Hi everyone, I’m new to this board and I’ve noticed that most people tend to be quite educated and helpful on this forum. Unfortunately, I found it after I took my Level 1 CFA exam. I have some questions if some of you don’t mind responding. So, after taking my Level 1 exam I’m feeling somewhat confident and I wanted to know a little about the effectiveness of having a CSC along with taking the CFA exam. Ideally, I would like to be in an analyst-type position. My only prior experience was with mortgages and personal loans. It seems quite a bit more difficult to land an analyst/associate position, so I was wondering if for the time being I was to do my CSC and to gain some experience through an investment advisory position, would that be helpful? Would it be difficult to move from that position into a more analysis type position after completing more of the CFA program? I have decided to do my CSC anyways, with the worst case scenario having it as just more education for myself. With the level of expertise I appear to have seen on this board, any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. So ya, to sum up, 24 year old here considering an advisor role at a bank to gain investment related experience in order to complete the CFA program, any tips, hints, or pointers? All you smart analysts/analysts-to-be please feel free to respond with any assistance, questions, etx. Thank you to all that took the time to read this. Take care.
CSC is for retail. It is a very very easy exam. Maybe a day or two of studying.
CSC won’t get you any recognition but if you want to do it for knowledge, sure.
CSC is for licensing. you need it to trade and it is the first step to being able to make recommendations. here’s the process: CSC --> CPH --> now you can trade stocks --> DFC --> OLC --> now you can trade options --> FLC --> now you can trade futures --> WME --> now you can make recommendations they are not respected in anyway, but are necessary for all jobs which have a trading component. i trade equities and derivatives so i need them. WME will let me make recs in place of my boss but this is not my main function. don’t think that any of these courses take the place of the CFA at all. also, in terms of difficulty, i could have passed all the above without studying, though I would suggest putting in at least a day of study into the CPH (b/c it has plenty of info that you’ve never been taught) and the DFC (b/c it is wide-ranged and is a crunch for time, but also because the questions look like they were written by a 12-year old and are difficult to understand b/c they are grammatically incorrect).
Saw these responses now since the thread dropped so far down. I definitely appreciate the advice. You guys were right that the CSC was a joke. I just did it while waiting for my Level 1 results. Thankfully all 3 exams were passed. I was reading under the Regulator Recognition on the CFA website that in Ontario with level 1 completed and the csc, you can be an advisor. Not that this is the route I want to take, but does that essentially mean that CFA Level 1 fulfills the requirement of the CPH course? By the way , Mattlikesanalysis, did you do the DFC and OLC? I’m debating doing those seeing as they supposedly require substantially less hours to study than the csc.
Isnt the CSC only 2 exams?
ya, i was referring to the two csc exams and the cfa level 1 when i said all 3 exams
nice. watcha doing now?
gonna start the job search now. most probably in Toronto.
yeah. completed the DFC and OLC last year. they’re a joke. the only thing I’d suggest memorizing are the option strategies as I hadn’t heard of them all before. i’d give the DFC book a readthrough as CSI tends to ask questions whose answers are not taught/emphasized in the CFA and post-secondary cirriculums, like “what is a barrier/shout option?”. if you’ve taken an “options/derivatives/swaps” class in post-secondary, you could get away with guessing on the odd “what is this…” question and still pass. i gave each exam maybe 2 hours of study and got well over 80. the only thing you have to watch for is that if you don’t have a job, you only have two years to get a job at an IDA firm before your pass expires and you have to write again. this goes for all the CSI exams, though I think there is some leniency with the CSC.
rahma2d Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > gonna start the job search now. most probably in > Toronto. what are you looking for ?
MattLikesAnalysis Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > yeah. completed the DFC and OLC last year. they’re > a joke. the only thing I’d suggest memorizing are > the option strategies as I hadn’t heard of them > all before. i’d give the DFC book a readthrough as > CSI tends to ask questions whose answers are not > taught/emphasized in the CFA and post-secondary > cirriculums, like “what is a barrier/shout > option?”. > > if you’ve taken an “options/derivatives/swaps” > class in post-secondary, you could get away with > guessing on the odd “what is this…” question and > still pass. i gave each exam maybe 2 hours of > study and got well over 80. > > the only thing you have to watch for is that if > you don’t have a job, you only have two years to > get a job at an IDA firm before your pass expires > and you have to write again. this goes for all the > CSI exams, though I think there is some leniency > with the CSC. Amazing, you spent only 2 hours to study DFC and got 80+. Is the course really a joke like that? How long did you spend to study CSC at all? Is a week or may be two weeks enough? Is it really the pass expires in two years for CSC and/or DFC? It is sad. I have been thinking of doing CSC for some time because I hope it would help to get me noticed among job applicants. My undergrad statistics and finance majors did not deliver much attention to potential employers for entry-level jobs, given current economy. There are hundreds or thousands of recent grads for each junior job opening. Many of them are from name-brand business school, and even with master’s degree. I enrolled in CSC in June after L1 exam and then DFC on June 30th before the HST. I have not officially started reading CSC/DFC while I was waiting for L1 result, because I have been studying for another professional exam which I will write in mid-August. I passed L1 with all 70+. I want to start CSC/DFC after mid-August with my full concentration, and plan to have these done by end of August, so I can continue my job search while I start the L2 study.
wow guys…i was amazed to see this thread. I passed L1 this june and while waiting for the results I signed up for CSC L1 and cleared it last week. I am already signed up for CSC L2 for August 5th. Graduated from university this year and I am still looking for work. I hope passing Level 1 and these 2 courses might add value to the resume. The content of these two tests are so dry and boring (especially right after studying for L1 lol). I’m in Mississauga 
@ Mattlikesanalysis - thanks for the info on DFC/OLC. May take them after my vacation. Their suggested study hours are well below that of the CSC so that’s a positive sign. Good reminder on the expiration of the courses, will keep that in mind. I might delay taking them in the mean time. @SuperiorReturn - pretty open to what i’m looking for, but i think research associate would be a good fit to start, but again not TOO picky at this point. You in tdot? Seems like there’s a very uneven distribution of finance jobs across canada, with so many being in toronto. Just trying to fix up my resume, any suggestions on a good place for resume tips?
Yes CSC takes a week to learn and don’t spread out the exams just enroll in them at the same time and take them one day and the next day or two day later. The CSC maybe easy but it does get you noticed for entry level jobs because it is a basic requirement espeically on the IROC side
flynnch Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yes CSC takes a week to learn and don’t spread out > the exams just enroll in them at the same time and > take them one day and the next day or two day > later. > > The CSC maybe easy but it does get you noticed for > entry level jobs because it is a basic requirement > espeically on the IROC side Thanks for the info. Do you recommend taking both exam 1 and 2 on the same day, one in the morning, and another one in the afternoon, and save the hassle of going CSI office again ? (Exam can be booked at 9:00am, 2:00pm, and 6:00pm daily. ) So, do you mean CSC will ^ get me noticed (or did you forget the “not” at the ^ position)? You mentioned it is a BASIC requirement, so I read that as employers expect applicants to have CSC passed. Therefore, it may not get noticed, but keep applicants in the active pool longer, and not going into the recycle bin right away. So, the pass expires in 2 years, and is that mean people need to redo CSC and/or other courses every 2 years if they still want to put on the resume, for example : “Passed Canadian Securities Course and Derivative Fundamentals Course (August 2010)” But they send passed candidates the CSC certificate, don’t they? If CSC pass expires, then the certificate expires too?
From my experience I will suggest not to do any more courses except CSC. As mentioned above, these are licensing courses and pretty much a joke to pass. They wont really help you land a job. CSC + CFA Level 1 + Networking + Your University degree should be enough to get you in somewhere. Once you are in the industry, your employer will make you (and hopefully pay) for all these CSI Courses. I am in a supervisory positon in one of the IDA firms and I just joined with CSC but my employer made me take CPH, DFC, OLC, BME, OSC, WME and I still need to take PDO…adds up to quite a bit of $$ if you are planning to do it yourself. I say focus on your CFA instead.
yeah…you guys are so smart…all those licensing exams are a joke…but does that imply that you should not take it? no. take it. to the guy who did the CSC in 2 days, i challenge that you didn’t. post your pedigree and i will fill it with holes. to the original poster…i have been in the same position and the same mindset awhile back. take all the exams and learn the material. you will do fine. ignore those that try to show intellectual superiority. those guys are just insecure. this game is not about being smart in my view. too many smart people, so you will have to find another edge. now, ask the posters to show them results indicating their intelligence. how about a stock pick? only a few on this board i see showing some real skills, value addict and bchad most notably.
Thanks for answers. It seems from above posts, there are a lot of smart people fighting for limited jobs in the market. CSC is good to have to keep applicants afloat among smart people. I agree many of the CSI courses are licensing exams (OLC, FLC, etc) and only make sense if currently employed and requested by employers. But I think course like DFC may bring a little bit more to the table when other smart people also have CSC on their resumes, at least until L2 is passed. CFA L1 does not really have a big derivative component in it, most of the options and futures things are in L2 and L3. I think an important piece of puzzle - work experience - is needed in the equation: CSC + CFA Level 1 + Networking + Your University degree + work experience + a lot of luck = may be enough to get you in somewhere. Without prior experience in the industry (through part-time or internship), it may not even get an entry-level position, especially for recent grads, in this economy. Obviously, it needs a job to get experience. The no-job-no-experience vicious cycle continues. Is there any unpaid internship opportunity available in the financial community in Toronto? I think it is a way to get the foot at the door to start after school to build experience. Many of the paid internship jobs are reserved and available only to undergrad co-op students, or MBA students. Non-MBA and non-bschool grads are out of luck.
Yes CSC is a basic requirement on the IROC side. It is a requirement for licensing but it is nothing compare to any CFA level. If you have knowledge ie econ business degree then take the two exams close together I alway took them one day after the other. If the exams are still set up teh same way that is one is theory and one is case study its all the same information. No need studing the sam ething twice. Rightly or wrongly I decided to do the courses from the CSI years ago and then I just took them as part of my continuing education requirements. They actually counted for more CE credits than the CFA at the time. I took the CSC, PFPC, WMT, IMT, PMT. There is alot of good info in these but the exams are easy, the courses are expensive (I got partial funding), there are alot of them and they are not as credible as the CFA. Looking back I would have just done the CSC and the CFA and forgot about the rest. I remember the CSC being a big deal 15-20 years ago people found it hard and said so but it turned out to be really easy.