Investor Relations as qualifying work experience? / Timing of reference letters

CFA General Work Experience
#1

I am considering embarking on a CFA journey, which would not make too much sense if the work experience does not qualify. Hence the question: I work in Investor Relations, write CFO speeches, make slide decks for quarterly calls, prepare briefings for everyone involved. This of course involves reverse-engineering of what the equity analysts do to provide them with the information to feed their models with.
The plan would be to obtain references from my boss, a colleague and a colleague from the parent company Investor Relations department (none of them are Charterholders as far as I know).
Would that in your opinion be sufficient?

Another question is whether these Reference Letters have to be obtained after I pass the exams, or can the letters be dated before that date?

Not all of the 48 month work experience is in this position, though. There are also a couple of relevant internships in M&A, Valuation and Strategy, where I have reference letters, which are not tailored for CFA, though.

Is there an example of a Reference Letter to the Institute’s liking?

Thank you very much in advance.

#2

Hi,

In my opinion, IR qualifies.
Don’t read too much into the CFA guidelines, they make them appear a lot stricter than what they actually are. Also, be creative in the way of describing/thinking how your work experience matters to the financial industry.

This might be only be a hunch, but just based on how the testing and requirements have changed this past year, I think CFAI is aiming “quantity” and try to have as many Charterholders as possible. Thus, I have hard time believing they would decline somewhat relevant work experience.

#3

Thank you very much!