I would like to ask if there are any of you out there who are pursuing the CFA certification without having an undergraduate degree in finance or related bachelors degree in business? I have an engineering degree but never really worked in the field of engineering but for various reasons ended up in the world of business. Since around 10 years landed a job working in a small financial advisory firm and am looking to give a shot at getting the CFA certification as I believe it would boost my confidence on the job and provide me with a good learning experience. I have looked at the study material and find the sheer amount of material daunting and am not sure if I am up to since since I haven’t been exposed to any of these concepts in college. Any feedback or comments would be appreciated
A huge # of people pursuing CFA charter have undergrad backgrounds in other things… (me - degrees in math, CS, psych, statistics).
I personally do not have an undergraduate degree and am waiting on L3 results. Before I began my current gig (Treasury) which I’ve been at for 9 years now I was a stock boy at Safeway for 10 years. While I was working there I was taking the CGA program, but got sick of accounting so quit that program a couple years into this new job, and went into the CFA program. I personally know a few guys with engineering degrees that got through the CFA program very well. I don’t have any experience in that area, but have been told it’s a very difficult degree to earn. So that being said, if the CFA material is interesting to you, and you are willing to put fourth the effort and commitment to get through the 3 levels, I say go for it. I don’t think it’s the difficulty of the program that gets most people, it’s the commitment. The one area my engineer friends struggled with was the Financial Statement Analysis. But I’m sure you’d be hard pressed to find anyone that didn’t struggle with one or more area’s of the material. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
a decent amount of CFA Level 1 candidates are stockbrokers