投行VP告诉你CFA值不值得考?| WALL STREET VP: IS CFA WORTH IT [ENG SUB] - YouTube

Hello everyone, welcome to my channel! 哈喽大家好,欢迎来到金融小妖精的频道!

Today, as an IB VP who passed CFA, I want to tell you whether it is worth to take the CFA exams 今天，小妖精想以一位投行副总裁以及几年前就拿下CFA的过来人的经验告诉大家CFA到底值不值得考

If you are interested in this topic 如果你也对话题感兴趣的话

Just go ahead and watch it 就请继续观看下去吧

In recent years 这几年啊

With CFA institute's global campaign 随着CFA机构在全球范围内的大力宣传

In mainland China 在中国大陆地区

The number of CFA holders has tripled in the past five years CFA的持证人数已经在过去五年内翻了三倍之多

CFA has earned CFA的名号呢

the reputation of "golden standard" by the mass media globally 也被各大媒体誉为投资界的黄金标准

I personally think 小妖精个人

the CFA is more like a three-year university with a focus in Finance 觉得CFA更像是一所三年制的金融专业本科学校

So let's analyse CFA in terms of investment and return 那我们就从投入和产出的角度来全面的分析一下

Is it worth to go to CFA "university"? CFA这所大学到底值不值得读呢

if you want to enrol into this university, first, you need to assess whether you have passed the prerequisites of CFA 想要报考这所大学，首先要了解一下自己是不是满足所大学的入学要求

Can you study CFA if you have a non-finance/accounting major? 非金融会计专业的同学能不能读呢

The answer to that question is yes 问题的答案是肯定的

Because I myself 因为小妖精自己

hasn't got finance background 就不是科班出身

and I passed it 照样也能考下来

If I can do it, you can do it. 2. English requirement. 如果我能考, 你也能考. 2. 英语要求

I thinks it's easier to get a CFA 小妖精觉得要考CFA轻松一点的话

if you have CET 6 你还是有英语6级

It's a little bit safer 会比较稳妥一点

CFA level 1 and 2 are all multiple choice questions CFA的一级和二级的主要都是选择题

And that was mainly to examine the English reading ability of the students in finance. However, in CFA level 3, there is a little bit of essay writing 那主要是考察同学们在金融专业的英语读的能力,到了CFA三级的时候,却涉及到了一些写作的部分

But the writing part is not particularly difficult 但写作的部分也不是特别难

After all, the writing has a template 毕竟他的写作部分都是有模板的

As long as you are familiar with the template 只要你会八股文的那一套

and the finance terminology 有一定的英语金融单词

You can still write the essay 词汇量在的话还是可以写出来

Third, the math requirement, the CFA 三,数学要求, CFA

doesn't involve very advanced mathematical knowledge 没有涉及非常高深的数学知识

such as the difficult 像我们非常头大的

Calculus 微积分呀

It doesn't involve advanced mathematics. it's a matter of statistics and probability. 高等数学呀都不涉及。它主要涉及的一些统计以及概率的问题

And these are very basic 这些呢也都是比较基础

As long as you have high school math level 只要你有高中数学的水平

You can basically do it. four 基本上也可以过。四

can full-time employee take CFA? 在职人员是不是能读呢

And the answer is yes 答案也是肯定的

Because when I was doing the CFA 因为小妖精自己在考CFA的时候呢

I was also working full-time 也是在职的人

As long as you are able to take about two to three hours a day 只要你每天能够抽差不多两到三小时

Willing to spend six months to a year preparing for the exam 愿意花半年到一年的时间来准备考试

You can take it. ok 你就能读。好啦

If you pass the prerequisites, 如果你的入学要求都达标的话

let's see what is the investment for taking CFA 那我们继续看他的投入到底是什么

The investment of CFA 考CFA的投入呢

It's mostly time and money 主要是时间以及金钱

Let's start from the money perspective and see if this is a reasonable fee for the CFA "university" 咱们先从金钱的角度看一看大学的收费是不是合理

First of all, the CFA institute will charge a one-time fee of $ 450 首先CFA机构会收取一次性450美元的入学费

After that 其后呢

It's about 1,000 dollars per level 每一轮考试基本是一千美元

If it's an early bird ticket 如果是早鸟的话呢

That's $ 700 七百美元

If we pass the three tests at once 如果我们按照一次性可以通过三门考试的标准

That's the equivalent of 20,000 yuan for the CFA university, which is about the same as a full-time four-year college. 那CFA这所“大学”的学费相当于是两万人民币，和一所全日制的四年大学学费也差不多

After all the exams are done 考试全部通过后呢

If you meet his membership 如果满足他的会员资格

That's going to charge $ 275 per year for membership 那以后将每年收取275美元的会员费

Basically as long as you can be a CFA charterholder 基本上只要你能成为CFA会员

And the big company will basically reimburse you for that 那大公司也基本上都会替你报销了这笔费用

Let's see what Time cost it is 再来看看最重要的时间成本到底是多少

According to the CFA's website 根据CFA的官网统计

It takes four years, 300 hours of preparation 考完三级平均要花四年,三百个小时的准备

Our Asian fellows 我们亚洲的小伙伴呢

are quite hard working 基本上都比较勤奋

I have a lot of people around me who passed CFA all at once 那我身边也有不少同学是一次性就考过了

But even if you pass all three levels in one go 但即使一次性考过

it takes at least two years to prepare 基本上也至少要两年的准备时间

Because 因为呢

The exam is only in June and December of every year 考试只有每年的六月和12月

It's got to be 它才有

So even in the first year 那即使第一年

You pass level 1 in June 你六月考了一级

pass level 2 in December. Then you have to wait until December of next year for the third level 12月考二级也得等到来年的12月才能考第三集

Speaking of time 说到时间

We have to mention the most important issue: commitment 我们就不得不提一下CFA最重要的commitment问题

If you can't keep up after passing level 1 如果你考到一半坚持不下去的话

And that's basically a waste of all your efforts 那你之前付出的努力就基本都白费了

Because he can't give you a certificate of level 1 因为他没有办法给你提供一级的证书

Once you decide to take the CFA 一旦你决定开始考CFA的话

Be sure to hold the idea that there is no turning back 一定要抱着没有回头路的想法

I have a good friend 我周围就有个好朋友

Even if he studied for five years 他即使考了五年

he held up to the end 也把他坚持考了下来

And eventually, he passed it and achieved great success 最终,他考过以后就收获了非常大的成功

A lot of times the CFA is not an IQ test 很多时候CFA考的不是智商

The exam is about perseverance. The part of the "investment" is done 考的是毅力。投入的部分讲完了

So let's see what the return is going to be 那我们来看看它的产出到底又有呀

When we talk about whether a diploma has value 那我们说到一个文凭有

or not 没有用

The first thing is to see if the knowledge is useful. The CFA curriculum 第一个就是要看他到底学到的知识是不是有用。CFA的课程内容呢

is equivalent of a finance undergraduate major 相当于金融本科的专业

So it's a very broad spectrum 也就是说它涉及的面非常广

But each course is not particularly deep 但是它每一门课程却不是特别深入

Its course content includes ethics 它的课程内容包括了职业操守

Quantitative methods 计量统计

Economics 经济学

Financial statement 财务报表

Corporate finance 公司金融

Equity investment, fixed income investment 股票投资, 固定收益投资

Financial derivative 金融衍生品

Alternative investment 另类投资

Like real estate 比如房地产

PE PE

And finally: portfolio management 以及最后:投资组合管理

I think 小妖精觉得呢

If you were originally from finance background 如果你本来就是科班出身

such as you majored in finance/accounting. 你本科学习的就是金融相关会计相关的专业

Then taking CFA 那考CFA

is equivalent of flipping your cold meal over again 相当于把你的冷饭又炒了一遍

It's not particularly valuable 价值不是特别大

Because you already have all the knowledge 因为你已经会了所有的内容

If you're not a finance major 如果你不是科班出身

But you want to get into the financial sector 但又想要进入金融行业的话了

What you learned in CFA 那CFA学习到的东西

is actually very useful 还真的是非常的有用

Take himself as an example 就拿小妖精自己来说吧

If I hadn't studied the CFA before 如果当时没有学过CFA的话

what my boss taught me at work 那我工作以后老板给我讲解的东西

I must have been completely blindsided and completely clueless. 我肯定是完全一脸懵逼完全毫无头绪

And in the workplace 再加上工作场合中呢

You know, colleagues don't have a lot of time to give you a lot of details 其实同事们根本没有很多时间来给你一五一十的讲很多细节

A lot of it still has to do with self-study 很多部分还是要靠自学

If you don't have a solid financial knowledge 如果你没有扎实点的金融知识

And then it's gon na be very hard to get into the financial industry 那以后进入金融行业工作起来也会非常的辛苦

So in my own experience 以我个人的经历来说

The knowledge you learnt in CFA is still very useful CFA学到的知识还是非常有用的

And the best part of CFA is to get you through all the aspects of finance 它最大的用处就是帮你把金融里面方方面面的知识全都系统的过了一遍

Even if you don't have a finance career 即使你以后自己不从事金融行业

the portfolio management 它的比如投资组合管理

It's also very helpful for you to manage your own money 对你自己进行理财管理也是非常有帮助的

The last thing I want to say about this is that many of our Asian classmates feel that the work ethic is not important 最后想说一点的我们很多亚洲同学都觉得职业操守一块不重要

There's been a lot of financial scandals going on over the years 这几年间不断的有各种各样的金融绯闻传出来

the public has not much trust in the financial industry 以至于公众对金融界都不是非常认可

The CFA's ethical content teaches us the basic moral principles of working in this industry CFA的职业操守内容的就教会我们做这行的基本的道德原则

The second one 第二呢

I want to talk a little bit about the monetary return on CFA 就想谈一谈CFA的含金量到底怎么样

There's a lot of data on the web that shows that the average salary for a CFA holder is $ 180,000 网上出现了很多数据表明了CFA得持证人平均工资是在18万美元

But what about mainland China 但中国大陆地区呢

There's no statistics 还没有统计

But a lot of the online agencies say at least not less than 300,000 rmb 可是很多网上的机构表示至少是不低于三十万的

I think that the number 我觉得数字到底是多少

doesn't really matter 其实并不是很重要

But people overlook a key point 但是有一点是很多人都忽略了重点

That is that the CFA holders 那就是CFA持证人

Not only do they have to pass 3 level of exams 他不仅要通过三级考试

they also need four years of relevant work experience 他还需要有四年相关的工作经验

In other words 也就是说

You don't know the reason why a CFA charter holder 你并不知道持证人

earns $ 200,000 salary. is it because 他拿二十万美元的工资

the accumulation of his work experience? 究竟是因为他的工作经验的积累

After four years of working experience 经过四年的积累以后

Even if you don't have a CFA 即使你没有CFA

A lot of people probably earn more than 2-3 times as much as they earned before 很多人也比之前的工资翻了两三倍之多

Or they make $200,000 because of the CFA 还是因为CFA证书的原因

So this is essentially a chicken or egg problem 其实本质上是先有鸡还是先有蛋的问题

There's no right answer to that question 这问题也没有正确答案

Because everybody's different 因为每个人的情况也不同

And the CFA doesn't have a way of separating work experience from the utility of the certificate in terms of explaining the high salary CFA也没办法把工作经验和证书两者的效用给分开来说

And that's the point 提到这一点呢

When you look at these numbers 希望大家在看到些数字的时候

Don't be fooled by the numbers on his face 不要被他表面的数字所迷惑了

I think 小妖精觉得呢

The biggest benefit about the CFA is for those who are not finance major, CFA最大的作用其实是对那些非科班出身

But want to get into the financial sector 但又想进入金融行业的同学

Because the CFA is accredited not just by your basic financial literacy 因为CFA认可的不止是你基本的金融知识素养

And it actually recognises a lot of your personality 其实他还认可了你的很多品格

For example, persistence etc and the kind of professionalism that is very important in the finance industry 例如坚持毅力等这些金融行业里非常看重的职业素养

Take my own story for example. 那就拿小妖精自己的故事来说

When I start my first job 小妖精一开始入职的时候

It's actually the operations department within investment bank 其实去的是运营部门

But then after two years of CFA 但是后来经过两年的考证之旅

After I passed the CFA 小妖精通过CFA以后呢

Plus some of my own efforts 再加上自己的一些努力

I eventually landed a job 最后去到了

in the trading department. there are tons of examples like me 交易部门.像我这样的例子其实是数不胜数的

I've had a lot of other people around me who have changed their jobs in this way 我周围也有很多小伙伴是这么跳槽成功的

So 所以说呢

The financial industry is really quite accredited with this certificate 金融行业里对张证书真的还是挺认可的

It may not be the gold standard 虽然不至于是黄金标准

or weighs more than your undergraduate degree, 超过了你本科学历,

or master degree 研究生学历的重要性

However 但是呢

it still has a certain amount of importance 他还是有一定分量的好啦

Now, we have listed the investment and returns of CFA. Who is most suitable to take CFA? 现在把投入和产出都给大家列举了以后,那CFA究竟适合样的人来读呢

I thinks regarding to this problem 小妖精觉得呢这个问题

we need to look at it from different groups of people 还是要分人来讨论

If you are a student 如果你是学生

we're gonna look at the reputation of your school and your major 那我们要从你现在就读的学校知名度以及就读的专业相关度来看

for this question 问题

If you are a finance major from 985,211 universities in China 如果你是国内的985,211知名大学读的金融专业或者是会计专业

I thinks you don't need to take the CFA at all 那小妖精觉得你完全不用考CFA

Because the CFA and your current knowledge system are basically completely overlapping 因为CFA和你现在的知识体系是基本完全重合的

if you go to a reputable school 那如果你就读的是知名院校

But if you're reading an electrical engineering major for example and you want to go into finance, your choice is to take CFA 但是读的是例如电气工程专业而想要进入金融行业的， 你的不二选择是去考CFA

If you go to a general school 如果你就读的是一所一般学校

I think for you 我觉得对你而言

Probably the most important thing is to go to grad school or study abroad 最重要的应该是去考研或者出国留学

Or learn a little bit more about Finance 要不就学习一些更多的专业知识

Or go abroad for a famous school 要不就出国套名校的光环

if you are a working person 那如果你是在职的人员呢

Again, think about your current background and relevant working experience 依然要从你现有的实力背景以及是否有相关工作两个点来考虑

to assess whether to take CFA 是不是要读CFA问题

If you graduate from the top universities 如果你是北清复交毕业的

And then 呢

Have relevant work experience 又有一定的相关工作经验

There is not much need for taking CFA 那考CFA就没有太大的必要

You might as well put your energy into something else 还不如把精力放在其他的地方

If you have a strong background 如果你的学历背景很强

But no relevant work experience 但却没有相关工作经验

Like myself, the CFA is still very helpful to you. 就像小妖精当年一样,那考CFA还是对你非常有助力的

If you don't have a strong background 如果你的学历背景不是很强硬

and don't have relevant work experience 没有相关工作经验的话

I think in this case 小妖精觉得在这种情况下呢

It's better to go deep into your existing field 最好还是深耕你现有的领域

You might be able to make a New World 说不定能闯出一番新的天地

If you don't have a strong background 如果学历背景不是很强

But 但是呢

have been in the industry for years, I think for those people, 在行业里已经摸爬滚打了好多年，小妖精觉得呢这些

Students can take a graduate school or go abroad to get an MBA. ok 同学可以考个研或者出国读个MBA的套光环。好啦

my analysis finishes here. 小妖精的分析就到里啦

Hopefully my answer will help you to decide whether to take the CFA or not 希望我的回答对大家选择是否要考CFA能够有所帮助

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