This probably comes as no surprise to my friends, who occasionally refer to me as a Certoholic, but yes I finally found a reason to pursue non-IT certifications. With my Finance MBA starting in September, I decided to put my financial knowledge to the test by pursuing the must-have certification for anyone dreaming up a career in the financial world: the Canadian Securities Course.
The course covers at an introductory level just about everything you will come across in your financial career and topics range from the Economy, Interest rates, Regulations, Equities, Fixed Income, and Derivatives to Market Assessment and Portfolio Management.
As I have been involved in the market for over 5 years now and manage my own personal portfolio, I figured the course would be a breeze. Most of the material was familiar to me but some material on market regulation was new and the chapter on Fixed-Income was an intersting read as I don't find myself trading bonds that often (never to be exact). Anyways, there are a total of 2 exams. I studied about a month for Exam 1. Probably about an hour in the evenings after work and a good 10-15 hours on the weekends. Here are the results from Exam 1.
That's 83%. If I score more than 80% on both exams I get the 'Honors' designation as well. Woohoo!!! (Note the sarcasm)