Anyone studied for the CFA (1, 2 3), with intent to stay in consulting, and found it helpful? Please share your stories and how you made the decision to invest the time

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For it being helpful in consulting probably not. It would give you good credentials if you work with asset managers and if you want to transition to equity research or portfolio management it is great for that. But it is an investment of approximately 1,000 (300ish per level) hours of studying with a 40% pass rate per level.

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It might help you break into financial services if you choose to go that route, but if you want to stay in consulting, I would forgo the CFA. I'm speaking as a level 3 candidate. I'm in the transaction advisory group so it's fairly relevant - but I would imagine it being less relevant in traditional consulting

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I am taking level 1 in June with the intent to leave consulting eventually. While I believe it is more useful for that, I have found the concepts of level 1 very applicable to my day to day in consulting as well. The material on the three financial statements, business risk management, optimal capital structure, and equities broadly is very useful stuff know. I also work in strategy consulting with an emphasis on long term value creation projects, so the applicability will definitely vary based on what you do. As PwC 1 above said, it is a massive time commitment.. so think it through. (It’s also expensive ~1.4-7k to take test based on when you sign up, another $1k on the Kaplan materials which I think are VITAL given how unhelpful and arbitrarily dense the materials from CFA are)

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