Is the FRM worth taking?

CFA General
#1

In terms of career advancement and overall knowledge base, is the FRM exam worth taking? Some of my peers have taken the exam and have passed, but did not know how they passed and really couldn’t tell you what they learned. Of course, these same peers might prove to be lucky guessers. I do not want to take a fairly rigourous exam only to come out not knowing more than what I knew going into the exam. What do you guys/gals think? j3ff

#2

in terms of knowledge, yes it is good in my opinion. as for career advancement, i have yet to see a job that requires it. you get what you put in. lots of people graduate university without being educated as well. does it make sense for you to go to school?

#3

I agree with Frank here. Go to craigslist.org and looks for jobs that require FRM in NYC or LA or whereever. You will find zero jobs require it for now.

#4

i think FRM, or at the very least, the knowledge acquired through that intro course is good for the long run. you cannot overlook the fundamentals of risk. and because of that, i feel the course contains information anybody who is serious should know about.

#5

FrankArabia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > in terms of knowledge, yes it is good in my > opinion. as for career advancement, i have yet to > see a job that requires it. > > you get what you put in. lots of people graduate > university without being educated as well. does it > make sense for you to go to school? Yeah, but here I would say the analogy is reversed. You can’t pass the CFA exam without being pretty well-educated in that stuff but it’s not clear the certification does much for you. A college degree absolutely does things for you, but I’ve certainly known some people with very expensive sheepskins who learned only how to clean bong water stains from clothing before breaks.

#6

We once convinced this kid he would get high if he drank bong water. Man was he pissed.

#7

I was once enrolled for this program and, to me, it looked pretty good due to the emphasis on quant, which I like. However, I could see how most Phd and M Fin types will laugh when they see an FRM walk by as the program tries to compress what really takes years or learning to master, or at least that’s what it appears to try to do. Willy