I live in the US, (DC) and planning to take the level II exam in South America. I’m just curious to know if there are people here who have taken the CFA exam (I, II, or III) in a foreign country? If so, would you mind sharing your experience?
Cheers!
South American?? haha
I’ve taken it in a foreign country - from the US viewpoint - I guess the biggest difficulty would be to find your way around when all the signs at the testing site are in a foreign language and that you run the risk of turning up late since you might not find anybody to ask (and who can reply and give directions in English). The proctors, however, do speak English (that’s part of their job). As for the test itself I suppose it’s the same procedure everywhere, very rigorous.
Wawa!
In what country did you take the exam? Are the instructions given in English?
Anal!
Thanks! 
No, I took it in my own country. Thank you
I took the exams in multiple European countries, there is no difference between them whatsoever. Same strict rules apply wherever you go, no matter where it might be. It’s CFA.
I took it in Brazil (Sao Paulo), which is not foreign to me.
June exams are held in a Sheraton Hotel (it’s actually a big place integrating a convention center, the hotel, a decoration mall and maybe some other stuff). I took both L2 and L3 there.
The easiest way to go about it is to just stay at the Sheraton. Employees there speak English and can help you with directions. They’ll very likely put a sign on the elevators pointing where to go on the exam morning. Get a high floor though. There’s a club by the pool that can get loud, or at least that’s what I heard. I stayed n a high floor and it was quiet.
Once you get to the exam “area”, all instructions are in English and I don’t see an american having much trouble with it.
Crazyman,
I have family in Lima, Peru which is why I want to take level II there. Another reason is to mingle with the finance folks in Lima. I’m pretty sure the Peruvian CFA community is very small. Do you find many CFA candidates in Brazil? Would an American who speaks fluent Spanish and has M&A, VC experience have problems getting a job in Brazil if he doesn’t speak the language?
I figured the exam was given in english worldwide but just wanted to double check.
My wife is a native Spanish speaker and was able to function pretty well in Portugal. I think the languages are similar enough that you would pick it up pretty quickly.
Higgmond,
Did you wife work in finance in Portugal?
Rasec:
I look it up once and Brazil seems to have the most CFA charterholders in South America by far, and yet there are very few when compared to many countries - I think there are at most 450 charterholders here. The june exams are in Sao Paulo only, in at a single test center - I guesstimated around 800 candidates for all 3 levels (level 3 was probably around 60).
The charter is still special here. As an anedoctal example, I had a course a couple years ago where the teacher had a Masters at our top business university, and he said he would easily trade it for the CFA. The charterholders I know seem to have pretty good jobs too - VPs and above (of course they have a good amount of experience as well - these 30+/40 year olds).
I don’t know much about the job market, but it seems like everybody in finance speaks english often and well. If I had to guess, I’d say that if you speak English you’re good to go, as long as you have the right resume, interview, etc.
From casual observation, I think the job market for charterholders here is pretty good. The financial sector seems to be growing and there are few charterholders available.
I have no idea how much your VC & M&A experience can be applied to brazilian transactions (our legal system and institutions can be pretty weird), but it’s probably worth a shot.
Everything I posted are my views from casual observation. Take it with a grain of salt. Maybe whoever is hiring see it vey differently than I do.
Edit: Also higgmond is right in my opinion. Asides from the English thing, it seems easy to get by if you know Spanish.
Crazyman,
Thanks for sharing your point of view of the brazil job market / CFA view. It would be an amazing opportunity to work in Brazil ( a dream come true), especially if it happens a couple of months before the world cup.
By the way, how are things involving stadium development, last I heard, from a brazilian lawyer was that they were behind schedule. Regardless, I’ll be in Brazil in 2014 for sure!!!
No, just in Portugal for a couple of weeks on our honeymoon. I realize being a tourist has nowhere near the linguistic demands of an everyday professional life, but she was able to understand a ton of Portugese through common, or at least similar, vocabulary and context. I suspect she could become fluent in Portugese with comparatively little effort.
Apparently way behind schedule.
The “word on the street” about the World Cup preparation works is that everything will be postponed until the last minute, when the government will throw outrageous sums of money at it bending whatever rules they can - that’s the easiest way to make a lot of corrupt people richer very fast.
I don’t know how much of that may be true, but it’s not really unreasonable for Brazil. I just read Michael Lewis’ Boomerang and, as far as generalization goes, his description of the greek looks very much like a generalization of Brazil could go. We joke that Watergate here would barely make newspaper covers…
My personal view is that the World Cup will look a lot like South Africa’s - very pretty but with some basic flaws like bad grass or whatever.
Corruption/inneficiencies aside, I think you’ll have a blast coming here for the World Cup. World Cups are always a big party, and brazilians love big parties (think Carnaval), so I’m pretty sure it will be a very fun month to be in here.
I wouldn’t advise too much inside traveling though. Brazil is huge, our transportation has severe shortcomings, and the World Cup will happen all over the country. They’re working on it, but who knows?
Rio will probably be the most fun - big place, beaches and the Finals.
If I go I’ll try to make it to two cities - Rio and Sao Paulo. I heard they are rebuilding el Maracana stadium.
A buddy of mine told me all the hotels are sold out. Couchsufer.com will make a killing during the world cup.
How the hell does someone like me get tickets??? It’s a lottery right?
I really have no idea. If you find out, let me know. I hope you have a great time anyway!
I took level I & II in the States and took Level III in Manila, Philipinnes. No different then the other exams. Everything was english and the test was given at a nice hotel in Mandaluyong. About 300 people sat for the exam and I had the opportunity to meet some really interesting people.
Took the exam abroad because I decided to backpack around Asia after the exam. Worked out good since I passed and spent 6 month traveling after.