Is passing CFA Level III useless?

Is CFA Level III worth continuing for? What are the perks of having a CFA in the name? Some countries dont even recognize CFA. There are a lot of people from India who take this exam, is it really a valuable certification?

I am trying to break into asset management. Suffice to say I have gotten job interviews with a few firms due to my CFA level 3 candidacy. One of the companies actually requires new analysts to get his CFA charter within 4 years of hire. In other words, you need to either climb that corporate ladder really fast or you just need to pass those CFA exams. Can you imagine the pressure for someone who has not passed CFA Level 3?

I can’t say how much Level 3 is worth, but I think that just passing Level 2 is more or less worthless. if you have already passed Level 1 and 2 and invested so much time to achieve this I would (and I surely will) go for Level 3. Otherwise you have spent so much time for achieving no countable result. And I would also think it looks odd in your CV if you achieved level 2 but didn’t pass level 3. I would interpret this that someone either wasn’t able to pass level 3 or that the person wasn’t dedicated enough to finish the CFA thing. In both cases it wouldn’t look too good in my opinion and raises questions.

These are my thoughts on this…

According to this link,

http://www.cfainstitute.org/programs/cfaprogram/charter/map/pages/index.aspx

there are <20 charters awarded each year in the phil. so probably very little pressure. however bear in mind that if you move to HK/SG later then you might find it difficult to find the time to complete L3 (when maybe you are pressured).

less useless than l2

If your job is a plumber, yes. If you want to work in investment management, no.

Fixed that for you.

passing level 3 isnt useless at all because it allows you to obtain the charter.

passing levels 1 and 2 and stopping there might be useless cause you won’t be able to obtain the charter. but not totally useless because you learned a ton of stuff which may come handy in the future.

just take the exam and pass it. Then see how it works out for you. That is what I did.

Many jobs in the US now require MBA or CFA. Sometimes you also can not be promoted without one of them.

Ustbookmarket - it looks like from your posting, you failed level 1. Why are you posting here?

where do you get that from?

http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-iii-forum/91344943

we have a wise guy here

wait…what?

I was projecting my answers based on the Thread title, not the actual content, but if you were interpreting it that way too and being sarcastic, then touche.

Depends on how long you take, if you pass it relatively quickly it’s something that will benefit you for the rest of your career/life but if you take 10 years to get it and sacrifice other opportunities then it’s a waste of time.