Career Choices Do Not Always Pass The Test Of Life, But Selling Securities Require Passing Exams

Career paths are often not quite the way a high school or college counselor made them out to be for most of us. While there might have been many kids who seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do when they grew up, there were many others who realized that what they thought they wanted to do in elementary school was not what they wanted as adults. In a changing world, often the best career in a few years will be one the school has no classes for because the industry has no recognition or has not even been identified yet. The rise in the desire for social media over the past decade has shown that there are more careers being invented all the time and others that are rapidly going the way of the dinosaurs. There are many careers to consider training for, but often, about every seven years, a major shift can happen in the job situation of a person. This shift has been noticed and recorded, but what might have taken seven years in the past can now happen in a few years, and this trend is happening with more companies as well. Flexibility and determination will often be the skills that are most needed by a company and thus by their workforce to stay in business.

In determining what career to follow, some individuals choose to become securities brokers and investment advisers. There are tests that need to be taken and passed with high scores to become certified to sell securities as a retail investment. Securities are often better known as stocks, bonds and mutual fund shares. There is also often a requirement to pass the Series 7 exam and the Series 66 or Series 63 exams to get a Master in Business Administration degree. The long name for the Series 7 exam is the General Securities Representative Exam, the name for the Series 66 is the Uniform Combined State Law Exam and the name of the Series 63 is the Uniform Securities Agent State Law Exam. Whether a securities agent has to take the Series 66 or Series 63 is dependent on what state they and their potential customers reside in. The Series 63 test is the state law test for broker-dealer representatives. The Series 65 test is the test for investment adviser representatives. The Series 66 test counts for both the Series 63 and Series 65 tests. The tests were developed by the North American Securities Administrators Association and are administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. One complaint with testing for industry specific knowledge is the memorization of the many different terms and information needed to understand the questions and answers on the tests. Put simply, the tests are difficult to understand without interpretation into simpler terms. Applicants must also pass a background test to get a securities license.