The Intangibles of Becoming a CFA® Charterholder
There are many reasons to become a CFA charterholder. You will find near-universal agreement that holding the CFA designation improves your job prospects across the globe, adds significantly to your human capital, and grows your professional prestige and personal brand. The short story is that it’s hard, but it’s worth it.
After becoming a charterholder, you will likely have the opportunity and flexibility to obtain a job that is exactly what you’re looking for, and you’ll be making a very comfortable living doing so. Many people spend an entire lifetime in search of such career balance!
Of course, you also have to weigh the costs. And they’re not insignificant. The time, energy, focus, and dedication needed to pass all three exams is enormous. Anyone believing that “it won’t be that bad” is kidding themselves. Many will look at the pass rates and conclude that, since they’ve done well in many aspects of life, they’ll be among those passing at each level. Perhaps. But it’s much more likely that you will fail at least one exam along the way. Yes, you. Yes, really.
And that brings me to a key factor in deciding whether becoming a CFA charterholder is worth it: don’t underestimate the value of the intangibles!
Here are some key intangible benefits that you’ll get along with that parchment charter:
1. You’ll get a great life lesson in failure.
Many of the individuals who fail the exams abandon the process and give up, but many don’t. Like me, they persevere, they study and read tips, they power through, and they ultimately obtain the charter. But even if you don’t fail an exam, you will fail many, many questions. You will fail to fully understand many of the concepts. You will fail to keep all the formulas straight in your head. You will fail to get a practice problem correct after just doing one exactly like it. You’ll even fail to understand the answer to a question after reading the answer key over and over again. Failing is a significant part of becoming a charterholder, and dealing with that failure at all levels along the way was an invaluable lesson for me. And it will be for you, too.
2. You’ll understand what it means to really, really focus.
There is no such thing as casually obtaining a CFA charter. You have to be pretty single minded. And it’s not until you’ve cut everything except the most essential things out of your life that you realize what amazing things you can do when you focus. Every minute of the day matters to a CFA candidate, and I learned how to manage those minutes. All of a sudden, that extra level or power-up on a mobile game just isn’t that important anymore. In fact, many things aren’t. If I ever need to do something as difficult as becoming a CFA charterholder again, I’ll know exactly how to do it: Really, really focus.
3. You’ll have a new appreciation for the standard of perfection.
Most of us are used to perfection, or near perfection, in whatever it is that we do. That’s why you’re reading this blog and considering becoming a charterholder or continuing down the path. Occasionally, I suppose, someone does achieve a perfect score on one of the CFA exams. It doesn’t really matter. The reality is that you will build a new appreciation for “good enough.” You cannot master the entire CFA curriculum, and you shouldn’t. Attempting to achieve perfection on CFA exams is a recipe for failure, and the sooner you get on board with that fact, the sooner you can move forward with mastering most of the material and passing the exams. At times, it really bothered me that I couldn’t master some formula or topic. I spent a whole day trying to solve a currency swap problem without the shortcut formula so I could “really understand the concept.” I failed (see the first bullet). I never solved it to my satisfaction, and eventually I let it go, but it really bothered me. Over time, it bothered me less and less, and by the end I would just smile and quote Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars: “It’s a Trap” and move on. Learning when perfection is a reasonable goal worthy of pursuit is a great lesson, and the CFA exam process taught me that becoming a CFA charterholder isn’t one of those times.
There are other intangible reasons for becoming a CFA charterholder, but those are the three that impacted me the most. So if you’re on the fence about deciding to move forward with this process, consider that, in addition to all the valuable skills you will build and the professional recognition you will gain, you may end up valuing many of the intangible aspects of the program and process rather than all those benefits you’re trying to quantify. I certainly did.
About the Author
Jason Haviland is the president and chief investment officer at J. Bradford Investment Management, an independent RIA located in New England with a focus on environmentally friendly and socially responsible investing. Jason holds a BA in economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Boston College. Jason is open to networking requests on LinkedIn, and you can read a full bio on his website.