My CFA® Story: Started from the Bottom

Taking the CFA Level I exam when you’ve got no financial background can be a daunting task. In fact, it can seem downright impossible to pass when you have nothing to go on. As an English major one year out of college working in a non-financial field, I had nothing to lose. And in retrospect, what I’ve gained from taking the CFA exam has been earth shattering and way more than what I had initially imagined.

The CFA exam represented a dream to me. This dream began when I was in college. One day I was walking through Post Office Square in Boston, and I saw a ticker tape flashing in a glass-windowed office of the company that was formerly called Scudder (now Deutsche Asset Management). I fell so hard. I was in love with the stock market, and from then on all that I wanted to be was a portfolio manager.

I remember so clearly the day that I decided I was going to take the CFA Level I exam. My colleagues and I at JPMorgan (we worked in the custody sales division) had all heard about it from our counterparts in the performance analytics group. I was so young and naive—and that was a good thing, because if I had thought about it practically and known how hard this was going to be, I never would have attempted it. When I told one of my colleagues that I had registered for the June exam, he said, “Sara, you’re just a marketing girl. This is a finance exam.”

This comment, by the way, I ignored. And that’s the first piece of advice I would give to any exam candidate: ignore all negative comments about doing this. People are so scared of this exam, and if you listen, it will bring you down at some point. You can never let the thought of failure enter your mind. I’m not saying that you should just assume you’ll pass…that’s not a great attitude, either. I’m saying don’t think about pass or fail; just keep swinging at the ball hard every time and the pass or fail will take care of itself.

To say that I took the exam seriously is a bold understatement. It was more like the book was attached to my right arm. I took it everywhere with me. Once I went to Italy with my brother, and I remember studying on the plane and in the hotel room and every free minute I had. It was all consuming. One time, the lights went out, so I studied by candlelight. There was nothing that was going to stop me. I once told a reporter, “If it took me 80 years it was going to say ‘Sara Grillo, CFA’ on my tombstone.” And that’s how you have to approach it. Make no excuses, and make this the number one priority in your life, other than working enough to pay the bills, eating, and sleeping. I remember wanting to pass Level II so badly that I had a dream that I passed, and I recall vividly that in that dream I had the sensation that I was flying. My whole heart was in this. I wanted it badly, and this commitment led me to take meaningful actions that resulted in success.

The third thing that I realized by studying for the exam is how often we make the same mistakes over and over again. Although I ended up passing Level I on the first try, I failed Level II on the first attempt. I get so many questions on my YouTube channel about CFA study tips, and the number one piece of advice is to track your results. I actually created a study planner containing a log where I could keep account of what I was getting wrong on the practice exams. I always found that the exam results showed me to be weak in the areas where I hadn’t scored well on my practice exams. Although it seems logical, in the heat of the moment when the pressure is on in the weeks before the exam, many people will not track results.   

I know that many of you are sitting there reading this and feeling the same way that I was. What I can tell you is that, pass or fail, you’re a better person for taking the exam because the emotional journey it takes you through is a great learning experience. This is an opportunity to learn what you’re made of. Don’t give up on your dream because of how hard it is, whether it’s the CFA exam or anything else in your life. What you learn from failing is just as valuable as what you learn from passing, and as long as you don’t get too bent out of shape you can take that insight and apply it to the next chapter, which may or may not be the CFA career path. And hey, at least you’ve gotten some guidance about what the next steps should be. That’s my last pearl of wisdom. No matter what happens, watch and listen to yourself, because self-awareness is way more valuable than any academic knowledge.

About the Author

Sara Grillo, CFA, is a top financial writer with a focus on marketing and branding for investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms. Prior to launching her own firm, she was a financial adviser and worked at Lehman Brothers. Sara graduated from Harvard with a degree in English literature and has an MBA from NYU Stern in quantitative finance.