There is more to become a CFA Charterholder than just completing the three levels of CFA exams. While you may have the right knowledge and skill to study and pass the CFA exams, you also need to have relevant work experience to earn your charter.

To receive your charter, you will need to become a member of the CFA Institute, and to become a member you need to produce the relevant work experience. As a basic rule, you need to have four years of qualified investment work experience.

Qualified Investment Work Experience

So what does qualified investment work experience means? According to CFA Institute, qualifying work experience means experience in activities described below:

• Evaluating or applying financial, economic, and/or statistical data as part of the investment decision-making process involving securities or similar investments, which includes, but is not limited to, publicly traded and privately placed stocks, bonds, and mortgages and their derivatives; commodity-based derivatives and mutual funds; and other investment assets, such as real estate and commodities, if these other investment assets are held as part of a diversified, securities-oriented investment portfolio; or
• Supervising, directly or indirectly, persons who practice such activities; or
• Teaching such activities.

Source: www.cfainstitute.org

When to get this experience?

The qualified work experience can be completed any time before you take the exams, during the time you are preparing and writing the exam or even after you have completed all three levels of the exam. You must spend at least 50 percent of your time in the investment decision-making process..

Additionally, your employment with the stated job title must have been full-time; accrued employment from summer, internship and part-time positions do not qualify.

How to fill work experience in my application?

There are certain rules you need to follow while entering your work experience in your application:

• Ensure that you are entering only the qualified work experience as mentioned above.
• Along with the job titles, it is a must to provide detailed job requirements.
• You need to attest that the duties you performed in each of the roles qualify as accepted work.