There is somewhere on the CFAI web page an interactive questionary that asks for specific charactiristics a job must have to be counted as relevant experience for the CFA Charter. Look for it !
I think the only way to ask the CFA is to submit your membership application… so you need to bother your referrences again, if for some reason the CFA decides that your experiece is somehow doesnt fit the charter.
I emailed CFAI about more clarity on the work experience and got a pretty detailed answer. She also told me not to hesitate to ask for any further questions on specific roles etc. So I would suggest OP emails CFAI with details of the role and they should be able to give him a good indication.
Did you get a specific answer from the CFA’s reply?
I emailed to the CFA institute with description of my tasks asking if ithey qualify or not and received the following answer
" Because of the large number of applicants and candidates in the CFA Program, CFA Institute cannot provide pre-determinations or advice regarding work experience prior to the membership application process. Acceptable work experience for regular membership in CFA Institute and award of the CFA charter involves spending 50% or more of your time evaluating or applying financial, economic and/or statistical data as part of the investment decision-making process involving securities or similar investments, which includes, publicly traded and privately placed stocks, bonds and mortgages and their derivatives; commodity-based derivatives and mutual funds; and other investment"
Which is just a restatement of the info about the experience requirement that listed on their web page. So from this answer i understand the only way to know if your experience qualifies or not is to submit your memebership application.
Thank you for reaching out and we wish you all the best for a successful exam result in the coming weeks.
You have encapsulated the work experience requirements very well. Our definition of eligible work experience is written to be inclusive, rather than vague. To use your examples, an individual working in IT in a bank would likely qualify for the award of the charter if he developed and maintained software that aids investment decisions, if it were, for example a tool used by analysts or portfolio managers in their investment decisions. Conversely, another individual working in a support capacity in IT, such as a helpdesk technician, would not. While sales staff may not have selected a particular product, they must have a good understanding of how the product was built and maintained, and be able to promote the product successfully to decision makers. Sales people are not doing the analysis behind a product, but they must understand the analysis, and would likely qualify as a result.
Additional information on our website may be of further help to you. At the proceeding link, even within the non-qualifying descriptions, there are examples of what would make jobs that aren’t directly related to investment decision making qualifying positions.
If you have any existing work experience, I’d be happy to review it and offer guidance as to whether it is likely to qualify as part of an eventual application for regular membership. This may also serve to give you a better understanding of the requirement overall. I hope this is helpful as a start.
