How to Get Your Work Experience and References Approved for Your CFA Charter

By Christine

Now, seriously, what on earth does CFA Institute mean by 'relevant work experience'?

In the whole CFA process, passing the 3 exams is the hardest part of the entire shebang. But if you're anything like me, once you got the pesky business of the exams out of the way, you might wonder: where's the frigging charter? How do you get it? I was too busy focusing on passing Level II and III that I never really bothered to think too much about this part.

Fortunately, once you pass your exams, the process of getting your charter is relatively straightforward - providing you have the relevant work experience. 4 years' worth of it, in fact.

But what work is relevant, and what is not? And what references do you need? We'll take you through the nuances and share a few tips.

7 Tips When Submitting Your CFA Work Experience

​To qualify as a regular member and the right to use the CFA designation, you will need 48 months of relevant work experience. These can be accrued from any previous position, and do not have to be continuous. The criteria for work experience to be considered relevant is as below.

At least 50% of your work experience must be:
​-    Directly involved in the investment decision-making process

• -    Engaged in responsibilities and/or producing a work product that informs or adds value to that process
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But what does this really mean? When submitting your work experience to the CFA Institute, keep these 7 tips in mind:

1. Job titles alone are insufficient. You must include specific details about your job responsibilities, and ensure they demonstrate the work experience requirements above.
2. Only include positions that qualify. There’s no need to include everything in your CV.
3. Write it like a cover letter. You have to treat your work experience application akin to writing a cover letter for a job application. Remember to highlight parts of your role to emphasize its relevance to the CFA work experience requirements.
4. You must be helping people decide how to invest. The goal is to demonstrate that work contributes to investment-decision-making processes. You don’t have to be directly making the decisions – as long as investment decisions depend on your work in some way (e.g. your research, your analysis, your counsel), then it should be relevant.​
5. Teaching & supervising also counts. If you’re in a full time position which teaches required skills, or supervises those who carry out relevant responsibilities, this also qualifies as relevant work experience.
6. Part-time positions do not count. Any work experience must be full-time. Internships also do not qualify as work experience.
7. Managing your own investments does not qualify. So does running investment clubs, managing your family or friends’ investments, and so on. You need professional experience, i.e. if you manage investments, it should be for paying clients.

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What are References, and How to Obtain it for your CFA Charter

To complete your CFA charter application, you will also need professional references. 'Professional' means that these are people that can attest to you and your work in a professional setting. So no Aunt Elma references please.

These can be one of the following:

1. 3 professional references, or 
2. 2 professional references, of which one is a current, regular member of the local CFA society you are applying to

It is also highly preferred if one of your references is your current supervisor.

All you need to do is fill in your references’ contact details (make sure you get their consent beforehand). After you submit your application, they will be emailed instructions on how to complete a reference for you. This should take no more than an hour to fill out.

Got any tips or experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below!