Would you tell your employer that you are going for the CFA advantage, industry, friends, testing, another

smartpants

My thoughts are it depends where you are situated in the industry, but also the manager’s personality - and I think even the fact that your manager having a charter may not always play to your advantage…
I have had a couple of friends who went incognito through their exam experiences with their respective employers; but usually the case was they were testing to move to another area - liek from Commercial Banking to Private Banking, etc.
Are there any other reasons why this would be the case? And maybe we can use this thread for posterity  as to how to tread the thorny journey to the charter. [img]

Howd

+1… would only tell firm if they paid for it.  Otherwise, incognito.

d2rockstar

I would not tell anyone at ll if the firm does not pay for the test, and even if they reimburse I would keep it private until I pass Level 1. One of my reasons would be that if you fail your co-workers/managers may look down at you and start questioning how smart you are.

bkballa

Money doesn’t talk, it swears.

d2rockstar

if there was a chance that the firm would pay for the program, I’d tell the boss

hassan

My biggest mistake was telling my coworkers as pressure to pass is huge.

sameeragarwal

If they (employer) are paying for it then yes, otherwise what is the need. In any case your study and preparation efforts will be encroaching on your working time and energy affecting quality and quantity (to some extent only) of your output  but will NOT be at the cost of it.
Lot depends on how well you can keep it secret (or hidden) from coworkers and the boss if you decide to not to tell them,  as theCFA  journey is long, arduaous and affects the total routine with a high degree of uncertaiity of success (despite your best efforts).  Telling ‘a bunch of people’ is as good as telling everyone, specially if one fails (they will know when the result is out whether you tell or not)!

jacksparrow

At my firm, lots of people take it. Would hate to fail in that environment.

Muddahudda

I appreciate the feedback above.
I unfortunately told a bunch of people I am taking L2 (I work in Risk management). Well let’s see what happens; I just won’t tell them when result s come out?
In any case - thanks as always!

yodacaia

With a 66% average failure rate, passing L1 isn’t really such a tiny achievement.  Not everyone decides to do finance before they enter college.  Some music majors are actually pretty bright. A lot of them do math as a minor or double major (music and math have a lot of similarities, and appeal to similar people, didn’t you know?)  and know about things like l’Hopital’s rule, how to program computers, and the like.
it is true that passing L2 is probably a bigger bump to your credentials than passing L1 is, but passing L1 makes it easier to talk about financial analysis in a way that sounds like you didn’t just sign up for the latest trading infomercial. So the benefits are there, but no jaws will drop.
if your boss doesn’t know what the CFA is, it probably won’t help you that much to hear that you took it and passed. If it will help you in your current job, then people at your current job will know about it and probably be encouraging.
CFA is making more inroads in Private Wealth Management, though, so if you or your firm is managing portfolios of rich families, there may be value even if no one knows about it yet.