Hi, I am registered for the Level II exam, and my employer has expressed that they are supportive of me in pursuing the designation. I work in a small company (20 people), and my employer is willing to give me paid time-off to study, but would like me to find out what the industry norm is before committing. Hence, Do you get paid time-off from work to study for the CFA exam? If so, how much time? Which company are you working at/was at? Any help would be much appreciated, thank you.
I have never heard of this… Who gets paid to study fot his exam? Why would you want to do that? Than you HAVE to pass… I have heard people using vacation days to study for this exam as well. Retards
That’s really nice of your employer. I would take advantage of the offer. You likely won’t have much luck with “industry norms” because this doesn’t happen very often. I’ve never heard of it. Ask for a week. That sounds reasonable and it’s probably in line with what your employer had in mind. You may feel extra pressure to pass but don’t. Just look at it as a little extra compensation for all the learning you’re doing that pass or not, might benefit the Company (it’s a stretch but you don’t want to beat yourself up if you fail!) I took two days off for level 1 and the full week off for level 3. For some reason I can’t remember what I did for level 2.
I agree. Ask for a week. If you have the week off before the exam to study full-time it makes it a lot easier. Even if you ask for 2.5 days and offer to take the other 2.5 days as personal leave, I think its worth it to get that week before off. It’s not that uncommon for firms to have professional education/advancement policies that encorporate time off for exams. Accountants often get weeks off at a time to do CPAs.
tell him to pay for the exam and the books and you will use your own PTO
In which country do you work? I have been working for two investment management firms in Holland and got 5-10 days off for the CFA exam (depending on the company).
Its January! Unless you are working 75 hours a week, why would you need time off now?
Not time off now. Most likely in May just before the exam. I know of friends who study for the actuaries exam and they get paid time off. Friends who study for the accounting exam (CA in Canada) get a month of unpaid time off. So I’m wondering if employers who are supportive of their employees to pursue the designation would have that practice as well.
I work in Toronto
People are often given the week before exams to cram, sometimes two. Many will use vacation days to do this, but it’s not unheard of for an employer to see this as something that improves the value of the company and a legitimate thing to pay someone to do without forcing them to burn vacation days. In lean times, this is less common, but you don’t necessarily have to report that.
Ha my boss let me use two vacation days to study for the exam. Did get a bonus for passing, but had to shell out for exams and books. Not really an “industry norm” for this- take the week and don’t look back.
Actuarial exams usually get 80-200 hours. I’d say if you could work half days the last month that would be awesome.
An interesting survey I found from the Irish CFA society conducted in 2009 - www.siai.ie/…/June%2009%20Level%20II%20SurveySummary.pdf Turns out 78% of the participants (of 50 candidates) were given study leave!