It is difficult to offer advice to aspiring charterholders that is applicable to all three levels of the CFA® exam series. As you may have already discovered, each level is fairly unique. Level I and Level II are far apart in difficulty while Level II and Level III differ greatly in format.

It sounds pretty ominous: A 300-hour study commitment over the course of four to six months, which works out to be roughly between 12.5 and 18.75 hours per week. Oh, and that 300-hour assumption is an average; any individual might need to put in considerably more effort in order to master the material well enough to pass the test.

When I first began pursuing the CFA charter, I was a lone wolf. I didn’t do any prep courses. I didn’t get any materials other than the curriculum books. I didn’t talk to other candidates. I didn’t look at forums. And despite not having had much background, I didn’t engage with my local society.… Not surprisingly, I failed.

When I left a well-known consulting firm in Paris and moved to Toronto, I knew immigrants in Canada usually struggle to get their first job because of the lack of Canadian experience or Canadian education. I had neither of these, so naturally I felt lucky that I was able to land my first job quite easily. Even though I had what was considered a good experience in treasury risks, hedge accounting, and financial risk management in general, I felt that I needed an additional asset education-wise to fully compete in the Canadian job market on Bay Street.

It’s 7:30 p.m. and I had been in the office since 7:30 a.m. I was staring at a blank PowerPoint slide on one screen and a Bloomberg homepage on the other. For the last several weeks, I had been working tirelessly as our firm prepared to go on the road and raise capital from investors.