t 15, Manpreet Singh wasn’t interested in watching business news TV during a rare afternoon off from school. But fortune intervened in the form of his older brother—who controlled the television and insisted on watching CNBC.

“We were young at the time, and I said, ‘Why are you watching this? Change the channel,’” Singh recalls. “He was looking at this stock, CMGI. It was at $4 or $5 a share, and the whole afternoon, it kept on going up 5 or 10 dollars every hour. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I really became interested from that point on.”

Two years later, Singh got a chance to learn more about investing, thanks to an internship program at his Washington, DC–area high school. During his senior year, he would go to his honors and Advanced Placement courses each morning, and work (unpaid) for a local business in the afternoon. Initially, Singh wanted to intern at his brother’s technology company. When that proved impossible, he pulled out the telephone book and thumbed through it.

Profit Investment Management caught his eye, and the firm’s portfolio manager was willing to expose Singh to the business—as long as he didn’t require too much guidance. “We decided to give him an opportunity to prove his interest was genuine,” says founder and president Eugene Profit. “We assigned him to learn from, and help, our operations professional and gave him some exposure to our portfolio process as time permitted.”

Singh proved to be a quick study, so much so that Profit offered him a part-time job while he went to college. He chose to attend the nearby University of Maryland, where he completed a four-year finance degree in 2 ½ years despite his ever-increasing responsibilities at Profit Investment Management.

Before he even finished college, Singh began hearing about the CFA Program from his professional colleagues. “We had an analyst here who never took the CFA exams, and he regretted it,” says Singh. “He said to me, ‘Now is the time to do it, especially when a lot of the material is fresh in your head. Later on you can say you are going to do it, but you may not, so at least take Level I now.’”

Thorough by nature, Singh did due diligence on the CFA Program before committing. “I looked for other designations,” he says, “but from the research I did, there was no other credential that was so helpful for the asset management industry.” Having confirmed that he could take Level I of the CFA exam as long as he graduated from college by December 2003, Singh sat for Level I in June 2003—impressive, considering he was also working and taking a full load of classes.

Singh received his CFA designation in September 2005 at the age of 22, making him one of the youngest people ever to earn the charter—and making his boss proud. “Manpreet has always been willing to do whatever task needed to be completed at any given point in time,” says Profit. “His successful completion of the CFA Program was a net positive for the firm. Due to his relative youth, clients and consultants respect his credibility as an analyst more.”

In fact, clients (particularly potential ones) were one of Singh’s primary motivations in seeking the CFA designation. “We were told point blank in 2003, ‘You have no CFA charterholders. The firm across the street has five charterholders, and you have zero. Why should we give you the money?’ Even though our five-year track record was very strong,” Singh explains, “they were picky, they wanted the CFA charter.”

Today, Singh is a research analyst at Profit Investment Management, having risen from research intern to research associate to his current position. As his responsibilities have grown, he has sat in on increasing numbers of client meetings.

His age might have been a concern for clients initially, but it certainly isn’t any more. “The CFA charter added instant credibility,” he says. “Before, people would question my age. Some clients would ask, ‘He just got out of college, can he really handle this?’ Earning the CFA charter really opened the door for me and helped convince clients that I have the knowledge base that they seek.”