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The Relevance of Your CFA Work Experience. To qualify as a regular member and the right to use the CFA designation, you will need 48 months of relevant work experience. These can be accrued from any previous position, and do not have to be continuous. The criteria for work experience to be considered relevant is as below. At least 50% of your work experience must be:
Directly involved in the investment decision-making process
Engaged in responsibilities and/or producing a work product that informs or adds value to that process
What does this really mean? Job titles are not sufficient. You must include specific details about your job responsibilities. Reread the work experience points above - the specific details should address these as much as possible. Enter only positions that qualify as acceptable work experience. No need to include your blissful 2 years in McDonalds. Write a cover letter. You have to treat your work experience application akin to writing a cover letter for a job application - I. e. remember to highlight parts of your role to emphasize its relevance to what CFA Institute is looking for. You must be helping people decide how to invest. The goal is to demonstrate that your work contributes to investment decision-making processes. You don't necessarily have to be the one making the decisions. But if decisions depend on your work in some way, be it your research, your analysis, or some other form of counsel, then you have a fair chance. Teaching & supervising also counts. If you're in a full-time position which teaches the core skills required, or involves supervising those who carry out the responsibilities as detailed above, this qualifies as well. Part-time positions do not count. Any work experience must be full-time. Internships also do not qualify as work experience. Managing your own investments does not qualify. Neither does running investment clubs, managing your family/friends' investments, and so on. You need professional experience, I. e. you do this for a living.