Episode 12: How to Crack CFA Level III
Enter the Final Frontier.
So you’ve fought hard and won your way through two major battles (Level I and II) and you are almost there. Except that you’ve one more battle before you win the war. Level III is a weird level.
How weird? To find out more I talked to three Level III candidates- Mark Gadalla, Vikas Gupta and Margarita Chirukova.
Listen as we have a frank and detailed talk on, inter alia, the lessons from Level I and II, the unique challenges of Level III, study strategies and how to stay motivated.
A must listen episode if you are writing the final level of the grueling CFA program.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
[Tune]
Binod:
This is Binod Shankar and you're listening to The Real Finance Mentor Podcast, from therealfinancementor.com. The Real Finance Mentor is your go-to resource for insight and inspiration on careers and finance, CFA and more. You would think, "Why this podcast?" Well, my goal is to deliver insight and inspiration for your finance career, but making it one, relatable. This is not theoretical stuff. We zero in on the critical practical issues. Number two, authentic. No bullshit, no sidestepping. The topics, guests and questions are all from that perspective. And number three, take a chartered accountant, CFA charter holder, add 17 plus years as a corporate warrior, mix in 10 years of entrepreneurship, throw in a decade of full-time CFA training, add speaking, mentoring, cycling, and mountaineering and that's me. Welcome to the Real Finance Mentor. Or as they call it, RFM.
[Tune]
Binod:
Hello there. Welcome to episode number 12 of The Real Finance Mentor podcast, and this is Binod Shankar. Today we talk about my favorite sport, climbing. Well, I'm being half serious. You see, level three of the CFA program is the weirdest level of all. The material is thin and not that challenging, but the exam is a tall mountain, especially the morning essay section. It's also a highly underrated level since most candidates think the worst i.e., level two is behind them. But to give you a real taste of the high altitude of level three, I have with me on this show, not one, not two, but three level three warriors. Students I have taught right from level one and I know very well. Let's listen to them as they talk about their ambitions, the many challenges and of course the solutions to success.
[Tune]
Binod:
Good things come in threes. I'll ask them to introduce themselves rather than me going on about them. Yes?
Vikas:
Hey guys, my name is Vikas. I work in a family office at the moment, but my background is that I've been into banking for almost 15 years. I've done portfolios, relationship management and stuff. Last three years, I've been working with the family office, managing assets and Due Diligence for investments. Now I'm slowly moving into corporate finance and startups. My boss is asking me to move into corporate finance. So it's this short introduction about me.
Binod:
And of course, you are a level three candidate, Vikas, most important thing. You forgot that.
Vikas:
Yeah. I think the milestone will be when I earn my charter. So I was keeping it for that.
Binod:
Right, Rita -
Margarita:
Yeah. So my name is Margarita. I'm 27 years old. Started my CFA journey back in 2018. And now I've been working as equity research analyst in HSBC for about a year and half. Before that, I worked in corporate banking for four years in Citibank and Standard Chartered and very excited to be on this podcast. Thanks for having me, Binod.
Binod:
Welcome and last, but definitely not the least, Mark.
Mark:
Hi guys. So my name is Mark Gadalla. I'm a recent graduate from the American University of Sharjah. I've worked in various financial sectors so far out of which the most recent one was real estate development consultancy. I worked as an analyst in most of my roles. Now I'm moving into the private banking sector with Standard Chartered. I'm a CFA level three candidate. I'm currently volunteering with CFA society, Emirates. I'm so happy to be here and thanks for everything.
Binod:
So good stuff. So we have three different people, all CFA level three candidates. All different backgrounds, Vikas from corporate finance and private banking, and now in the family office, Margarita from corporate banking and now working in equity research and Mark who is a fresh graduate, but has worked in real estate advisory, more so, a candidate for level three. And actually very interestingly three different nationalities, right? It just happened that way.
Mark is from Egypt. Rita is from Russia and Vikas is from India. So welcome on board guys. Welcome to the episode. And today we are going to talk a lot about, of course, CFA and careers and education and level three and how much you enjoy the CFA journey. So my first question is going to be with that theme in mind. So you've finished your level one, you've finished your level two, and of course you would have written level three in a month's time apart for this unfortunate postponement of the exam, but it's coming up. So now that you've experienced two levels and you've almost experienced the third level, what are the three ways in which you find level three different from level one and level two?
Vikas:
So for me, I think level three is very important. It's very refreshing from level one and level two, which were very formula driven, very technical stuff. Level three is very real. Level three actually tells you what happens in the real life on the field, when you are facing the client, when you are meeting the people. What factors influence the decisions? How do you actually manage a portfolio? This is very, very real. A lot of stuff in level one, level two might not happen in real life, but level three is pretty much tangible for me because I've lived this for a good number of years. Yeah. So for me it's very real.
Binod:
So it's true what they say, right? Level one is foundation, level two is valuation and level three is where the application kicks in.
Vikas:
Absolutely. True.
Mark:
Right. So from my perspective, level three requires more depth and understanding. As people might know ormight not know that level three, as opposed to one and two is divided into two parts. The first session is AM session and that's written or structured response. So it's not essay, you have to write your answers down. And in that sense, you don't have multiple choice questions to rely on and you have to write your answers in more details. Basically it's like getting a multiple choice question and explaining through the paper why you chose this answer in the most precise, concise, and comprehensive manner. And in which case you would require to write your answers from scratch. And that requires more depth and understanding of the content, of the curriculum.
Binod:
Yeah, I agree with that. That's part of the reason why a lot of people actually, surprisingly, despite the high pass rate of level three, fail in level three, because they somehow made it through level one and level two, partly through mugging up stuff. And partly through, I don't know how, but in level three, mugging up doesn't help that much, does it? You do need to know your concepts. You have to be absolutely solid in your concepts.
Mark:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Margarita:
Yeah. And it's not probably only that the format is different, but also the feeling of the time pressure is much more severe on the level three, because you have to write a lot of sensible, comprehensive words rather than just circling one of the answers given by the examiner. And maybe in terms of studying as well it's different because there is a lot of plain text here. So in level one and two, you have to memorize a lot of formulas and the concepts, but here unfortunately, you have to genuinely understand what the curriculum was talking about and then being able to apply it on the exam and try to give some sensible answers.
Binod:
Yeah. I suppose you mean plain text, you mean theory, right? Rita is that what you mean by plain text?
Margarita:
Yes. Yeah, exactly. I mean that how the curriculum explains how the world works, how the financial market works, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a lot of like plain text that you have to genuinely understand and put the text through yourself just to be able to apply it later.
Binod:
I think you're being very polite. Most people say that the plain text in level three is mind numbingly boring.
Vikas:
I wouldn't disagree with you, Binod. That's my feeling, just to add to what Rita said. Look, the text is very interesting, but it's very difficult to articulate when you're writing it. It's very easy to read but difficult to write back in the exam. So that's the challenge with level three.
Mark:
So in a sense, level three is like the final season of a series. It sums up why have you started the CFA journey and what are you learning? And in this space, it's in the context of portfolio management and construction. Some people say that the entire point of level one and two is to prepare you for level three. Somehow at this point, I'm starting to feel it couldn't be more true.
Binod:
It's really interesting. You say final season. Mark, many sitcoms end in a not too great way, right?
Mark:
Yeah, I hope that's not the case in the end.
Binod:
So I hope by the phrase final season, you mean victory, success, a happy ending, [crosstalk 00:08:46] not like everybody getting killed. So yeah, that's an interesting insight. So now that you're in level three, what are the three lessons that you learned in level one and level two that you're using in level three? And I asked this because I talked to a lot of people and they have told me that, hey, we're seeing level three differently now, the CFA journey is different because of what we experienced in level one and two. In level one, we were very naive and new, level two slightly more experienced, but in level three, we are looking from different perspectives. So if each one of you can tell me, what are the three lessons you have learned so far?
Vikas:
I think what you learn through level one and level two is the persistence that you can't be out of touch with your studies till the time you're done with your exams, because you can learn a lot of things, but it's very easy to forget all of them very quickly. It's out of sight out of mind for you. It's as simple as that. And secondly for me, I mean, you know me. We've had many discussions around it that I really used to think beyond what the question is asking and try and apply my super intelligent mind and see what answers can be given. But I think the exam is a lot more simpler and it's very direct, a bit what curriculum teaches us, what we feel from the curriculum. So just read the question and answer, that's it. Just read the question, stick to the question. This is my...
Binod:
It seems easy when you say it Vikas, persistence and commitment, but can I ask you, where do you get this persistence and commitment from briefly? Can you tell me how?
Vikas:
It is the fear of repeating it next year. It's very painful. I don't want to do it next year. I just want to get it done. Simple as that. It's costly. It's lot of investments in time and money. Sorry.
Binod:
It's really interesting. You and I share that similar motivation, the mind numbing fear of failure. And my fear was the same when I did my journey, 2003 to 2005 of having to open the books again and seeing my old notes and thinking, Oh my God, why didn't I make it the first time around?
Vikas:
And quite frankly, I also feel the next year if I want to start this all over again, I rather do something else. If I were to study next year itself, I'd rather study something else. Something which interests me even more. Something like CMT or FRM or whatever. I'd rather study something different. That's my motivation.
Mark:
So on top of persistence and commitment, I see a lot of people afraid to practice. The problem with practicing is it's quite easy to get fifties and forties and 60% and that demotivates people. People need to compare this with the fact that if you don't get that frustration now and get over it now there's going to be prolonged frustration. So after you do your exam, it's going to result in a failure. And that failure means you are going to have a deep sense of regret and frustration for an entire year depending which level you're sitting for.
And so end of chapters, MCQs, question banks are all your friends at this point and it's okay. It's not about 40% or 50% or 60%. It's about seeing where you fall and then getting on top of things. Also, I think people need to be more adaptive in their training and level one and two, there is a right answer and wrong answer. So you have three choices. One is right and two are wrong. But in level three you don't have that much. You don't have that space. You have CFA accepted answers You don't have a right point of getting the question spot on. It's very rare. You have right direction that you need to be following. And that's where people need to adapt to the different situations rather than follow what we've done in level one and two.
Binod:
Talking about answering questions really. I found some students, maybe not so much in level three Mark, but maybe in level one and two, they have this fear of working out questions because they fear that they will score too low and that easily demotivates them. And I keep telling people, it doesn't matter if it is a low score, you're learning and you're improving and it will get better with time, but do not expect instant results. Do you agree?
Mark:
I agree. And people need to keep things in perspective. This is not a university exam. This is not about GPA. This is more about you becoming a better analyst in the sense. So as long as you get content, as long as you're scoring your 65 and 70, we're all here students in Kaplan Genesis. Never at any point in time, the instructors ask us to get 80% or 90% or a 100% because that's not required and that has nothing to do with reality. Even CFAs about passing and not passing has nothing to do with with the grades or any other grades that appear on your scoring sheet.
Margarita:
Yeah. And just to add to this sort of boring, but very important answers that your dedication and discipline is very important. It is the key obviously, but on the flip side, of course you're missing out on life a lot. And me, myself, I'm very individualistic student, if I could put it this way. So I usually prefer study on my own, but during level one and two, I've learned a very important lesson that you have to actually find a small group of people who are in the same boat as you are, who is also learning CFA, who you can discuss your doubts over the material, or I don't know, share your frustrations. It's very important too.
Binod:
It's almost like misery loves company, yeah?
Margarita:
Yeah. And there's always this one person in the chat group who already read more, practiced more, and it really motivates you, to grab a book and start studying yourself as well.
Binod:
I bet that's Mark. Guys, so what are the three unique challenges of level three? Everyone says yes, level three is application level one and two, a foundation and valuation. And of course it's written in the morning as opposed to item set and multiple choice in the previous levels. So what are the unique challenges and more importantly, how are you guys, in your own way, dealing with these?
Margarita:
Yeah. So here jokes aside, but here where it comes to the readable handwriting and the training their ability of putting big knots of thoughts that you might have and putting it into a few beautiful, comprehensive bullets that will answer the exam questions. So for me, the prescription is quite simple for this challenge. Apart from obviously reading and practicing the CFA material is also reading financial news daily, or I don't know, some small research pieces, especially if English is not your first language, it might be very important as for probably most of the CFA candidates at this point.
Mark:
Right. So I agree. Problem with level three, it's not really a problem, it's just a new challenge that you need to adapt to is that, as I said, there's no multiple choice. So if there is no answer that you can zero in on. There're either too many answers or too few answers in your mind, and key to that is practicing and writing a lot. Most importantly, find a mentor or a grader or a friend to grade your papers, your written papers. Basically find someone to give you harsh feedback. That's how you conquer level three. And another thing is time management. Writing answers takes more time than circling a multiple choice answer and that requires again a lot of practicing and what I usually do is time myself and give myself two or three minutes less per question. And that helps me get on top of things.
Vikas:
What Margarita and Mark said, they were right. But for me, the challenge is that level three course is pretty unstructured in my opinion. There are too many repetitions in too many topics. Same concept appears in different topics differently. So this for me is the biggest challenge. Level one and level two were very categorical as to which topic will cover which concept and what formula, it's very, very clear in their approach. And secondly, I said, I've been into wealth management and portfolio management for 15 years. For me, it's too much of overlapping. As I said, it's very boring for me because I've lived most of this course for the last 15 years.
Level two, level one, I learned a lot of new things, but for level three, there's not too much of new learning for me because of my previous experience in my banking career. That for me is the biggest challenge. It's very difficult to read and... For me personally, I can't do theories. For me, it's just a waste of time. So in that context, level three is not easy for me. It's not easy for me because I've had experience. And it's just too much of theory to read and write. It's difficult for me. And I would blame my experience for this quite largely.
Binod:
I think you should give your feedback to CFA Institute, Vikas.
Vikas:
I will definitely, 100%.
Binod:
In terms of overlap and course structure and repetitions and things like that...
Vikas:
You will not believe a lot of topics in behavior finance are repeated across so many... They've done it four or five times. Why? Why would you do this?
Binod:
Okay. Now with the COVID-19 issue, exams have been postponed of course, the CFA exams from June to, you have chance of taking it in December 2020 or June 2021. So now that things have changed, you have more time. What's your study and revision strategy. I'm sure you've thought about it by now.
Margarita:
So I won't lie. At first, it was sort of frustrating because you felt like you've been running in the race. And then when you were just about to finish at the finish line, they sort of came to you and told you that now it's not a race, it's a marathon guys. And then the second thought was obviously a relief because no candidate ever is 100% ready for the exam, especially me as well. And so I took the chance to get closer to this one hundred. And initially I was reading Schweser, which is much shorter and because I'm a lazy human, but now I'm taking the chance to actually read the CFA curriculum from start to fill the gaps where I had them.
And obviously, as we mentioned before, it might seem boring and long and repetitive. In my humble opinion, it's much better because it helps you to understand and memorize things better when they just repeat them from one chapter to another, leaving you no chance to forget or not understand anything. So I'm planning to finish the reading by September as I registered for December 2020 now, and to start revising from that point.
Binod:
I think you, and Vikas are opposites in terms of your view of the text in the level three curriculum. I don't think you are study buddies, I can't imagine Rita and Vikas ever studying together because it simply won't work.
Mark:
Yeah. Personally, I'm taking it slow as of now. Usually getting back to the curriculum and reading the blue boxes, the examples was a luxury that I almost never had, specially in level two. Level two, I got my grades in late January, registered February one and I had to sit for the exam by June. So only in four months. I didn't even have time to read the Schweser books, but now I have almost one year if you include the time we had since the beginning. So now I can read the examples, practice more, go back to curriculum for the stuff that I didn't understand through the slides, through the lectures. And it was frustrating as Rita said, but I think we've gained a luxury that we didn't have before. And fortunately for us, it's coming at the last level.
Binod:
So no pressure, Mark. You've got enough time, you have?
Mark:
Yes, sir. I have seven months worth of revision.
Binod:
You have seven months of reading, re-reading, practicing, re-practicing, revising, re-revising.
Mark:
Yeah. And it serves the purpose actually of becoming a better analyst as opposed to just passing.
Vikas:
I think I was super happy when I heard that exams have been postponed to be honest. The reason was, I was not fully prepared and 2020 has been very hard for me personally, since the beginning. Personal issues, professional issues. And with COVID-19 event, my business has been badly hit. Our Industry has been badly hit. So there's a lot of time we have to depute at the office, lot of commitments come up. So obviously my time was going away from me. I was not able to study, I was not even able to attend the classes.
So I was very happy that exam was postponed. I'll have more time to me to finish my assignment, restart my studies. So yeah, I think that I know for me very important thing is to focus on my work. I have to make sure that I don't get laid off, quite frankly, and it's a very scary situation and I'll focus on this. Parallelly, I'll redesign my strategy to approach level three. I think I'll sit for December 2020. I think I'll have enough time make it. I'm happy to be honest. Sorry guys, but I'm really happy.
Binod:
Which of course brings me to a very related question. Vikas, you talked about professional and personal difficulties and everyone is facing difficulties because of various issues at work, the virus situation, economic situation. But I want to be specific about the exam and the CFA process. Whether it was level one or level two or level three, maybe more level three. How do you motivate yourself when things get tough and things do get tough and they do get tough for various reasons across topics or when you're trying to balance work and family and studies, et cetera. So where does the drive come from?
Mark:
Sure, sure. So what motivates me is that I remember why I started this journey in the first place. And usually when I started CFA, it was just one step out of a bigger plan, whether it's to do the CAIA exam or to sit for FRM or to be a better fit for other jobs, or just for the sake of the argument, CFA passing CFA level one, two, and three offers you waivers into multiple masters programs. And if I don't pass the CFA level, I won't get the waiver. And so I won't easily get accepted these master's programs. And so it puts my entire plan on hold. And I'm just a guy who loves efficiency. I don't like to be left behind, I don't like people to be moving ahead of me and me being just a guy in Level 3 free or being sympathized towards.
I think it's important at this point that I'm taking CFA class because almost always in each CFA class, there is always a parent, whether it's a father or a mother, somebody with business and kids and has to take care of his or her household and they study for CFA and they manage to pass. And so these people manage to juggle all these obligations and responsibilities around. There's no excuse for a 23 year old not to get it done, not to do a superb job.
Vikas:
So I think for me, the explanation is quite simpler. For me, this is not a difficult exam. This is a long exam. The journey is long, but the exam is not all that difficult. So I think a little bit of hard work and little bit of smart work will make you go through the process. Specific to the exam I think, yes, things get tough but the only thing that you have to remember is, it is written by humans and it needs to be attempted by humans. So you may be poor at certain topics, but you are definitely exceptional at other topics. So you make sure that you are doing well in the topics where you think you're strong and you make sure that you understand the basics of the topics where you are not interested or you think you are a bit weaker.
So that's, for me, it's very important. And secondly, as I said, you don't need exceptional understanding, exceptional skill level to pass this exam. And yes, nothing comes easy in life, so is CFA exam, little bit of hard work, a little bit of smart work. And it's easy here.
Binod:
I think going back to one point you mentioned Vikas I think you were a person who always over analyzed and extrapolated the situations and visualized extreme outcomes, right? Yes. And that behavior, I don't think it's unique to you, can demotivate people many times and you go back to hibernation mode.
Vikas:
It does. I get scared very easily. And then I have to devise a new strategy to make sure that I don't get into that situation at all. So yes. I mean getting scared in a way it works for me, getting scared usually works for me sometimes.
Margarita:
Yeah. I agree with Vikas probably picturing your failure is one of the biggest motivations that you can get at this point of time, but also what I do, sometimes it's a little bit dodgy maybe, but when I feel tired or lazy, what I do is I'm writing myself a work email and I just add comma CFA to my name in the signature. And this makes me feel very like you know smart or just making me realize why I started it in the first place.
Binod:
I think Rita, that's probably a violation of standard 7b.
Margarita:
I just sent it to myself so nobody but me can see it. Actually one of my friends did it as well. So he printed his name with comma CFA, laminated it, put it at the top of his desk. He says, it's very motivating. I think if you're a candidate as well, you should try it too.
Binod:
But actually I used to do exactly what he used to do similarly. So when I was going through a tough time in my CFA journey, I used to write Binod Shankar, CFA on my writing pad and look at it and then suddenly derivatives and quants wasn't that ugly anymore.
Margarita:
Yeah. I agree. That helps a lot when you actually see your name with the charter, keeps you motivated and it makes you grab a book.
Binod:
So now that you guys are veterans of the CFA journey. You have three stripes on your shoulders, if you look closely. It's like the army. You go through your green horn boot camp and then you graduate, you've fought several wars. You have the scars of war on you and you can show off to people junior than you that this is how you do it. So of course, many youngsters are looking to start CFA. Maybe they're already in level one or level two of the journey. What would you give as advice to these youngsters?
Vikas:
I think my advice is just to tell each and everyone to know why you're doing the CFA. Sometimes people get influenced by others that somebody else is doing CFA, so I should also do something. As a consequence, many of them just drop it midway, they just do level one. They never attempt level two. They do level two, but never attempt level three and so on and so forth. So I think the goal must be to why you are sitting for CFA and you should finish the journey. Don't leave it midway. Don't waste your hard work. Don't waste your time. Don't waste your money. And yeah, that's my advice.
Mark:
I agree. I think if you want the charter in a halfhearted manner, it won't take you far. You need to sit with yourself before you even register for CFA level one, even though it's the easiest level and a lot of people get easily by, you need to sit forward and sit with yourself and decide, why am I doing this in the first place? I just want to take a moment and just refer to the financial scams that's been happening recently. And I believe that these examples are what sets the difference between a person who is a regular analyst and someone who's a CFA, someone who actually is worth his or her salt.
Another point is when you get the CFA charter , don't feel entitled to anything. Don't start thinking that you're God's given gift for the earth. Don't start thinking that you're going to be receiving offers left, right and center. Eventually, it's about your analysis skill, your proven work on the job, not on letters or the certifications or degrees.
Margarita:
Yeah. Just to add to Mark that although level one might seem quite easy for many people, especially with some financial or economic background, my advice is to never neglect any topic at the start of this journey. Because you don't want to be the slacky guy who just read half of the books and then guessed another half of the answers on the exam, passed level one and then just realized that it's not enough for level two and especially for level three. I think you should be ready to dedicate like lion's parts of your time to this sort of financial army, as you said.
Binod:
Okay. Interesting answer. Now, of course, we've talked a lot about CFA level three, level two, level one, how you're managing, strategies, challenges, et cetera. So let's sort of take a small diversion from CFA and talk about self development. Now that you have enough time as all you guys completely confirmed, till the next exam. And you're sitting at home and because you can't go to work because of lockdown, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm very curious. What self development projects are you guys working on right now? Because you have the opportunity, you have the time.
Vikas:
Well, you are right. There is ample time, there's ample opportunity for someone to learn new things. Like for example, last year, while I was finishing my level two, I learned financial modeling. It really helps me understand, new dimensions of what CFA teaches you in theory. And I'm able to practice that in my work also into corporate finance right now. Secondly, as you know, derivative and fixed income are my favorite subjects. And I've been working on a derivative model for the last one year. Iit's a strategy basically, I have been trying to develop. It's almost ready, very detailed into options and derivatives. I just need somebody to vet it and if I can put into practice.
Binod:
I hope you're not looking at me to give you guidance in derivatives, Vikas
Vikas:
Probably on FRA yes, but not on derivatives.
Mark:
So as for me, I was one of the people who wasworried about this financial modeling skills. It was one of the things that scared me, so I'm trying to practice it more, but I'm also trying to develop a reading habit where I can read a chapter or two. I just realized after university nothing would force me to develop myself anymore. So I have to do this myself, I have to pick up this job myself.
Binod:
I think what you forgot to add Mark was how much extensively you are involved as a volunteer with CFA SocietyEmirates. I think the last few months you've been involved in the research challenge, the UAE research challenge.You'll be working with me as a project chair and we did successfully do that as well. And recently, of course, on the financial modeling initiative, atsociety level to give financial modeling training to the members of CFA Emirates, I think volunteering is a great way of giving back. It's a fantastic way of networking and filling your time so to speak.
Mark:
I agree. Yeah. So when I started with volunteering, I thought it's something to add to the CV as an extracurricular activity but I found that it has nothing to do with that. When you do something that is not for the money, that is just for people, specially for students as someone who was a student not long ago, makes you get a whole new perspective of things of what's more important than what's not that important.
Margarita:
Yeah. I've been a bit more selfish lately with not any charity work. To be honest, as everybody mentioned, like working with financial models and Excel is quite a good skill to apply your CFA knowledge. So I work with financial models a lot as well. And as of now, I'm trying to learn a lot of tricks in Excel to frankly, make my life easier. And probably another project related to the young one. I'm trying to learn Python. It's a very cool tool, especially if you work in finance. It helps you to quantify unquantifiable things, which I'm sure a lot of analysts face this challenge at this work.
Binod:
Interesting. Most people probably think Python is an animal and not so much relevant. But it's a very important point you raised Rita because I think automation and asset management and finance are merging faster than they were before. And it's key that people pick up the skills to make life easier to add value to your work and to stand out. I think it's a great thing you're doing, financial modeling and Python, absolutely.
So, unfortunately I wish we could go on chatting forever, but now the time has come to sort of bring this very interesting and insightful episode to a close.Thank you guys for spending time chatting with me. Although I know you've seen enough of me in class and still very grateful and humbled that you thought you didnt mind spending extra time talking about your experience of level three. And so it'll be helpful for those not just in level three, but also those about to start the CFA journey and also in the process of writing level one or level two as well. Very importantly, I wish you the best. I won't wish you the best of luck because in CFA, I don't believe in luck, but I really wish you the very best in level three in December 2020 when you will be writing the exam. And yeah, so this time, next year we should be having CFA after your names, if everything goes off according to plan.
Mark:
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Margarita:
Inshallah.
Binod:
Thank you so much guys, and have a nice day.
Vikas:
Thank you so much.
Mark:
Thanks for having us.
Margarita:
Thank you Binod.
Vikas:
Bye.
[Tune]
Binod:
This podcast is brought to you by The Real Finance Mentor. Thank you so much for listening and I hope you found it insightful and inspirational. If you did enjoy this episode, please drop us a review and spread the word and be sure to check out more exclusive content on therealfinancementor.com and my LinkedIn profile, which is Binod Shankar CFA. Let's keep in touch. Just add your name to the mailing list on therealfinancementor.com and we'll tell you about new episodes plus book reviews, upcoming events, and blogs. Till the next time - onwards and upwards.
[Tune]