Is it worth taking the L3 exam?

ability, studying, continue, commitment

I just passed L2, and now I'm considering if it's worth the expense and time commitment to continue with L3.

I'm trying to figure out what the real worth of the charter is, and whether continuing for the L3 is worth it for me. Eg, at my company (a large sell-side firm) I don't know of anybody that cares one way or another whether someone is a charterholder or not.

I have a wife and daughter, and studying for the exam really takes notable time not only away from them, but also my ability to contribute to household chores, etc. As for taking away my own free time, that I can handle. But taking away family time is a hard ask.

Perhaps the charter might be useful if I do eventually change jobs, but again, I don't know how seriously it's taken in a move to the sell-side. If anything, I am thinking it might only serve as a slight leg-up over other resumes at the application stage, but that any real hiring decision would clearly be due to candidate skills.

Finally, as per the actual syllabus, I was really let down with the L2 exam this year. Even though I passed, I found the questions to be fairly obscure with a preference of testing relatively obtuse parts of the curriculum instead of the primary core topics that I'd expect an analyst to use every day. That makes me wonder if the time spent on the L3, just to obtain the charter and some extra knowledge, is worth the time investment itself.

I realize it sounds like I'm just @#$%&, which I'm honestly not intending, I'm merely trying to objectively analyze the gains/losses of continuing with the path, and at this stage it just seems predominantly negative.

So if anybody, either recent L2 or L3 passers, has any advice or even feels similar as me, please let me know.

I'm also curious - for any full time analysts that have read this far, do you actually find the L3 material relevent to the job, or did you find the L3 exam more of an annoying hurdle to clear than an actual educational experience?

Thanks all.

Kapie

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2^#

发表于 2011-8-17 09:14 | 只看该作者

You might not always be at a company that doesn't value the CFA...always think of the next possible step.

As for the family aspect, I totally hear you on that. My challenge was to still be "SuperDad" while studying, which basically meant no studying from the time I got home until the kids were in bed (between 8 and 9) and THEN hitting the books. It also meant preserving some of the weekend for family. It's do-able.

If you've invested in L1 and L2 so far, why not just see it through. The value may not be evident now but it is a strong card to have in your deck for later and it will be a nice accomplishment with all the extra challenges you have cited.

Also -- L3 is probably the most "practical" body of knowledge of the three exams. There is much more application vs. pure theory. This is probably more the case for me as I am in a portfolio management role and not an analyst role.

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brain_wash_your

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3^#

发表于 2011-8-17 09:14 | 只看该作者

i've had two bottles of wine, so sorry for any typos. just do it! i'm 40 and have two young kids and a job that requires about 50-55 hrs per wk. the title of cfa means nothing as it relates to my role/compensation. just did it for my own benefit. i found the material at l3 to be much more interesting than l2. it would have been tought for me to do l2 and not see it through to completion (failed l2 once but passed l3 on the first try).

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malbec

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4^#

发表于 2011-8-17 09:15 | 只看该作者

if you're not in the industry or are too old to do a career change to start an entry level job in the industry, then no.

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Kapie

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5^#

发表于 2011-8-17 09:15 | 只看该作者

If you start next month you can get away with 5 hours a week for a long time and
then kick in at the stretch.

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OmarAdnan

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6^#

发表于 2011-8-17 09:15 | 只看该作者

Sounds like you're in the industry, so it might be worth it from that perspective, but if it's killing family time I'd probably just drop it unless you can do like ATH did and basically only sacrifice sleep. I'm not in investment management at all and questioned going on with L3, but thought I'd give it at least one try since I passed L2

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