Hi guys, I am currently in my final year of BComm and I was wondering if I should register right now for the June 2019 CFA level 2 exam or wait until I secure a job and get my company to sponsor me.
To give you more of a background, I attempted the Level 2 this June 2018 but didn’t pass unfortunately. So I already lost a bunch of money with that and I would be paying more money out of my own pocket for 2019 (im broke af rn). If I secure a job, I heard that I must wait at least 1-2 yrs to get a full-time position and only then will my company sponsor it…
One of the reasons I wanted to get the Level 2 over with asap is because I really don’t know if I will have enough time later on in my career to study for it and I think its easier to study now when I have all the finance material/studying habits still fresh from uni.
Speaking as a 30 something year old I’d say if its what you want to do go for it. There will never be a perfect time in your life to do these in my opinion, and the younger you are the better. I think it’s cheaper anyway if you are registering for a repeat too.
Take the job and the experience. 2 years isn’t that long. But, studying 2 hours a night is not a lot of work. Working professionals go back to school and get graduate degrees all of the time. I have a business and a family with a 4 year old and a 3 month old and I still have plenty of time to study. That said, I haven’t taken any CFA exams yet…
Also, in my observation, people who stop in the middle rarely return to complete a program. If you really want it, do what you can to finish it asap. Maybe the job will reimburse you. Or, maybe you won’t care when you start receiving that fat CFA check.
some think that in order to pass CFA exams, one needs to study in a cave in the Himalayas for 10 hours a day…Dude you are not studying for MCAT to hopefully one day operate on a person’s brain to save lives…You are merely trying to pass a CFA exam which afterwards you’re likely to study 10Ks prepared by “back office” accountants…
Don’t be scared by the exam just breakdown like this;
Roughly 40% pass rate for each level and given 5% are totally unprepared you just need to come in around average in order to pass.
Just imagine a class or a race with 100 people…you just need to come in NOT top10 but Top40 to pass…
Wake up at 5am and study 2 hours before work…Study 1 hour at night. Start early around Jan and you WILL PASS.
yeah i agree, 5% is pretty low because at least 3 people in my immediate vicinity looked either shot or hungover. Either way, just beat 50% of the test takers and you’ll pass…In order to pass, study from 5-7am starting in Jan will do. Weekends, you should ramp it up a bit
Thanks for all the advice guys! Just a few hours after I posted this question, I actually got a job offer from one of the companies I really wanted to join
The start date of my job would in August so I basically now have 2 free months in May and june to study for CFA. Im thinking of #justdoingit and register for cfa L2 in june.
I also just got a reply back from my uni and they will be giving a $300 scholarship to write the CFA, this really helps my broke ass haha
If you start studying now, you have to pay for it yourself and you’re worse off in the short-run. But if this allows you to obtain charter 1-3 years earlier, your salary will probably increase and you’ll be better off in the long-run.
In short: PV(Pay the exam yourself and obtain charter early) > PV(Wait your company to pay for the exam and delay charter).
lol. It’s not that simple. Where are you a producer or are you an agent or broker? Also, do you work on cases or deals? Or, does your practice involve working on transactions? Before I became a producer I always worked on deals and transactions. What a culture shock when I learned insurance people work on cases.
Also, I’m from Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, at least in Philadelphia, a lot of producers “write” business. Maybe it’s not so where your from. It’s still language used in the industry. Especially for insurance producers.
