Help

Hey @Yeshank‌ 

1. This is something that you should decide for yourself. I think that with a 10th band you’re definitely close to passing, and stand a great chance next time around, but you’ll have to decide whether the 3 years is worth it. Hopefully my answers to the next few points will help you decide on this.

2. Level 2 is almost universally agreed to be harder than Level 1. Some find Level 3 easier than Level 2, but definitely Level 1 is the easiest. You should plan to put in more effort in L2 and L3 compared to L1 – 300 hours is a useful base guide in getting an idea of how much effort is involved, but there is a difference between 300 hours of truly productive work, and 300 hours of half-hearted study, or studying the wrong things.

3. & 4. CFA does not ‘guarantee’ you a job. It’s note a base ‘required’ qualification like say an accountancy qualification, but rather something that people would like to see in asset managers and wealth advisors etc. If you want to go into a particular finance area, CFA is a great thing to have, but making connections, knowing the industry and interviewing well will be 100x more important. @mitch895‌ wrote something similar recently: https://300hours.com/f/careers/t/cfa-for-career-changers/. This also applies to any qualification, doesn’t matter whether it’s CFA, MBA, ACA, etc etc. All the qualifications in the world doesn’t matter if you don’t have the soft skills to make friends in the industry and come across as someone awesome to work with. It’s like trying to join a ‘cool’ group in school – you can look as good on paper as you want, but if you don’t come across well when you talk to the group, you’re not getting in.

Just my 2 cents. I’ve tried to be as helpful as I can and hope I don’t come across as insensitive (or worse). Good luck!