Hi, I started in February to study for Level 1 in December. I’m working full-time in an asset mgt company in Lux, in the compliance and risk management dept, that is quite interesting but it’s a LOT of work… I’m working from 8:30Am thru 8:30 -9PM every day… Then studying from 10PM to Midnight… Sleeping …Rinse… and repeat ! I’m not here to describe my life (which is definitely not interesting these days.) but rather to know if some of you encounter the same pace of work/study and how you deal with it ??? If someone as a miracle solution, except drugs… 
, he/she is more than welcome ! PS: I barely forgot the most important… I’m trying also to have a private life…
Dont worry you are not alone here. I work in a portfolio management company and my hours are usually from 8.30 to 7.30 (or later). I study for two hours at work every day (because if i come home it never happens) and 15-18 hours on weekends. I was still trying squeeze in a work-out at the gym, but most days im so tired that I never go. After a few months of such “life” the Good news is that I still have a girlfriend. But bad news is that I hardly ever see her, I have insomnia and I dont remember when I last spent some time with my friends. So my solutions is that I try to multitask to get two things done at once. For example, my girlfriend lives in a different city which is a 4 hour drive. So instead of taking a car I take a bus and study on the bus etc. You know, if you look at things closely you can do a few of them at the same time. e.g study during lunch, brush your teeth in the shower, study on subway etc etc. And believe me all those little time savings add up with time. Hope that helps !
Welcome to the club my friend. I start my workday at 4:00 AM, do my morning routine, leave the house around 5:15AM, get to work by 6:00 AM, study until 7:30-8:00 AM, slog my way through the day until 4:30 PM, battle traffic until 5:45 PM and return home all out of steam. I try to put in at least another 2-3 hours in the evening. My average sleep time is 4.5 to 5 hours every night. Life just sucks right now.
gdiddy, what do you do for a living?
I guess he’s in California working for companies such as PIMCO by New York hours
Giddy might actually be a former colleague of mine who was/is involved in this program. I know of someone who told me of a similar schedule…
nonolegolfeur Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’m working from 8:30Am thru 8:30 -9PM every day… It seems awful; people I have know in the risk management industry (big bank) arrived at 8.30 AM all right but left at 5 PM on average. If you stayed on in the office until or after 6 PM it became sort of spooky, empty desks everywhere. Maybe the miracle lies in finding a new employer? If you intend to work from 8 AM to 9 PM for the rest of your working life, not only will you never need a happy family life, you’ll also become overweight and fat from lack of exercise and recreation. Do you sleep under your desk? That way at least you wouldn’t have to commute to/from work. ( I know of someone in Luxembourg who might be hiring; drop me your e-mail address here so I can tip you off. )
Thank you all for your answers. Concerning my pace of work in Risk Dept, as I’m working in a small independant AM company a lot of things have to be created and you have to take care of every little things… That’s interesting you learn a lot but you work a lot. Gdiddy : I don’t know how you can wake up at 4AM in order to work the CFA ! I sometime try to wake up 1 hour earlier and it’s very hard ! wawa : Hopefully I don’t sleep under my desk (only my boss is sleeping at work) but I’m leaving at 5 minutes walking… so it’s quite easy. And I definitely don’t plan to work as much all my life but for the moment it’s ok… And by the way for the moment I’m not overweight. So to summarize : Planning, Planning, Planning and Planning is the Key ?
Salut nonolegolfeur can you tell me how is the job market in luxembourg for part qualified accountant who cleared CFA L1 ? Merci d’avance Pierre
Salut Pierre, Un peu de français ne ferait de mal à personne mais je crois que ça risque de ne pas être apprécié… Anyway, the job market in Lux is good, I would say very good. In fact the fund industry and the financial place of Luxembourg overall increased a lot in the past few years so they need workers ! It’s not easy to recruit theses days… If you have any other questions, just send me a message on this forum. Ciao
nonolegolfeur Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Salut Pierre, […] > > If you have any other questions, just send me a > message on this forum. > > Ciao Thanks !! I need some advise as I decided to make a carrer change recently. I worked in the US (miami) and in the French West Indies (martinique) as a management accountant (not huge firm but the job was captivating) and now decided to move to the next level. I tested the job market in Paris&London, they often asked for relevant work experience and didn’t really care about mgt accounting skills. Anyway I’m not seriously job hunting right now… I leave my msn adress so that we won’t use the L1 forum for unrelated purpose oyster_perpetual@hotmail.fr Merci d’avance pour tes conseils
vbcfa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > gdiddy, what do you do for a living? I’m a broker, though not in the traditional sense as a commission-based broker with a book of business. I basically answer phone calls for clients all day and place trades, review investments, and perform other sundry services. It’s salary plus bonus. I work for one the big financial firms that’s been on everybody’s radar lately. The job sucks, but fortunately it’s better than having no job like most people are experiencing right now. >I guess he’s in California working for companies such as PIMCO by New York hours I’m in Florida, but I’d rather be in sunny California working the New York hours.
I am in sunny california, but believe me - the NY hours are not fun on this time zone
I am an Accountant, my hours prior to 2008 were about 60hrs/week. Right now i am back to 45-50. I started studying on january 3rd, 2008. I read for 2-3 hrs after work for 3-4 days during the week. And i also put in 10hrs on Saturday and 8 on Sunday. I have a gf of 4 years, and i still manage to see her. My friends i also see here and there, it really isn’t that bad. I go to work from 8am until 6pm, after work i go straight to school where i have a study partner, we simply sit down until 10:30pm and study. In the past two months i finished all Schweser material, i am currently on the VCD’s and doing the Qbanks. All that and i still get to plow down coronas on Friday with friends, and spend quality time with the gf on Saturdays.
That is what I like to do !!! But saddly for the moment I am way to tired to work 3 Hours after the work. Pierre : You’re welcome.
OMG, it’s so refreshing to know that I’m not the only one struggling with trying to balance my studying with all the other aspects of my life. My day begins between 4:00-4:30am. I study until about 5:45am and I leave for work before 7am. I try to make my work day end at 4:30pm. (If I stay past that time I’d never study) After I finally make it home after screaming and yelling in traffic, eat dinner and prepare for the next work day, it’s about 9:00pm and I try to study for about another hour. I’ve been so tired lately I haven’t had much time to come to the boards to read and post anything.
All of our lives suck. I was just asked, “So what are you good for if I never see you?” My reply was, “I don’t know… I’m going to go study now.” Good times.
This past week I was so exhausted that I went to sleep around 6:30 PM Friday evening, woke up around 10:00 PM for short break, then slept again until 9:00 AM Saturday morning. Despite that amount of sleep, I was still tired all Saturday. I had to take short naps after a couple hours of reading.
I’ve only been at it for a couple of weeks now for the December 08 exam. I stay a couple of hours after work every day to read a little and do some questions. All the while texting my girlfriend, “Almost done sweetie.” I’m only using the CFAI texts, but I also have the CFA Fundamentals from Schweser which is very broad and lacking in details. It does have questions though so I might have use for it. Anyway, hate to be that guy who brings up an old post but I’m new to this forum and already I’m addicted.
I work, from 9 to 6. try to squeeze as much as study during work, because i find it hard to get focus going anywhere else. i’ve stopped talking to everyone, except myself and people at work and people on this forum. and i am not even thinking about personal life, think how great life would be if you were to pass this exam. If you don’t, you gf is going to leave you anyways. lolol.