CFA Exam

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05-17-12, 02:09 AM
LuNaR

CFA Exam

anyone have experiences that wanna share about this test? i just registered for it :(
05-17-12, 04:31 PM
darkcser

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuNaR

anyone have experiences that wanna share about this test? i just registered for it :(

I assume level 1?

I took level 1 about 4 years back, passed it after 350+ hours of study. What I used where Schweser books and online tests complimented with a class offered at BSAS. Four others at my workplace took it at the same time, one other person passed, one decided not to take the test, one failed and it was his first try, the last guy failed and it was his third try. All in all pretty representative of a 40% pass rate.

Between the study material, the class at BSAS and the exam registration it came out to be ~$3,000. I was very stressed out at the end, and depressed since I ended up take a full week off from work so I can do practice exams every day.

The material was pretty interesting but both my undergrad and masters were in CS so I've never taken accounting, corporate finance, macro economics, or even statistics. The cash flow and balance sheet calculations were the most difficult for me while studying but in terms of final score, I think I scored above 70 in all categories and 50-70 in ethics. Ethics is weird since it's often easy to know if something is wrong but difficult to pin down which principle is being violated.

I thought about taking level 2 but my guinea pig (the other guy who passed) failed level 2 after deciding that all he needed to do was practice exams, and it seemed that the road to becoming a PM wasn't particularly viable or desirable from where I was.
05-17-12, 08:38 PM
LuNaR

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkcser

I assume level 1?

I took level 1 about 4 years back, passed it after 350+ hours of study. What I used where Schweser books and online tests complimented with a class offered at BSAS. Four others at my workplace took it at the same time, one other person passed, one decided not to take the test, one failed and it was his first try, the last guy failed and it was his third try. All in all pretty representative of a 40% pass rate.

Between the study material, the class at BSAS and the exam registration it came out to be ~$3,000. I was very stressed out at the end, and depressed since I ended up take a full week off from work so I can do practice exams every day.

The material was pretty interesting but both my undergrad and masters were in CS so I've never taken accounting, corporate finance, macro economics, or even statistics. The cash flow and balance sheet calculations were the most difficult for me while studying but in terms of final score, I think I scored above 70 in all categories and 50-70 in ethics. Ethics is weird since it's often easy to know if something is wrong but difficult to pin down which principle is being violated.

I thought about taking level 2 but my guinea pig (the other guy who passed) failed level 2 after deciding that all he needed to do was practice exams, and it seemed that the road to becoming a PM wasn't particularly viable or desirable from where I was.

yea im starting level 1, and thanks for the tips and experiences :D
02-24-13, 01:18 AM
pemberly

i thought about it, but it's super expensive! your company paying for it?
02-24-13, 06:56 AM
LuNaR

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

i thought about it, but it's super expensive! your company paying for it?

out of own pocket lol
02-26-13, 01:58 AM
pemberly

have you taken it yet? for your sake, i hope you pass, bc that test is a cool thou right?
02-26-13, 02:56 AM
LuNaR

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

have you taken it yet? for your sake, i hope you pass, bc that test is a cool thou right?

i actually switched "career" lol, atm im focused on aml + fraud, bene doing that for a year already, liking it. probably gonna take the CFE instead lol
02-26-13, 03:15 AM
pemberly

wait, so you paid the thou for nothing? or can you apply towards the CFE instead?
02-26-13, 03:46 AM
LuNaR

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

wait, so you paid the thou for nothing? or can you apply towards the CFE instead?

yea i just skipped the test lol, o well

i learned a lot about investing going thru the books anyways
02-26-13, 06:03 PM
pemberly

so you bought the books AND paid for the test? pretty penny.
02-26-13, 07:50 PM
LuNaR

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

so you bought the books AND paid for the test? pretty penny.

yea lol o well, O WELL!

stahp reminding me :crying:
06-18-13, 04:04 AM
pemberly

Now I'm going to take Level 1! :laugh2: This Dec.
06-18-13, 05:04 PM
darkcser

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

Now I'm going to take Level 1! :laugh2: This Dec.

A bunch of people here took time off a few weeks ago for the CFA.

Are you changing careers or were you always on the investment side? Are you a CPA?
06-19-13, 03:10 AM
LuNaR

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

Now I'm going to take Level 1! :laugh2: This Dec.

ahahaha good luck
07-17-13, 02:13 AM
pemberly

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkcser

Are you changing careers or were you always on the investment side? Are you a CPA?

i was never a banker. i just finished my mba from a fancy name brand school and am unemployed. take that employment statistics! so i'm trying to make myself more competitive, refocus, and hopefully find something else soon. i was always in marketing, but i don't really want to do that anymore. my favorite job i've ever had was marketing in a private equity company, so hopefully my new career will have all the aspects i enjoyed from that job.

let me know if you know of any opportunities! :D
07-17-13, 09:58 AM
darkcser

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

i was never a banker. i just finished my mba from a fancy name brand school and am unemployed. take that employment statistics! so i'm trying to make myself more competitive, refocus, and hopefully find something else soon. i was always in marketing, but i don't really want to do that anymore. my favorite job i've ever had was marketing in a private equity company, so hopefully my new career will have all the aspects i enjoyed from that job.

let me know if you know of any opportunities! :D

We just went through a hiring frenzy the last couple of month adding another 10 people to our 150 or so. The current open positions are all either technical or require a CPA.

How's the whole MBA networking angle?
07-19-13, 01:51 AM
pemberly

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkcser

How's the whole MBA networking angle?

it kinda sucks. most companies hire directly from specific schools, so if you didn't go to one of those, it's hard to get in. you're limited to the choices at your school, which especially sucks if you didn't go to an american school. i have it a little easier than some because i'm female, looking for a job in predominantly male industries. ie, there's minority and women specific networking events. i'm having an especially hard time because i'm changing functions.
07-19-13, 02:55 PM
darkcser

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

it kinda sucks. most companies hire directly from specific schools, so if you didn't go to one of those, it's hard to get in. you're limited to the choices at your school, which especially sucks if you didn't go to an american school. i have it a little easier than some because i'm female, looking for a job in predominantly male industries. ie, there's minority and women specific networking events. i'm having an especially hard time because i'm changing functions.

I've always wondered what positions people with MBAs typically end up working in. Most MBAs I've come across were managers with 3-5 direct reports or individual contributors.

Did your MBA program have a brochure with salary distributions of various graduating classes? I vaguely recall seeing one for Babson a couple of years back.
07-25-13, 05:40 PM
pemberly

i think the statistics are for 35-40% of MBA grads from the top schools go into management consulting. People who go into cpg marketing become assistant brand managers. Others go into various sectors of finance, I'm not sure at what level. Some become product managers in various industries.

Almost all business schools have some kind of salary distribution for grads. But those are always a little inflated, because 1) they only count the people who responded, and most people who aren't earning very much don't respond, and 2) people lie. Ours were a little further inflated because the years right before I went, the euro was riding pretty high and the figures were in USD, and also because a fair number of students from my school are sponsored by their companies.
07-28-13, 04:08 AM
LuNaR

what are u trying to be lisa? management consultant?
07-30-13, 03:23 PM
darkcser

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

i think the statistics are for 35-40% of MBA grads from the top schools go into management consulting. People who go into cpg marketing become assistant brand managers. Others go into various sectors of finance, I'm not sure at what level. Some become product managers in various industries.

Almost all business schools have some kind of salary distribution for grads. But those are always a little inflated, because 1) they only count the people who responded, and most people who aren't earning very much don't respond, and 2) people lie. Ours were a little further inflated because the years right before I went, the euro was riding pretty high and the figures were in USD, and also because a fair number of students from my school are sponsored by their companies.

Survivorship bias + unvalidated data... Do they also give avg/median hours worked per day along with salary?

I've been in a funk trying to decide what I want to do. Right now I'm effectively a business analyst or systems analyst and project manager. I've been asked if I want to switch fully to BA instead of this jack of all trades thing I've been doing the last couple of years. I have spent many years on the tech side so it feels like a waste if I give it all up, and let it atrophy away but I don't know how sustainable or portable a jack of all trades (business + tech) would be outside my existing workplace.

Also there's a good chance I'll be in the middle of nowhere in a couple of years. At that stage I don't know whether it would be easier to find a job as a (well-compensated) developer or as a BA. I saw that the CFA Institute just came out with their Claritas Certificate (i.e. CFA-lite for people in the investment field who will NOT be directly making investment decisions), and am wondering if I should take it or take something technical like a WPF or WCF programming class.
08-01-13, 03:08 AM
pemberly

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkcser

Survivorship bias + unvalidated data... Do they also give avg/median hours worked per day along with salary?

I've been in a funk trying to decide what I want to do. Right now I'm effectively a business analyst or systems analyst and project manager. I've been asked if I want to switch fully to BA instead of this jack of all trades thing I've been doing the last couple of years. I have spent many years on the tech side so it feels like a waste if I give it all up, and let it atrophy away but I don't know how sustainable or portable a jack of all trades (business + tech) would be outside my existing workplace.

Also there's a good chance I'll be in the middle of nowhere in a couple of years. At that stage I don't know whether it would be easier to find a job as a (well-compensated) developer or as a BA. I saw that the CFA Institute just came out with their Claritas Certificate (i.e. CFA-lite for people in the investment field who will NOT be directly making investment decisions), and am wondering if I should take it or take something technical like a WPF or WCF programming class.

they don't give a breakdown of pay/hour, but it's not that great. but a lot of that is on the individual. some people will put in the crazy hours to keep moving forward, while other people will reach a level they're comfortable at and have more of a work/life balance.

i really don't have enough knowledge of your job market to know whether it's better to make the switch or not. but it sounds like either way, you're smart with lots of skills, so there's no wrong decision.

and I'm not sure the claritas is right for you, since you already passed level 1&2, correct? that's like someone who's fluent in spanish taking high school spanish classes. if you have the "passed level 2" part on your resume, it should be more valuable than that claritas designation. the only people i know considering claritas are people who have failed the cfa level 1.
08-05-13, 05:09 PM
darkcser

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

they don't give a breakdown of pay/hour, but it's not that great. but a lot of that is on the individual. some people will put in the crazy hours to keep moving forward, while other people will reach a level they're comfortable at and have more of a work/life balance.

i really don't have enough knowledge of your job market to know whether it's better to make the switch or not. but it sounds like either way, you're smart with lots of skills, so there's no wrong decision.

and I'm not sure the claritas is right for you, since you already passed level 1&2, correct? that's like someone who's fluent in spanish taking high school spanish classes. if you have the "passed level 2" part on your resume, it should be more valuable than that claritas designation. the only people i know considering claritas are people who have failed the cfa level 1.

Thanks :)

I've only completed the level 1 CFA exam. Spent only two weeks looking at level 2 before something distracted me, and that was 4+ years ago. 300 hours is a bit too extreme for me these days -even 100 hours for the Claritas is a bit much since I've been delinquent on reading everyday to my son.

My main thing is that I don't know if I'll even be in the asset management space a couple of years from now. Evidently doctors are not highly compensated in areas with asset managers, and few asset managers exist in places where doctors are well compensated.
08-10-13, 12:48 AM
pemberly

i believe NC has some great hospitals? and i heard of a few finance companies relocating there bc it's cheaper. i don't really know specifics.
10-30-13, 04:30 PM
darkcser

Hey Pemberly, are you still looking? We just had a client relationship manager(UK) and a Relationship Manager (AU) open up. Both will spend up to 12 month in Boston before being shipped out to their respective areas. It's your chance to hear those English accents you're so fond of.
11-02-13, 01:19 AM
pemberly

I am still looking. I was actually just griping to a friend about getting rejected for a job on the Sunday afternoon of Columbus Day weekend. The HR manager took time off his long weekend to reject me.

Please send me the details, and I will be so grateful. Thanks for thinking of me!
12-01-13, 03:38 AM
pemberly

So I'm supposed to take the CFA exam this coming Saturday, but all of a sudden it ceases to matter. I've got a new job, which doesn't really need it. I'm a management consultant now, and even if I do pass it, I'll never have time to study for levels 2 and 3. I'll probably still take it since I don't have other plans that day.
12-03-13, 11:00 AM
darkcser

Congrats on your new job!

So what does a management consultant do? CRA is in our building so I've always wondered.

I know that at a high level they are suppose to analyze processes at an organization and improve them but not much beyond that.
12-14-13, 02:38 AM
pemberly

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkcser

Congrats on your new job!

So what does a management consultant do? CRA is in our building so I've always wondered.

I know that at a high level they are suppose to analyze processes at an organization and improve them but not much beyond that.

Charles River, right? I don't know much about them besides that they're quite techie focused. Basically management consultants tell companies what they're doing wrong and how to do it the right way. Or that should be what they do. They offer an objective (hopefully) external view, and they do things for a company or entity that might not have the expertise/time to do it themselves. A large part of consulting is also to constant look for more projects. You want to always be working. Which reminds me that I have to email someone back. aaarggh.

Most of consulting isn't the fancy stuff you see on tv. Everyone would love to have high level projects, but most are things like government compliance, market analysis, drafting HR policies, sourcing and procurement, etc.

But it's pretty fun. I'm never really doing the same thing over and over again. There's a lot of travel which is cool since I'm young and free. And all the projects I work on are important to someone; like, I feel like someone out there cares that I do a good job, because they're paying for it.

One thing I should note is that brands, degrees, certifications are very important; not because Harvard grads are so awesome. You're selling basically people to companies, and they're more likely to buy when they see fancy words like Stanford MBA, CFA.
12-14-13, 03:41 AM
LuNaR

Quote:

Originally Posted by pemberly

Charles River, right? I don't know much about them besides that they're quite techie focused. Basically management consultants tell companies what they're doing wrong and how to do it the right way. Or that should be what they do. They offer an objective (hopefully) external view, and they do things for a company or entity that might not have the expertise/time to do it themselves. A large part of consulting is also to constant look for more projects. You want to always be working. Which reminds me that I have to email someone back. aaarggh.

Most of consulting isn't the fancy stuff you see on tv. Everyone would love to have high level projects, but most are things like government compliance, market analysis, drafting HR policies, sourcing and procurement, etc.

But it's pretty fun. I'm never really doing the same thing over and over again. There's a lot of travel which is cool since I'm young and free. And all the projects I work on are important to someone; like, I feel like someone out there cares that I do a good job, because they're paying for it.

One thing I should note is that brands, degrees, certifications are very important; not because Harvard grads are so awesome. You're selling basically people to companies, and they're more likely to buy when they see fancy words like Stanford MBA, CFA.

so its people like u that are telling management to cut staff!!!!! lol jk
12-16-13, 11:50 AM
darkcser

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuNaR

so its people like u that are telling management to cut staff!!!!! lol jk

Office Space

So Pemberly, how was the test? Or did you bail because of the impending snow?
12-20-13, 01:42 AM
pemberly

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkcser

Office Space

So Pemberly, how was the test? Or did you bail because of the impending snow?

Haha, the second option. It wasn't so much the snow. I got a job offer about a week and half before the test, and I just stopped studying. I probably subconsciously forgot things, haha. Maybe sometime, in the future, I'll try to take it. Possibly next December. I can slowly study for a year. Maybe I'll have work pay for it.

And I don't tell people to cut staff. Or, well, I haven't yet, haha. I've told people to do things better.