CFA Exam Requirements - How to Become a Chartered Financial Analyst

CFA Exam Requirements - How to Become a Chartered Financial AnalystCFA Exam Requirements - How to Become a Chartered Financial AnalystCFA, which stands for Chartered Financial Analyst, is a credential granted by the CFA Institute. In addition to having a bachelors degree and four years of professional experience in a full-time job that involves making decisions about investments, one must pass a series of three exams. This voluntary certification, and studying the curriculum that leads to it, provides Wall Street professionals like financial analysts, with a solid foundation that allows them to excel at their jobs and demonstrate to employers that they have the knowledge base that makes them valuable employees. The exams- CFA Levels I, II, and III- are sequential. The candidate must pass one exam before sitting for the next. The CFA Institute offers all the tests annually in June. The CFA Level I Exam is also given each year in December. Each test is six hours long. They collectively assess candidates knowledge of ethics and professional standards, investment tools, asset classes, and portfolio management and wealthplanning. The first two exams consist of multiple choice questions and the final one of both essay and multiple choice questions. Each exam level is mora complex than the one before it. How to Become a Chartered Financial Analyst The first step to becoming a Chartered Financial Analyst is enrolling in the CFA Program. There is an enrollment fee ($450 US in 2018). Although United States citizenship isnt required, you must be able to study the curriculum and take the exams in English. You must have an international travel passport. Test centers are located all over the world except in Cuba, North Korea, or the Crimea region of Ukraine. You may not sit for the CFA exams if you live in any of those countries. When enrolling in the CFA Program, you will have to complete a Professional Conduct Statement gestalt on which you affirm you are in complianc e with the CFAs Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. It includes disclosing any investigations, litigation, complaints, or disciplinary proceedings related to professional conduct. After enrolling you must, over the course of at least four years, take all three exams. After passing all of them, in order, and fulfilling the professional experience requirement- four years of investment-related full-time work experience- the CFA Institute will grant you the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. About the CFA Exams and Requirements Each of the CFA Exams is based on a curriculum laid out by the CFA Institute. Expect to spend at least 300 hours preparing for each test. Level I Exam To register for the first of the three CFA exams, you will need to either have completed a bachelors degree or be in your final year of college, have four years of professional full-time work experience, or have a combination of college and professional experience totaling at least four years. The Level I exam is made up of 240 multiple choice questions that are distributed equally over two sessions. Each session is three hours long. Level II Exam To sit for the Level II Exam, you must have passed the Level I Exam and completed your Bachelors Degree. The structure of this exam is different than it is for than the first one. While the questions are also multiple choice, you will be presented with 20 vignettes, each followed by six questions relating to it. Like the first exam, it is split into two equal sessions- one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Level III Exam The last exam in the series is made up of eight to 12 essay questions during the morning session and 10 vignettes followed by six questions each during the afternoon session. Before sitting for this test, you must pass the Level II exam. What to Do Before, During, and After Your CFA Exam When you enroll in the CFA Program, it is an approximately a four-year commitment that is also quite c ostly. In addition to the $450 enrollment fee, there is a $950 registration fee for the Level I exam (2018). With this kind of an investment in both time and money, make sure everything goes well. Here is how to increase your chance of getting a good grade and avoid any problems on the day of your exam Register for the test and choose a test location which will be a major metropolitan city or area around the world.Prepare for the exam using the ebook, practice tests, and mock exams you received when registering. The CFA Institute also provides a list of approved test prep providers.About four weeks before your exam you will receive your exam ticket indicating the specific test center.On the day of your exam, do not bring mobile phones and other electronic devices into the exam room store them in your car or the area in the test center set aside for personal belongings. You are also prohibited from bringing refreshments, backpacks and handbags, study materials, and weapons into the e xam room.Bring your valid international travel passport and leave it on your desk along with your admission ticket, and approved calculator and writing instruments.Eyeglasses (out of cases), manual pencil sharpeners, ear plugs, erasers, and wristwatches (not smart watches) may be kept on your desk as well.Store tissues, medicine, cough drops, gum, hard candy, eyeglass cases, and wallets in your pocket or under the desk. Arrive at least one hour before the exam to check in. Doors close before each timed session.After the doors close, you wont be allowed to enter the exam room until the proctor has finished reading the test instructions. Arriving more than 30 minutes after the beginning of the exam or leaving prior to dismissal will result in your not being able to take or complete the test and the forfeiture of your fee.Expect to receive your results within 60 days of taking the Level I and II exams, and within 90 days of taking the Level III exam. Source The CFA Institute

5 Résumé Tricks That Can Backfire

5 Rsum Tricks That Can Backfire5 Rsum Tricks That Can BackfireWhen youreputting together a rsum, you might find yourself looking for ways todisguise a spotty job history, get around rsum-screening software or evenavoid showing your age. And if you go looking for help, you might be encouraged to employ some rsum tricks to bypass these challenges. The problem? Hiring managerscan see right through the most common rsum tricks, and using them willusually backfire on you.Here are five rsum tricks that you should pass up.1. Using a functional rsum instead of a chronological rsum to hideweaknesses in your work history. If youre trying to hide gaps between jobs, disguise severalshort-term stays or downplay the fact that youve been out of the workforce fora while, you might have been advised that you should use a functional rsum instead of a chronological one. Rather than a traditional rsum, which would be in reverse-chronological order, functional rsums simply list skills andabilities without tying them to specific jobs and dates.The problem with this format? Employers know that theyregenerally used to disguise limited or outdated work experience or job hopping,and so theyre generally taken as a red flag that the candidate is trying totitelbild something up. Moreover, employers hate this format since it makes it hardto understand what the candidates career progression has been, and how recent(or old) those listed accomplishments are. If your skills are strong, anemployer might contact you anyway and ask you to clarify the chronology of yourwork history but when they have plenty of other good candidates to choosefrom, it will make them more likely to simply pass you up.2. Shortening your rsum by shrinking the margins and font instead of cutting content. Sometimes a candidate who hasheard that his or her rsum shouldnt be more than one or two pages tries to hit that limitby using a tiny font and narrowing page margins to cram more text in. But itspretty obvious to people who read a lot of rsums when youve done this, andyoull come across as someone who cant or wont edit and who doesnt knowwhats most important. Worse, youll dilute your rsums impact,because small, crowded text with no white space is hard to read and even harderto scan, which means hiring managers eyes are likely to glaze over when theyturn to your rsum the exact opposite of the reaction you want.3. Leaving dates off your rsum to avoid age discrimination. Older candidates are sometimes advised toleave dates of employment off their rsums altogether, so that employersdont draw conclusions about their age and assume that theyre too old, tooexpensive or too platzset in their ways. The problem with this advice is that datesof employment are such a standard part of a rsum that leaving them off looksbizarre like leaving the house without your pants. Moreover, its not justconvention dates of employment are relevant. Employers want to know if your experiencemanaging the team that achieved such great results was recent or if it was 20years ago, as well as whether you did it for six months or three years.However, ifyoure concerned about age discrimination, one thing you can do is remove fromyour rsum jobs that are older than 15 to 20 years. Theyre unlikely tostrengthen your candidacy at this point anyway, and your more recentaccomplishments are probably more impressive.4. Littering your rsum with keywords to get by rsum-screeningsoftware. Many jobseekers have become convinced that the only way theirrsums will be seen byhuman eyes is to figureout some magical combination of keywords to make itpast rsum-screening software. In reality, many companies (especiallysmaller ones) dont use rsum-screening software, and those that do dont screen usingobscure keywords. Any halfway competent rsum screener is going to runexpansive and varied enough searches that your rsum should get seenif youre a qualified candidate. You dont need to stumble on some esotericcombination of words to get spotted.Plus,tailoring your rsum to what you think a computer program wants to see is a good wayto make it unappealing to human eyes and its a human who will ultimatelydecide whether to call you in for an interview.5. Using a fancy or unusual rsum design to stand out and catch the hiring managers eye. When you know youre competingagainst a sea of similarly qualified candidates, it can be tempting to think youneed to find creative ways to stand out, like using an unusual rsum design with graphics and colors. But often a fancy designbackfires by making it harder for employers to quickly find the informationtheyre looking for on your rsum. In fact, fancy rsum designs tend to minimize the amount of information you caninclude, sacrificing content for flash. Thats at odds with what hiringmanagers want from your rsum, which is quite simple a clean, uncluttered document thats easyto quickly scan and which puts information in the places they expect to findit. Designs that emphasize appearan ce over those characteristics will make yourjob search harder, not easier.

Hire a Top Network Security Analyst in D.C.

Hire a Top Network Security Analyst in D.C.Hire a Top Network Security Analyst in D.C.Over the last few years, Washington has quietly become one of the top markets in the country for the technology industry. While this is great berichterstattung for highly skilled candidates, such a booming market means employers in the D.C. area need faster, more efficient hiring - and competitive compensation packages to put themselves in the running for those candidates.Thriving startups, federal contracting and tax incentives for high-tech companies fuel the areas flourishing technology scene, making it home to a multitude of organizations vying for the most experienced tech professionals the region has to offer.The city, which ranked third overall for career prospects in the Career City Index, has seen a jump in the number of tech workers thanks in part to graduates from institutions like Georgetown and George Washington universities entering the workforce. But demand remains high.With this kin d of job growth and the tech industrys foothold in the D.C. area continually growing, opportunities for IT professionals are on the rise. Network security analyst is one position thats gaining demand - which means the competition for top talent is getting even more intense.Network security analyst salarySalaries in Washington are trending 33 percent above the national average, driven partly by the citys high cost of living. Additionally, job seekers in the IT field with in-demand skills may field multiple offers and expect even higher compensation. To stay competitive, hiring managers must keep up with the citys and industrys salary trends.Currently, the midpoint salary for a network security analyst in Washington, D.C. is $160,930. Candidates working for large organizations or who have advanced skills and specializations - such as experience with the Host Based Security System (HBSS), penetration testing or malware hunting - can earn salaries as high as $228,095. Candidates who possess a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) designation will also expect a higher-than-average salary.GET THE 2018 SALARY GUIDEWhat to look for in a candidateA network security analyst is charged with performing system audits and reviews to look for vulnerabilities. They also develop security policies and create recommendations for improving network security. At a minimum, candidates should have extensive knowledge of computer and network systems, including firewalls, encryption and network protocols.Look for the following in your top applicantsA bachelors degree in a technical field or equivalent work experience in a technical professionAt least three years of experience in information securityA minimum of three years of experience in building and managing Windows and Linux platformsExperience with security scanners (SecurityCenter, WebInspect, DbProtect, AppScanner)Ability to perform technical audits and identify unusual files and dataKnowledge of hacking techniques used to penetrate networksStrong analytical skillsAbility to communicate complex technical information to nontechnical colleaguesFor certain roles, especially those with the federal government, Department of Defense (DoD) clearance may be required, along with familiarity with DoD systems. Some employers insist on HBSS certification.Speed is a factorPerhaps the biggest challenge facing hiring managers in the D.C. area is staffing open positions quickly enough. As the demand for network security analysts grows, its not uncommon for employers to compete for the same people.In such an active hiring landscape, managers need to accelerate the hiring process to land top talent before theyre off the market. Slogging through an unnecessarily long hiring process or hesitating on a highly skilled applicant because they dont check every single box on the wish list only increases the risk of the best candidates getting hired by a competitor.Start your search nowNeed help with your ta lent search? Take a look at our Washington, D.C. network security analyst candidates.