Hello everyone, I am Lianrongbao, and welcome back to my channel!

In today's video, I want to talk about is the CFA exam worth it?

I passed the CFA Level I exam in Dec, 2015

the Level II exam in June, 2016

and the Level III exam in June, 2017

Me and my fiancé have been thinking about switching jobs since the beginning of this year

My fiancé is American

and it took him almost 6 months to find a new job

During this period of time, we always discussed was the CFA exam really worth it

How much did the CFA really help us find a job?

so in today's video, I want to share with you my thoughts on this topic

if you are thinking about whether or not to take the exam

or if you have the same questions

I hope my video can give you some insignt

In short, I think the CFA exam is worth it but it might not worth as much as you think

and I think the CFA exam is not for everyone

I am going to explain my reasoning

My first reason is passing the CFA exam does not guarantee you a job

This is especially true if you try to find a job in America

it's great if you have the CFA

but CFA is not a golden ticket to investment banking or private equity

Even if you have CFA, you probably still can't find a job

one of the reason is the CFA program is not well known

lots of people know the CPA exam

they think it is impressive to pass the CPA

We have some friends and coworkers who passed both the CFA and CPA

and they think the CFA is a lot more difficult than the CPA exam

I also think CFA Institute controls the number of people that can pass the exam

Therefore if not a lot of people pass the exam then fewer people will know of it

I also think the CFA Institute doesn't do a good job of marketing

This is another reason many people have not heard of it

When you look for a new job, the HR does not know it is impressive to pass the CFA exam

and they will not know the value of the CFA charter

so if you are expecting that the CFA will bring you lots of job offers

and insure you to get a job in investment banking or private equity

you are wrong!

people place a higher value on networking when it comes to job searching

so the CFA exam is great to put on your resume but it will not guarantee you a job

Next, if you take the CFA exam out of vanity, I suggest you to reconsider

I know some people sign up for the exam because they want to put the CFA Candidate on their resume

and they think that HR will be impressed by that

The CFA Candidate can help you a little bit by showing your dedication in finance

but only people who have taken the exam appreciate it

so if you sign up for the exam just out of vanity

please save your money and time

personally I think it is not very useful if you only pass the Level I or II portion of the exam

The CFA charter is what will add value to you

I think you need to reconsider taking the exam if you have a family

The Level I exam is offered twice a years

but the Level II & III exam are only offered once a year

Assuming that you can pass all the exams on the first attempt

it will still take you 3 years

if you have wife/husband and kids

and you need to work during the day

it is difficult to make time to study for the exam

and this will also put pressure on your family

because you need to focus on studying

and you probably will not have enough time with your family

so you should evaluate

if the exam is more important than spending quality time with family and friends

If you need to take care of your kids

or your spouse requires lots of attention

I think you need to reconsider taking the exam

and talk to your family

because when you spend more time studying for the exam, it is your spouse who will share the burden to take care of the household

so don't underestimate the difficulty of the exam, and communicate with your family

If you work over 60 hours per week, you should reconsider taking the exam

if your work schedule is from 8AM to 8 PM

It is very hard to study after getting off a whole day of hard work

so if you are already in a stressful work environment

or if you are starting your own business

you can reevaluate to see if now is a good time to take the exam

because you need to put in lots of time and effort into the exam

That's my reasoning that CFA might not be for everyone

I know lots of my subscribers are taking the CFA exam

I think CFA candidates often make 2 mistakes, one is underestimating the difficulty of the exam

second is signing up for the exam out of vanity

they think that if their classmates or coworkers sign up for the exam, they want to do the same thing

The Level I exam is very basic

some people will assume the Level II is easy as well

It is a lot more challenging to pass the Level II exam

and the Level III exam is even more difficult

especially for us international studnets

The CFA exam is in English

lots of American think the CFA exam is very hard and English is their first language

so you can imagine how much more difficult it is for international students

CFA exam is not only time consuming but also expensive

so I want y'all to think through it before signing up for the exam

This is a big decision to make

It is not just a simple exam

I don't think it's smart to give up once you passed the Level II exam

I have some friends who wanted to take a break after passing the Level II exam

and then they never go back to take the Level III exam

My advice for you is if you decide to take the CFA exam, please do it early

because when you start a family, you have other things to worry about

you don't have as much free time as when you are single

That's it for today's video

I have plans to make more CFA related videos

and please check out How I Passed the CFA Exam playlist

It has lots of useful information

feel free to leave me a comment down below if you have any exam related questions

Thumbs up if you like my video

and don't forget to subscribe to my channel

See you next time, bye!