Do you guys think jumping the bandwagon and starting to look at CFA material early on would be beneficial, considering I'm only first year college. I just need to know how to start and I think in my spare time I could start hammering down on trying to understand some major concepts.
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No
No. Most of Level 1 materials you will learn throughout college in your finance classes. Instead, focus now on networking and reaching out to alum or people on LinkedIn.
The advantage of connecting with people this early is you look more genuine vs those who start networking a few months before/after they apply for internships/jobs.
I would be cautious about networking this early -- as a freshman I had a handful of calls with investment bankers, and none turned out well due to my lack of basic knowledge about the industry. Later on when I was searching for a banking gig I felt embarrassed to reach out to those people again, and I was glad that I waited a year before talking to any more folks in BB IBD/S&T/ER.
As a freshman I think the best course is to get your feet wet talking to wealth managers and other people on the retail side of the industry. Of course, do your research on the person before your call. They're more likely to hire you for your freshman summer anyway.
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You won't be eligible to sit for the CFA til your senior year of college, by which time you will have forgotten most of what you study now. Don't waste your time
No - if you want to do yourself a favor just start really following the markets, make a mock portfolio (or a real one), and start looking at interview guides in your spare time (just a little - don't go crazy) and you'll be good to go.
There are better uses of your time, eg your assigned coursework, networking, other resume-building activities, or, god forbid, enjoying your freshman year of college.
Plus, who knows if you'll end up in a finance career that really benefits from a CFA? Wait until you settle on a career objective before you decide if the CFA is a worthwhile investment. There are some paths where it helps and some where it does almost nothing for you in terms of professional advancement.
Second this, go join a club. A leadership position looks a whole lot better than "planning to take CFA" on a resume.
It's already too late to begin studying to pass the CFA. Maybe you can pass the CPA if you start now.
Community Service, leadership positions, non-finance hobbies. I chose lifting, mma, golf, and the usuals sports/fantasy leagues/poker. Stuff you can relate to other people and are fun as shit. I'd study the economics and accounting sections maybe sophomore year if I wanted to brush up on concepts for interviews and junior year classes.
Ok, i see where your guys are coming from, in terms of books to start out simple? I have been reading : - How to make friends and influence people - How to think your way to wealth - Richest man in Babylon ( on the way ) - 7 habits of successful people
7 Habits is a great book, good choice.
How to make friends and influence people is an amazing book, I reread it once every 2 years
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Don't waste the best years of your life - when its 11 p.m. on a Friday night and you are changing font sizes on a pitch book while your C average friends are dry f ing babes on their 60K/year salary, you are going to wish that you didn't try so hard as a freshman because it really doesn't matter what you know at that point
Ya I'm trying to work on my girls game, I love em, just haven't had much success with any lately so career aspirations have taken over my mind
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You will likely never be able to recreate the experience of college. The lack of responsibility combined with being surrounded by people your age going through the same thing as you make it a unique time. I have still had a blast post college, but its not the same type of experience as college just from a freedom standpoint.
It's a different kind of good time. It was a simpler time when all we had to worry about is show up to class (sometimes), procure alcohol and get laid (as often as possible, with as many different women as possible). Effectively you are full time playboy. That is a time in your life you never get back, unless you have a trust fund, which most of us do not. After college, when you achieve success, you begin a new phase where a new type of good time begins: climbing you way to the top of the BSD pile and becoming the best at what you do. Just different rungs in the same ladder.
Doing things far ahead is equally inefficient as doing things far behind.
focus on having relations with girls
Doesn't that just lead to overthinking and endless ego lifting, if all you think about is girls ?
no
get shit faced often, make good friends and try to bang as many biddies as you can
Absolutely not. There are a million reasons why this is a bad idea. Here are a some:
1) you need 4 years of work experience to get the charter so you’re still ~8 years away from getting it 2) your time is much better spent right now maximizing your gpa, getting internships, and HAVING FUN 3) it will be much easier to understand the material after you’ve taken college courses and had some internship/work experience 4) if you take it while working you can probably get your company to pay for it 5) it’s easier to study when youre a working adult with a more structured schedule and you won’t be constantly missing out on all the fun stuff available to college students 6) you may decide to pursue a career where the CFA isn't relevant
As a freshmen....let's see...beer and broads in no particular order. Repeat, Repeat!
wow, someone's handing out monkey shit like roofies at frat party
nevermind, just realized hbic is a troll, and a very poor one at that. man i miss blastoise and brady.
Study women.
I would wait until you finished your first college internship before even considering taking stab at Level 1. In the meantime, learn how to shotgun beer in under 5 seconds and build some life long relationships. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth!
You can only take level 1. You'll have to wait until graduation for level 2. Just don't. Focus on your undergraduate and get a great GPA. CFA can wait. It really doesn't matter if you have it for IBD. It doesn't impress recruiters as much as your GPA and your ECs.
For AM/IM or ER, you can even get those jobs with CFA level 1. You just need to show progress.
Not something you should be working on right now. Rather, practice some introspection and focus on narrowing down what exactly interests you about finance and why it is that you want to pursue this goal. This will be more helpful as you begin to network.
Dude, you are 18... go get laid, party hard, get wasted... Do everything you will regret not having done when you are pulling all-nighters... There is plenty of time for the CFA and all that shit
Yeah, especially not CFA...I think the best thing to do as a freshman is really just to talk to as many upperclassmen as possible who are entering the field. Don't approach it like networking but just..make friends. The benefits will come naturally later.
Besides, as a freshman, you may figure out you don't even want to do finance after talking to peeps with experience, so before you deep dive into the weeds, it's better to casually talk with people to figure out if it is something you're generally interested in. Also, you only have these few years of college and you'll have plenty of time to bust your balls later. Relax a bit and enjoy your year of not having to give many fucks at all.
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