I am new to AF and excited to meet all of you! I am a CPA candidate that, in heart, is a finance guy. I have not taken any CPA exams yet, so I feel that if I were to move to the CFA path, now would be a time to do it. But first, I have a few questions.
What is the compensation differences between buying and sell side?
What else can this certification do for me if investments is not working out?
What is the difference between front and middle offices
What are my odds at being successful on wall street? I do not want to go through this process and end up making $70k a year.
In your heart you are a finance guy yet you go on to ask what to do if investment doesn’t work out, and 75% of your questions are basically about salary. Where’s Greenman, this is a near-perfect example of his “CPA is better for the majority of people” argument.
The reason why I ask what else I can do with the CFA certification because I know there are people that. How can one compare the CFA and CPA certifications? The CPA is after the fact and the CFA is about creating money. Two totally different careers.
My intention is not to start a debate, CPA vs CFA but just taking my initial steps of research before I stay in accounting.
I do not know how to get from where I am now, to where I want to be as a CFA.
Many CFA Charterholders aren’t creating money, maybe even most are not front office champs. I’m not. But hey, if you wanna roll like a BSD, go put in the 90 hour weeks for a bit and if you like it, go chase the charter. Otherwise get that CPA and enjoy your Thursday evening tee time and six figure salary. Other than a handful of success stories, you don’t get into the front office by getting the Charter. You get into the FO first and the Charter raises your profile. On the other side, the job growth outlook in finance is pretty bleak while your CPA ranks continue to grow. Every company needs a controller. That’s hundreds of thousands of companies and growing. With efficiencies, fewer portfolio managers are needed to manage wealth, along with dwindling support teams.
What is the compensation differences between buying and sell side? Pretty general question, people say sell side gets paid more all else equal but superstar buysider is trumping a sell sider who gets no votes. What else can this certification do for me if investments is not working out? Product management or marketing come to mind. What is the difference between front and middle offices? Making investment decisions or recommendations vs not What are my odds at being successful on wall street? I do not want to go through this process and end up making $70k a year. By being successful i think you mean getting a front office gig, assuming you have no investment background, no network, and no top MBA I am going to say odds are low, but I don’t know anything about you.