurance-oriented dittos) and go through the members list and try to see if you can build your new network through there. Buy some good book on the subject “How to find a job in 90 days” or “highly effective networking” (there ar lots of those type of books out there). Anyway, I think I notice the job market is starting to swing around now, a lot of job openings opening up. My firm is hiring for instance, and lots of others, and soon enough I bet there is going to be this little surge for Solvency II experts as well as Solvency II regulators. You might be one of those. Then, if it’s deadly boring (which I bet not) you might network away to some other position within that business group.
Thank you MehdiOchre, I do appreciate your comments. I certainly hope something will change soon, because all this stress is even affecting my preparation for CFA Level 2