I just passed L2 but I am undecided whether I should go for L3. I work as an analyst for a quasi government organisation. I don’t think I have the interest to go into portfolio management or investment banking. Has anyone felt the same way as I do as you go through the cirruculum? At the same time, I feel that I have already completed L1 and 2, I should finish the Program. Otherwise, I may regret that I left something unfinished. Should I do L3 for the sake of finishing it? Any advice?
If there’s a small chance you’ll switch to a relevant industry that might benefit from the designation, then go for it now. Not because of sunk cost but because:
- it’ll be harder to start studying again down the track… it’s a horror for those who haven’t studied for years and then go back to studying.
- you’ll forget relevant stuff that you can carry over from L2 to L3 (or concepts like swaps that took you/me ages to learn).
However, if you don’t really like the stuff you’ve been learning then just move on and save your 300 hours.
I feel the same but i think there’s other areas where you can go into besides investment banking and asset management. I’m not sure what I want to do yet and personally am not so keen on the hours so I don’t think I will ever pursue these two roles. If I was you, I’d just finish it man, what have you got to lose? And if you stop now and you want to finish it later then you’ll lose the continuity in the material which you’ll regret later. I reckon you’ll be glad once it’s all done.
Definitely go for Level 3, since you already passed 1 and 2. The designation might come handy one day, who knows. In that regard, I definitely agree with “spaizdz”. No point of stopping right now, it is too late for that 
If you have (or soon will have) 48 months of qualifying work experience, it would definitely be in your interest to just push though the last hurdle. There are a variety of career roles for which the CFA is applicable… not tons, but more than just PM or IB…
If you don’t have the qualifying work experience and the role you are in won’t give you it, then I would think twice. Passing all three levels, but no Charter is nice, but it really won’t do much more for you career-wise than just passing two levels.
The main reason I did L3 is because of a story my manager told me about reviewing a resume this year where the person had put that they passed L1 in 1997 and my manager’s response to the person [drenched in sarcasm] was “wow… you’re really good at starting things”. I didn’t want to be that guy.
Just registered after taking a break of 1 year. So nervous.
Go for it. A designation definitely helps!
to OP - if you’ve come this far, just finish it. you’ve spent way too much time on it to not finish it, and having more on your resume always helps. you never know what kind of job you’ll end up in.
I do not get the OP question sense - any decision in this regard is up for him/her and the decision already was made at the beginning of L1.
Just do it! Get over with it! At least you’ll be proud of the achievement (which may not come, if you write in your resume as Level II passed)
You never know, how future unfolds and when would you need it. May be 10 years down the line!
The charter is invaluable…my 2 cents!