Passed L3 with no finance experience. Anyone else?

How did you approach L3 without any experience in finance? For instance how did you attack the portfolio management and risk managememt?
 
NewbieNovice, I’m also a CFA candidate with no actual experience in finance. I just passed the Level I exam and am registered for the brutal Level II exam. My background is electrical engineering, but I have been reading extensively about investing for a number of years. I’m also a Berkshire Hathaway and Wesco Financial shareholder.
 
cfahead Wrote:
——————————————————-
> How did you approach L3 without any experience in
> finance? For instance how did you attack the
> portfolio management and risk managememt?
I didn’t attack anything! :-) I studied the same way I did for levels 1 and 2: 100% CFA institute textbooks; no third party material at all. Try to understand the material and be critical of it where you don’t agree with prevailing practices or theory. Don’t be in a hurry to complete it without understanding it. Question the theories, ideas and practices (this is where the real money is).
While I have no work experience or exposure to the real world (in terms of job etc.), I’ve always been interested in Economics and Finance and I can’t help being curious or figure out stuff for myself. When you approach it this way, it is definitely more fulfilling than studying for an exam. This may not work for everyone but for me knowledge is its own reward.
As for a building a career, I think anything is possible. I mean, there is no formula or anything. I just have to make myself so good that I can’t be refused. But I do need to get my foot in the door though. And I will.
 
DiehardValueInvestor Wrote:
——————————————————-
> NewbieNovice, I’m also a CFA candidate with no
> actual experience in finance. I just passed the
> Level I exam and am registered for the brutal
> Level II exam. My background is electrical
> engineering, but I have been reading extensively
> about investing for a number of years. I’m also a
> Berkshire Hathaway and Wesco Financial
> shareholder.
Diehard,
way to go. Good luck! As Walrus said, I am not the only one.
 
i’ve been working in financial services for 4 years, but i doubt any of my experience will get approved.
 
I’m in a worse situation than you.
I passed FRM in 2006 and passed Level 3 this year.
Unfortunately, I’m 39 yrs old and have only eight month experience in finance field(equity analyst in local investment advisory company).
Even worse, given my age, I don’t even think such thing as MFE or MBA.
 
charu_mulye Wrote:
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> “Business Analyst” in financial software is the
> only job that immediately comes to my mind, but
> CFA is over qualification for that profile.
>
> You could network a lot and transition to business
> side eventually.
>
> I have not done it, but this could be done. Even
> I have 6 years of experience in Financial software
> and passed CFA level 2 in June’ 09.
>
> Any other ideas for CFA + IT?
+1
What about hitting one year MF or MBA from any Top-5
I have zeroed down on MF from London Business School / MBA from INSEAD
will that help ??
any comments will be highly welcome
Whats the job range post MF@LBS
also…where are the similar programs (MF/MFE) in USA ?
 
NewbieNovice Wrote:
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> I am 35 years young with a Baccalaureate in
> mechanical engineering from a supposedly
> prestegious university. GPA sucks and is
> completely irrelevant. I’ve been working as a
> programmer for the last 12 years. No visible
> career progression but job more than pays the
> bills. I’ve wasted enough time doing things that
> don’t motivate me at all..
>
> Now, rather than explain this in a resume (I don’t
> know how anyone can), I feel networking and word
> of mouth marketing are the only options to build
> my career anew.
story of my career is exactly the same. I am in IT, dont like my work. I am also a mech engineer from best engineering collage in india with a GPA that sucks to say the least.
passed level 1 and level 2 without much fuss and lot less than 250 hours of study and no finance experience (some of you are going to hate me for this).
 
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