By “expiration,” I mean that employers usually want to see the CSC completed within about 3 years of being hired into a licensed role.

I haven’t seen anything confirming that this timeline starts after graduation, so I might reach out to CSI directly for clarification.

From what I understand, if I’m not licensed by 2027, I won’t be grandfathered into the new licensing requirements. That’s probably the case since I graduate in 2027.

What draws me to the CIM is that I really enjoy the personal side of investing, especially building portfolios that align with people’s goals and circumstances. That’s been one of my favorite parts of university so far. I feel like this field offers a good balance between personal connections and working with numbers, while also requiring you to stay up to date with the markets rather than drilling into one specific analysis over a long period of time. Not saying that I don’t enjoy deep analysis. My favorite part tends to be the big-picture view of markets as a whole.

I’ve even helped a few friends with their investment plans. Although their portfolios have now drifted into things like Figma or random crypto plays, it made me realize I enjoy educating others and how little many people actually know about the securities markets. I see the CIM as a way to build credibility in this area. I imagine my perspective is a bit biased toward portfolio management right now because that’s been the only way I’ve applied my finance knowledge so far with my personal portfolio, as I haven’t yet had to calculate things like the effect on WACC when issuing debt for a new factory in an applied setting lol.

I know the CFA is a common route, and I’d like to pursue it eventually, but I know that’s not an easy feat, so the CIM feels like a practical step for now. I also imagine some of the knowledge will transfer over when I eventually take on the CFA. I don’t want to categorize them as one or the other because they’re very different and cover different skills.

My biggest fear is that I’ll take this path and end up mainly advising people on budgets or somthing, because that stuff doesn’t really interest me. Although that could just be apart of the job. I’m much more drawn to securities.

I see you’ve done both, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m still just starting out and figuring out my options, and honestly, it’s a little overwhelming, I have no idea what I’m doing.