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

11/8/2016

47 Comments

 
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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
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​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
  • ​
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.

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

 
47 Comments


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Matty J
3/9/2012 04:41:20 am

Do you have any info about who can act as a sponsor? Obviously your supervisor is preferred as one referee, however there is no detail about who the other 2 can be. Do you have to have worked with/for them, or can it be a finance professional who has known you for a significant time? Also, what is the minimum period someone must have known you to act as a referee.

I have just changed organisations and so everyone I now work with hasn't known me too long.

Thanks

Matt

Reply
X link
3/9/2012 04:59:39 am

Hi Matt

The key is to have someone that knows you professionally, i.e. they can testify to the quality of your work. Preferably these are people that you have worked with directly, but I know of people who used acquaintances in the industry as references successfully as well. So if you are pressed for direct references, your professional acquaintance should do fine.

Also note that if you know any current CFA local member you only need 2 sponsors!

Good luck!

Reply
Sherme
4/9/2012 03:32:22 am

I am in a supervisory position while my subordinates are CFA. Just wonder if I should ask them to be my sponsors or I better get my friends doing that...

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X link
4/9/2012 04:11:28 am

That's an interesting position to be in - I've certainly not heard of that one before.

If I were you I'd try to get peers (i.e. your managers, colleagues that you work with) rather than people you manage. If you're trying to get someone who's a CFA charterholder to qualify for the '2 sponsors' rule, I'd suggest to go for an acquaintance rather than people that report to you.

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Sherme
4/9/2012 04:22:52 am

Thanks. I agree with your suggestion understanding that my situation is bit embarassing. Just because I am too old and all those younger are brighter and got all the qualificaitons.

Reply
Mike
5/9/2012 05:34:12 am

I was initially worried about the experience requirement because I'm in a government role, which is very "non-traditional". I've since contacted the CFAI and from what I can tell, so long as you're doing work that is acceptable (i.e. cash flow modeling, derivatives analysis, etc.), it appears that they're willing to work with you.

Reply
X link
5/9/2012 06:38:58 am

That's exactly right - it's the nature of the job, not the company you're at that is relevant. I was able to swing my experience from an advertising firm, so you can go pretty non-traditional!

Reply
Harsh
15/10/2012 05:20:20 am

I worked 3 years as a financial analyst making models and analyzing companies for IB and PE clients. I quit some time back and am now developing finance content for an education startup. I know my 3 years exp counts (others in my firm have got charters). All I'm worried about is the 4th year.

Reply
Christine link
15/10/2012 05:23:44 am

Teaching relevant knowledge is considered relevant experience. If the content you're developing is CFA related you should have a strong case.

Reply
Aziz
11/11/2012 02:50:07 pm

I'm preparing the CFA1 , and I'm in my last year of college , any recommendations ?

Reply
Christine link
11/11/2012 10:45:55 pm

In terms of work experience you'll have to accumulate 4 years first. Good luck for Level I!!

Reply
Obaid link
14/11/2012 05:30:58 am

Do you think my experience in conducting analysis of financial statements for the purpose of audit is relevant? I mean analytical procedures, valuation of instruments for financial reporting, valuation of assets, etc.

Reply
Christine link
14/11/2012 05:41:20 am

Hi Obaid

I know that audit experience should work, however I'm not sure about the analytics for purposes of audit.

Have a look through our dedicated article on this: http://www.300hours.com/1/post/2012/10/is-your-work-experience-cfa-relevant-heres-how-to-check.html and use the linked self-assessment tool - my guess is that your experience should be relevant.

Chris

Reply
biju
14/12/2012 10:18:23 pm

I am a Certified Financial Planner running an investment advisory firm , Does this experience count for full time experience

Reply
Christine link
23/12/2012 12:48:46 pm

Hi biju

That should work.

Reply
Rahul Kharya
23/12/2012 12:22:31 pm

Nice Article...... I have 4 years of experience in IT as a software engineer ..... does it count as a relevant experience in CFA ....

Reply
Christine link
23/12/2012 12:47:09 pm

Hi Rahul

IT experience is unlikely to be relevant unfortunately.

Reply
chad Johnston
14/1/2013 11:33:11 am

Right now i am a Corporate Financial Analyst. I do Budgeting/Forecasting/ROI analysis. I also analyze the balance sheet/IS/Cf statement. I don't do too much with investment analysis besides whether we should do business with a client or not based on our models. Please Help!

Reply
Shradha Mani
23/1/2013 10:23:19 pm

Hi my name is Shradha Mani. I am working as a research associate in the School of Inspired Leadership. I am involved with mentoring and training students on the finance courses which involve Financial and Managerial Accounting, Corporate Finance and M&As. Along with this I am also involved in some research projects on finance. Will this qualify as relevant work experience for CFA

Reply
Amit
7/2/2013 08:08:55 am

I am selling ratings to SME's. The SME's buy our non-mandatory ratings to get their company financials evaluated to get loans from banks at concessional interest rates smoothly. It is a Rating Agency like S&P and Fitch. Is it relevant work experience.

Reply
Christine link
24/2/2013 01:52:46 pm

Hey Amit

That should be fine.

Reply
Tim
24/2/2013 01:07:36 pm

Hi.

Can I have sponsors that have not been my supervisors? I have an acquaintance that is part of the local society and a former colleague that is part of another society. Both are charterholders. Is that enough or does at least one sponsor have to be a supervisor?

Reply
Christine link
24/2/2013 01:51:17 pm

Hey Tim

Yes that's fine - its preferable to have one as your supervisor but not required. Good luck!

Reply
Tim
24/2/2013 06:22:05 pm

Does the work experience have to be accepted before the sponsors can fill out the form?

Reply
Christine link
24/2/2013 11:35:09 pm

Hi Tim

No, you simply nominate your sponsors and they would then fill out the form as per instructions. The approval comes later.

Reply
Aly
26/2/2013 04:21:46 pm

Will the person who is referring me be able to see how many times I have failed previous CFA exams?

Just curious. Not something I'm proud of.

Thanks.

Reply
Aly
26/2/2013 04:23:25 pm

More specifically, what does the referrer see about the CFA candidate requesting the reference, exactly? Do they see his or her work history or when he or she passed each exam, for example?

Thanks.

Christine link
27/2/2013 03:20:38 am

Hi Aly

To be honest I can't remember supervisors seeing work history or anything like that. Your pass/fail history would not be revealed.

Last I know of the process (about 2 years ago) the process was similar to steps 2 and 3 of this document :http://www.cfainstitute.org/Forms/cfa_annual_conf_sponsor_kit.pdf

Hope that helps!

JP
27/2/2013 07:02:05 pm

I'm a financial analyst and have been for just under a year. I perform monthly profitability reports analyze is/bs, forecasting etc. I'm concerned that my only "investing work experience" is if we should restructure contracts with clients or to keep them as a client. Do you think I would be approved if I continue with this career

Reply
Christine link
28/2/2013 02:07:45 am

I think that should qualify as work experience.

Reply
Alice
27/2/2013 09:39:53 pm

I am now working for an international consultancy firm. My responsibility includes but not limited to hotel appraisals and valuations, as well as feasibility studies of both hotels and serviced apartments. Does that count?

Reply
Christine link
28/2/2013 02:09:01 am

Oh yes it should. Note that in order for your work experience to qualify, relevant activities should cover at least 50% of your daily responsibilities. So valuations etc is relevant, but if it only comprises of say 10% of what you do, you'll need to have a look at your other responsibilities.

Reply
Mack
23/2/2019 02:25:40 pm

Would work as a tax lawyer satisfy this requirement. I frequently analyze the tax impact of various transaction structures available to my clients.

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Christine Martinez link
25/2/2019 08:19:58 am

That would indeed fulfil the work experience requirement!

Reply
Andrew
6/3/2019 04:33:55 pm

From your understanding, does the investment decision process, or as you put it helping people decide how to invest, include financial analysis conducted internally by a company to inform its management of how best manage its financial position (i.e. earnings, debt instruments, etc.) to further the company's growth? For example a financial analyst within a mining company that does analysis to inform management's decisions.

Reply
Christine Martinez link
7/3/2019 08:55:31 am

Absolutely! Investment decisions need not necessarily be the conventional kind, i.e. 'here's some money, invest it and grow'. Investment decisions can also equally can mean capital management decisions.

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Mark
14/5/2019 05:28:53 pm

I am a senior commodity derivatives trader. I work at a very, very small firm in which we manage "personal money" Two senior members of the firm put up the capital. None of the money put up is mine but I receive a percentage of profits. I also handle all back office work including checking statements/balancing accounts/accounting. I have been with this company for over 6 years.

Is this sufficient work experience?

Reply
Christine Martinez link
15/5/2019 09:07:53 am

If you're a trader, you definitely are - you are making investment decisions on a daily basis as your full time role.

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Mark
15/5/2019 01:39:47 pm

Thanks for the insight. My only worry was based on the fact that we dont accept investors money. So as I am making investment decisions, its not for a client or a customer.

Christine Martinez link
16/5/2019 09:02:18 am

(to Mark above) Yes absolutely. The fact that you don't accept outside money (e.g. family offices) should have no bearing at all to your acceptance, you're still making investment decisions - your 'client' are the senior members.

Reply
Teja
18/5/2019 08:02:05 pm

I have obtained two professional references, out of which one is from my direct supervisor and other one is from a regular member of the CFA society I am applying for. However, the website still doesnt allow me to submit my application. Can anyone help me with the possible reason ?

Reply
Yash
21/8/2019 08:52:26 pm

Hi, I am currently working with a Global Bank, in the Statutory accounts team. We prepare the Statutory Financial Statements of entities setup in UK per the Local GAAP (IFRS), which are then audited (we are a part of the entire audit process too) and finally present the financials to the Board of Directors. Does this qualify for the relevant experience criteria?

Reply
Christine Martinez link
22/8/2019 09:24:16 am

I should imagine so. The financial statements you prepare and audit feed into multiple investment decision processes - that's a point you should emphasise in your application.

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Tyler
22/8/2019 05:09:03 pm

I spent the first year of my career at a large discount brokerage as a broker. I was basically an order taker. But I did spend a considerable amount of my time educating clients on different order types, option strategies, technical analysis, etc. They would decide whether or not to execute, and I would place the order(s) for them. Is it possible to have that year approved?

Reply
Christine Martinez link
26/8/2019 08:00:23 am

Yes, in my opinion I think that should get approved. You should emphasise the investment decisions your clients are making based on your recommendations and work in your work experience submission.

Reply
tamiesurok
22/8/2019 05:58:33 pm

Okay, so I'm a public accountant pursuing CPA and CFA at the same time. I have three years experience in audit and financial reporting. I am thinking about switching gear as I have passed my level III. I'm not sure whether my work experience as public accountant will be counted as 'relevant work experience', and is there any suggestion on what kind of career/position that can integrate CPA and CFA?

Reply
Christine Martinez link
26/8/2019 08:02:46 am

I'm not entirely sure if your accountancy work experience will count, although I would say 'yes' if it was up to me. You can take CFA Institute's self-assessment to get a better idea: https://www.cfainstitute.org/community/membership/process/Pages/work_experience_assessment.aspx

Reply



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