Career Conversations: Harnessing a wealth of knowledge and possibilities

Before embarking on the CFA Program, I was intimidated by the finance world, but I've picked up so much knowledge that I feel confident and you can't pay for that. You have to earn that. My name is Kate Freeman. I'm a financial advisor at UBS. 

My husband and I moved here from Sydney, Australia and we moved here predominantly for his career. He's in the entertainment industry. 

I had worked in private wealth management for 10 years, but I was always in sales and relationship management roles. And I wanted to be part of the investment decision-making process. So I decided to take the CFA Program. 

One of the greatest things about the CFA® designation is that it truly is global. When I moved to the United States, no one here knew my degrees or the universities I attended. So by getting the CFA® designation, I was far more appealing to employers. 

I love my job in private wealth management. It's a mixture of dealing with individuals and following capital markets. The CFA Program helps me enormously every day, particularly Level III. And that's because I'm looking at client portfolios, so I'm assessing their risk tolerance, their time horizon, how much money they need to take from the portfolio. 

The CFA Program does a phenomenal job of teaching you about the emotional and cognitive biases that clients have. So I have learned to identify the bias and then work with the client to understand that bias and that really requires the client having trust with you to share that emotion. It requires a vulnerability and that's the fun part of the job. 

Most employers realize the value of the CFA® designation, so they should support you. My former employer gave me leave before the exam, so hopefully you get the same benefits. 

Also, I highly recommend having friends going on the CFA® journey with you. We would complain together about how tough the program is and we would support each other. So make sure you have some friends for each level. 

My advice to women considering the CFA Program is do it. Do it immediately. The CFA® charter is the single best thing I've done for my professional reputation. My colleagues come up to me and say, "You have the best credentials of any financial advisor I've seen," and it makes all of this studying and all the pain worth it. 

I think one of the best things that happened in my life was actually failing Level lll of the CFA Program. I cried a lot. I'm not going to lie. When you study for six months and then you don't pass, it really hurts. 

But it helps me every day because I have setbacks every day in my job. It's very stressful. And so I always say to myself, nothing's as challenging as failing Level lll of CFA (Program). And I came back from that. So it really was a teaching moment.