Career conversations: Challenging you to go beyond your limits

I think the most rewarding part of the CFA (Program) journey is knowing that your limits is what you set for yourself. My name is Olufemi Oshiyoye. I used to work as a Portfolio Manager, currently, I’m an MBA student at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Biochemistry is a very challenging course. Unfortunately, at the time I graduated from the university, biochemistry field wasn't so developed in Nigeria.

I think I've always liked finance right from days in my secondary school. I thought it would be a good time to just try my hands in finance, try something new entirely. I mean, I've been doing science for the past few years and moving to finance, a different field was just something that I felt would challenge me equally as biochemistry.

In my previous role as a retail and commercial banker. I felt like there's a lot more to be learned, a lot more skills that could be added. For me at that point in time, I just realized that I was done here. I wanted to go into, looking more into the financial market. And the markets, especially the fixed income market. There’s just something fascinating about it, and I'm quite happy with the decision I made.

I mean, look at the fixed income, the stock market and look into the derivatives, the ETFs also. I mean, those were things that drove my interest into the financial market.

So, a friend of mine told me about the CFA® Program. He just basically told me CFA (Program) is the most difficult of them all. I was like, oh yes, that's the one I want. That was really how it happened. It just felt like something I would like to do.

Personally, I was looking at improving my confidence because it just looks to me as this is an exam, if you can pass this, almost no other exams you can’t pass in the finance space at least, right? On the professional side, I was looking at critical thinking, attention to minute details, time management, and of course improving my discipline.

The CFA Program is largely known for how difficult it is in terms of the curriculum and amount of reading you would do. At some point, while I was writing the third level, I thought to myself, no I can’t do this, this is beyond me. And I had to restrategize and found a way to adapt my learning and my reading to what was required for the exam.

And it just feels so rewarding to do all of that and eventually pass the exam. So it kind of tells you that your limits really is just what you set for yourself. You could stretch yourself and apply these to so many other aspects of my life, in my family, in my workplace. I realized that I could stretch beyond what I thought was my limit.

For people who are looking at transitioning from science to finance roles, to be very honest, it's not going to be easy, but it’s very doable. I mean, I did it and a lot of people also have done it right?

You just need to firstly, believe in yourself. It's something you can do and also be ready for the challenge. It's going to push you, to stretch you. So yeah, you need to be resilient and you need to believe in yourself.