@sridharcw
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I was involved in blog writing in two ways – one is writing for personal finance blogs and two is writing for my own personal blog.
I have been contributing insightful articles and content for over 5 years. My personal blog was discontinued due to time and cost constraints, however, I still work with other personal finance or self-improvement blogs whenever I get time. Given my passion and interest in personal finance, investing and financial research I also developed courses, presentations and tutorials. I like to write or blog on these specialized finance areas if an opportunities comes up.Hey Deleted User,
Everyone has personal goals and aspirations and its always a good idea to do courses/certifications that can add value to your resume and long-term career prospects. Its not necessary to get support or approval from your Manager or someone else, but taking an opinion from a mentor or independent professional is a good idea. The Manager would encourage courses or personal development programs that are in-line with the company policy and that is his/her job. Even your employer/company would not support or sponsor a program that does not benefit them (so no free lunches buddy -:)). You have to invest in yourself to get what you want.I personally did several certification courses in the past but became aware of CFA later and postponed my CFA plans for long. Later I realized that CFA is more valuable and how it can add value to my career or future prospects. The passing rate for different levels is low, which means clearing one level itself puts you ahead of 50% of the candidates. Having said that CFP and other courses are relevant and valuable in a different sector/industry. BTW lets also understand that getting designation will take 3 years or more, and completing one level doesn’t ensure you will get a job in desired field. Its all a part of the preparation to gradually move in to core-financial/managerial career in the long-run.
I don’t want to go in to CFA vs. CFP debate. However, if you are in banking/financial services there is no harm in getting qualified in PFP or CFP to maintain/advance your career/job in that field assuming you already have experience and knowledge that is good enough to help you prepare and pass the exams. Regardless of what your Manager says or thinks, if you can leverage both programs it would help accelerate your career. These two areas are not completely unrelated.
Remember, the competition is so high that you need to get the three letter designations because every tom, dick and harry has MBA. I guess its going to take a few years for you to probably move in to credit analysis or commercial banking because new employers will expect prior experience in those areas. So although its nice to do CFA to get in to credit analysis or investment banking, the path towards these may not be so easy or straight-forward. In any case you made a decision to work in personal banking to build experience although it was not your main goal, so continue with it until you achieve your long-term goals.I believe starting early gives one the first mover advantage. However, one has to be seriously committed to the CFA course and have a strong inclination towards finance careers. The good part about doing CFA while in college would be the idea of using extra time for preparations. Secondly assuming one is doing Finance major you can benefit from the overlap between college curriculum (assuming US-based course) and CFA one.
The ideal option is to take up level 1 and have a target to complete it before graduation. This will add lot of value and credential on your resume when the graduation and job hunting season starts. If you want to keep time for networking, job hunting, etc, all you need to do is schedule the course/exam in a way that it doesn’t interfere with your engagements. From personal experience I can tell you that after getting a job and having additional responsibilities you may find it difficult to start off the course from scratch.I haven’t used Kaplan curriculum, so cant comment on that. But I do use Finquiz which just summarizes/provides key notes. The official material is the bible/main source – all other aids are meant to enhance your learning. The notes/aids are helpful if you want to save time/energy, which is important as we have other engagements in life.
All said and done the official material can’t be ignored. You can use the notes to skim through certain areas or to finish faster, but you have the risk of missing out the background material or how/why certain concepts exist. For people with previous finance/business background the notes might help them to skip the CFA materials and quickly get to the summary/questions. Its a kind of trade-off decision you need to carefully take.Hey p90xgus,
The Reading Assignments in the CFA official material are the chapter headings as far as I know. Its not a list of recommended books. CFA official material is good enough for preparation, however you can buy additional notes/aids to enhance your learning or to save time or to prepare faster/easier. Use a mix of materials that you feel comfortable with.My progress has been good so far despite some days in November when I could not find time due to official and personal engagements. I completed the ethics and professional standards sections. I skipped the most of the detailed chapters on GIPS, which was marked as ‘optional’ in the official curriculum.
Financial Reporting: I completed income statements and currently studying Balance sheet
Equity: I completed up to Market Efficiency. I will start the next one after a short break.In terms of study materials I’m using the official curriculum as a base. I explored other notes but due to the costs and the need to follow the core background material I decided to stick to CFA material. However, I’m using Finquiz notes as an aid to complete some sections faster or to review completed readings or to revise on certain areas.
Hi Mikestorm,
I like your strategy of using Schweser video and notes to build a foundation and then going to CFA notes (briefly if score >80% or fully in other cases). Can you tell us which package in Schweser you bought? Premium, Essential or Notes package? The premium one seems expensive, while notes is affordable.
