Forgive me but I’m exceedingly curious, I’m dying to know: How busy is the average CFA candidate?? Are you working part-time? working full-time? simulaneously studying elsewhere part-time? / full-time? Have you successfully undertaken simultaneous full-time work + part-time Master’s + CFA? I’ve known of one such person (who worked some pretty serious hours, too!), but are there others? Cheers
started working full time September 06, registered for CFA1 same week, now on level 3. I don’t know what it’s like to work and not study, the few months over the summer and last december where I wasn’t focusing on an upcoming exam were like a holiday.
I echo what conor_o_sullivan is saying. I started working full time for an investment bank where full time equals 11-12 hrs a day. On top of this, I give CFA 2 hrs a day, every day, including weekends. This takes a hell of a lot of dedication/will power/caffeine/sugar, but for me at least, it works. I can’t do 8 hrs at a time on Saturday and Sunday. With planning and resignation that for a fair chunk of your life, you’ll have less time to do more frivolous/recreational things this is manageable. With support from my girlfriend, I still find time to go to the gym 4 times a week and do other things such as play musical instruments and enjoy life in a major city (LDN). I know this is supported by my physiology (I can get by with around 5 hrs sleep), but I think conor_o_sullivan makes another good point, in that once I’ve finished this, I’ll feel somewhat unfulfilled as I need something else to focus on, which would have to be an MBA (maybe, although very unlikely as my girlfriend will likely call in the large amount of goodwill she’s owed and will want to become a mother) as I already have a PhD. It all feels worthwhile when you check how many hours you have relative to your target for the exam and when you realize that a lot of what you’ve squeezed into those hours is sticking when you reference it back to what you had as a knowledge base prior to undertaking the study.
I’m with Connor as well. Started my current job Aug '06 and registered for L1 my first day. I’m now onto studying for L3. It was weird getting used to the summer when I didn’t have to study for 2 hours after a 10 hour day of work and my weekends were actually free to do what I wanted.
Are you guys human? What about time to commit to the vices of life!!
I’m an investor by nature. I figure if I put up with all the studying for 18m, it will pay dividends for the rest of my life and I’ll have plenty of time for higher quality vices.
This is all encouraging stuff! I started working full time in Jan '07 whilst finishing my last two bachelor degree subjects part time, and i still managed to pass cfa level 1, but now that i’m starting a masters degree in '08, plus the increased difficulty of level 2, plus the fact that my work hours have ramped up to an average 12 hour day… it’s all seeming a bit overwhelming. At this stage, I reckon if I mention market activity, M&A or ANYTHING to do with microsoft Excel, my girlfriend’s gonna get medieval on my @ss …in a bad way.
i am doing cfa2 right now, and will be doing mba starting january. I am try to get as much done for l2 as i can before the mba classes start. last year it was the same story for me : finished undergrad 5 classes and studied for CFA, heres what my day looks like, its insane 9 hours of straight studying, 2.5 hours of gym, 3 hours of class. 6 hours of sleep. 1.5 hours commuting, every post here is inspirational, looks like im not the only insane person , lol
Work full-time, study whenever I’m not working. I try to keep my hours at work at 40 hrs per week but that’s difficult to do when work is stacked up. I try to study 1-2hrs per day. Add those to all of the other items going on in my life and I rarely have time for anything that I want to do. But I keep thinking about how excited I will be when I obtain the charter. It keeps me motivated.
Full-time “A” student. Got a backoffice job at a large insurance company to support my studies (~20hours per week). Gym addict. Leadership role at a school association. and preping for CFA L1…but ill admit alot of the material is parallel to what im learning in some of my finance classes so its not a daunting task. For the past 3 years ive averaged 5 hours of sleep a night. its really getting to me though…and im only 20.
50 hours a week. 40 minute commute each way. i time my #2s. I average 5.5 hours of sleep on weekdays and 7 hours on weekends.