There is a point of swiftly diminishing returns if you try to collect too many letters behind your name, especially if you have only a few years of work experience. It can make a person look non-committal and unfocused on what you want to do with your career. I know this has been discussed before but one of the best things you can do for your career is actually start (or continue) your career. At some point, the formal learning must end and the on-the-job experience takes over as primary teacher. When you need to supplement that experience with more formal training/certification because the job or career demands it, then do something else.
Think about it from the perspective of being an actuary first. The CFA is like an “add-on”, not a career change. I’m an actuary first, and the CFA experience will just help me be a better actuary.
Just seems like a lot of work to become an actuary without a ton of upside monatarily. And I don’t see how one relates to the CFA. More power to you if that’s what you want to do. Everybody’s got goals and dreams.
I can almost see it if you are already an actuary, but this is what should I do next. If you’ve jsut closed out your CFA, I can’t imagine going through the actuarial exams AFTER.
programmer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Gonna learn some Objective C and mess around > developing some iphone apps. I’m with you there. I’m a software developer (at a buy side company) by trade and I’ve been itching to dive back into my evening / weekend projects again. I normally get through at least two or three dev books a month, but had to park everything for the CFA. I’ve got proper withdrawal symptoms, and a big long list of ideas.
PWM? I want something cushy.
wake2000 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > PWM? I want something cushy. I wouldn’t mind playing golf with clients in the summer. Sign me up!
I’m on the PWM side and there is not much golfing to be had. Really depends on what you’re doing. “Asset gatherers” tend to play a lot more golf.
I would be bored out of my mind with PWM, actuary’s are cooooool.
Actually I’ve made my mind: I started to learn German today! - Herr Ober, der tee ist kalt Yep, first assimil German lesson 
This will be diverting, very interesting and I am sure will complement my cv far better than yet other letters after my name => ADALFU, we’re clearly on the same path, I’d be glad to have a chat with you, but no private messages on this forum => plz drop a mail on gregoirepost@gmail.com, would be interesting to discuss what options you are considering
picnic Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Think about it from the perspective of being an > actuary first. The CFA is like an “add-on”, not a > career change. I’m an actuary first, and the CFA > experience will just help me be a better actuary. picnic or any other person who is an actuary on this forum, can I email you offline if you dont mind? Have a few questions regarding ASA.
Does anyone know what sort of preparation effort the CAIA exams require? Is it as intense as CFA?
The CAIA is not as intense. I did it between Levels I and III of the CFA.
yodhava Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Always wanted to learn Spanish. If I clear this, > then hope to fulfill that desire. +10000000
Thanks ATH, re CAIA. Would my family notice if I were to study for it? They’re pretty fedup with me by now (one husband; three children).
tiddly Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks ATH, re CAIA. Would my family notice if I > were to study for it? They’re pretty fedup with me > by now (one husband; three children). There’s a lot more rote memorization for the CAIA and far less synthesis since alternative investments don’t tend to share many quantitative characteristics beyond liquidity. I have a wife and two kids myself and put in about 100 hours over eight weeks or so each time. My family still noticed my absence but it was neither as severe nor as long as my three CFA travails. I got the CAIA because, at the time, I was a Real Assets analyst, so the designation and education directly applied. I still work on hedge funds but within the context of all public markets.
wake2000 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > picnic Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Think about it from the perspective of being an > > actuary first. The CFA is like an “add-on”, not > a > > career change. I’m an actuary first, and the > CFA > > experience will just help me be a better > actuary. > > > picnic or any other person who is an actuary on > this forum, can I email you offline if you dont > mind? Have a few questions regarding ASA. Fire away.
I passed Level I and I am probably taking Level II in September. Not nearly as hard. Suggested hours are 200 for Level II and if you are taking the CFA you probably don’t need to spoend as many hours covering ethics and some other things. I think Kaplan has an 8 week class.
ATH Wrote: > There’s a lot more rote memorization for the CAIA > and far less synthesis " Correct but still, i found some topics very interesting. - How each class of assets adds to portfolio diversification and construction - Far greater details on the limits of performance measurement in AI - Some subjects are treated in a more interesting or consctructive way, for ex, with CFA we get to learn what are skewness and kurtosis. With CAIA we really use them and go in the details of the caracteristiques of value and return for AI classes … forgetting any notion of normal distribution etc… However there is indeed a great deal of memo (… goddam HF and commo indexes …)
big ML Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I passed Level I and I am probably taking Level II > in September. Not nearly as hard. Suggested > hours are 200 for Level II and if you are taking > the CFA you probably don’t need to spoend as many > hours covering ethics and some other things. I > think Kaplan has an 8 week class. Agree. The Ethics is copied from the CFA. I took both CAIA levels in September after passing L1 & L2 for the CFA. If you’ve been through all three CFA levels, there is a lot less new material to go through. There are different equations to memorize and many are much more esoteric, to say the least. They used to give you a formula sheet. Now they don’t, unless they are feeling merciful and put part of it in the question. It is a very different test, though, than the CFA. It’s done on a computer and the questions tend to be a lot more seemingly random. But it is a pretty good set of readings and I think it is a good add-on to the CFA that goes a little deeper in one direction.