I seriously thought that they might not, but today I read: 102 months submitted, 102 months accepted. Looks like there’s at least one advantage to being in the geezer crowd after all. I don’t feel I was dishonest in any way or stretching things excessively. It was more a matter of describing my earlier work in a way that centered on financial aspects of what I was doing, and pointing out what parts of the CFA curriculum was either used in the analysis or would be relevant to it. Seriously, I was worried they might not accept ANY of it, and have to wait another four years for the charter. Someone is clearly smiling on me up there! Woo hoo! What a relief. So, the lesson here is to look at the CFA curriculum and ask yourself “What part of the curriculum is most relevant to stuff I have done,” and then talk about it using the CFA terminology. If you can make that connection, you’re probably on more solid ground.
bchadwick congrats, seems like you should get your charter in September. can you tell me how long you have to wait for them to review and accept the work experiences you submitted?
It took about a week, which really surprised me. I had thought it would take much longer. It is true that I had had some weird things happen with the electronic approval form, where it said things were incomplete when they should have been complete, and I had to call customer service to get them straightened out. The fact that the automated system was doing funky things might have expedited things for me by forcing people to look at my stuff manually… Or it might just be that they are ramping up their systems for the post-results surge in applications.
thanks, bchadwick i hope i can be likewise pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of CFAI. it seems their system is weird with surge load or not. i still can’t get them to send me the sponsor form. their other notification emails reached me ok. so it is definitely not the problem with my email address.
My sponsors used the web form … that part went very smoothly and efficiently. Check your email… at some point after you start your application, CFAI sends you a link that you can email to your sponsors and they can fill out how great you are online.
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I seriously thought that they might not, but today > I read: > > 102 months submitted, 102 months accepted. > > Looks like there’s at least one advantage to being > in the geezer crowd after all. > > > I don’t feel I was dishonest in any way or > stretching things excessively. It was more a > matter of describing my earlier work in a way that > centered on financial aspects of what I was doing, > and pointing out what parts of the CFA curriculum > was either used in the analysis or would be > relevant to it. > > Seriously, I was worried they might not accept ANY > of it, and have to wait another four years for the > charter. Someone is clearly smiling on me up > there! > > Woo hoo! What a relief. > > So, the lesson here is to look at the CFA > curriculum and ask yourself “What part of the > curriculum is most relevant to stuff I have done,” > and then talk about it using the CFA terminology. > If you can make that connection, you’re probably > on more solid ground. May I know the detials you submitted. If willing I will send you a personal email. I have been in - Credit Underwriitng -Risk Managemetn where Loan assets are monitored and various portfolio analytics are developed and monitored. Value addition is in risk reduction and management of loans. Do you think thta would be okay. Others may also add. thanks in advance
congrats bchadwick!
Bchad, could you post your work experience here? Leaving out names obviously or could you possibly email it to me, I want to see how detailed you have to go. I should be doing work exp. this weekend.
Wherw do you see work exp accepted?
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It took about a week, which really surprised me. > I had thought it would take much longer. > > It is true that I had had some weird things happen > with the electronic approval form, where it said > things were incomplete when they should have been > complete, and I had to call customer service to > get them straightened out. The fact that the > automated system was doing funky things might have > expedited things for me by forcing people to look > at my stuff manually… > > Or it might just be that they are ramping up their > systems for the post-results surge in > applications. same thing happened to me and I had to call to get it worked out too. Glad I did as well because the lady told me I hadn’t elaborated enough on my work experience and they would not have accepted it as is, so I was able to email in a more detailed description. I wouldn’ think “portolio manager” would need further description, but oh well.
If interested, I’ll give a few more details of what I said when I have better net access.
I got my entire 36 months accepted as of August 10, 2008. Am an affiliate member, so I emailed cmservices at cfainstitute.org to get an update.
bchadwick, I thought you were an accountant/auditor or something like that before. I would have thought unlikely that any of that work would be accepted, but here’s a scenario, tell me what you think… - prepare corporate financial statements and note disclosures (or parts of) for publicly traded company - I could argue that the preparation/analysis of such numbers is covered in FSA in L1 and L2 and the analysis is covered somewhat in L3 - I could argue that the numbers support the investment decision process, for anyone considering investing in that company
They accept more or less any work experience. Consider this scenario: - A programmer with no finance background expect CFA (took 3 years to get Level III) - He works for an investment back as a programmer. - He works in this bond trading platform, but the part he works on is not at all financial, just the interface. - After 4 years, he submits 48 months of work experience, saying how the CFA helped him understand the complexity of bonds for this trading platform that he has been working on. - Do you think they accept his work experience? of course they do, 48/48 months accepted, and at the age of 26 with no finance background or experience except the CFA exams he has a full charter, and the nice CFA letters after his name. - I know at least 5 ppl that fit the above scenario.
Congrats bchadwick! I’m just wondering how long your work description was for each of your positions. For example, I have former experience as a Personal Banker - so I put down that I recommended and sold mutual funds. Is that sufficient or should I talk about how the CFA curriculum has helped me analyze and understand financial statements as well as make IPS’s for clients? Thanks for your input on this…
madman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Congrats bchadwick! > > I’m just wondering how long your work description > was for each of your positions. > > For example, I have former experience as a > Personal Banker - so I put down that I recommended > and sold mutual funds. Is that sufficient or > should I talk about how the CFA curriculum has > helped me analyze and understand financial > statements as well as make IPS’s for clients? > > Thanks for your input on this… Selling mutual funds definitely qualifies. You don’t have anything to worry about.
Has anybody got the experience accepted answering Questions 6,7 and 8 of the Sponsor Form with a No? SUPERVISORS ONLY Please complete questions 6–8. (and be sure to check the supervisor box in section 2) 6. Does the applicant construct and rebalance portfolios of assets (e.g., fixed-income and equity securities) for clients? Yes No 7. Does the applicant value and recommend assets (e.g., fixed-income and equity securities) for inclusion in portfolios? Yes No 8. Does the applicant spend at least 50% of his/her time engaging in one or a combination of the above activities? Yes No Thanks.
Where do you see work experience accepted?
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If interested, I’ll give a few more details of > what I said when I have better net access. Basically, I had three different roles: 1) Program officer for a global non-profit focused on emerging market agriculture 2) Professor of International Affairs 3) Self-Employed as a private consultant. I was concerned that a) non-profit work wouldn’t count, b) since I didn’t teach finance in a business school, my academic work wouldn’t count, and c) my self employed experience would be difficult to verify, and therefore not count. but… i) I argued that 50% of the non-profit work was a “Corporate Finance” type role. We were evaluating emerging market businesses for eligibility for development assistance funds and a key aspect was determining if the operations would be sustainable as businesses after funding ran out. We had to project cash flows and (effectively) earnings down the line. Then we had to decide whether to use grants, loans, or do an equity-like transaction (bring in an external VC, or potentially merge/buy-out a partner organization). At the time, I didn’t think of myself in a financial role, but you couldn’t be effective without working out the financial implications in much the same way as a VC would. ii) I taught Stats and Political Economy. CFAI says you can’t get credit for teaching marketing and organizational behavior type classes in business schools, but statistics was good enough, I guess, and there was a lot of regulatory and Porter-like analysis in the political economy course. I pointed out these themes in the CFA curriculum. iii) My consulting was the most obviously financial part of my work, but I was concerned that it wouldn’t be considered documentable enough. I think it helped immensely that one of my clients was one of my sponsors, and his reference (presumably) helped the institute accept the validity of my claims. I did asset allocation research, quantitative strategy documents, analysis and presentation on carbon markets, regulatory analysis for climate change funds, as well as other things. Consulting work is by its nature intermittent, but writing serious pieces of work and keeping an occasional blog during the slow times when I didn’t have clients may also have helped. Truth be told, I don’t really know what went through their minds, I’m just happy with the result.
yes i was surprised too. It took only two days for them to review and accept my work experience. Wanted to share a few strategies which might be helpful : 1. I used the ‘phrases’ and ‘key-words’ that were used in the work-experience examples. 2. Had a brief talk with my supervisor who is not a cfa member on how his input could have an impact on CFAI accepting/not accepting my work experience. 3. Forwarded the web based forms to my sponsors and followed up with them to respond as quickly as possible.