I think I’ve seen less job postings asking for FRM and CAIA than a few years ago and a bit more asking for CFA.
So, in conclusion, the consensus is:
CIMA = self castration with rusty hacksaw
Similar rant on the importance of designations on Wall Street Oasis:
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/top-10-rankings-useful-designations
I believe most of the posts under this board fall under the “ignorance is bliss” classification. I am going to assume no one who has posted on this board has taken the CIMA, which is obvious by your claims and ignorant comments. Personally, I have a few high level designations (not a CFA) and am currently going through the CIMA process. I can assure those people reading this board that the CIMA designation is not a joke or some weekend class you take at Wharton. The designation requires hundreds of hours of preparation from start to finish and is not an easy task.
The process is a 3 step process and begins with a “Qualification Exam”, which essentially wants to make sure you have the basics down of the math and concepts. Not a difficult thing if you apply and study on your own. Next up is the Wharton week long session, which consisted of 5 full days from 8am until 8pm and essentially studying until 1am. The class was full of candidates from companies such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Blackrock, etc. all of which who were knowledgeable, had industry experience, and given this boards accusations of it being “CFA Light” is completely wrong. The class was 60 people, it ended with a 25 question exam, which was completely essay. Essay is not like the CFA, CFP, or other types of exams where you can “guess” and eliminate two of the 4 choices usually, thus giving a test taker a 50/50 shot on the guess. _ You can’t guess on essays. _ The week at Wharton is like trying to do a masters in finance in one week, you are literally being fed water from a fire hose.
Then, comes the difficult part which is putting it all together and if you pass the Wharton Exam, you may begin studies for the “Certification Exam”. This exam is multiple choice and consists of 100 questions that range from high level equations, tax rules, portfolio theory, and everything else. While some individuals do the study, most people attend another class offered through a company called “Beta Education” who is run by a Wharton Grad himself, and is a full two days of additional materials and studies.
Of the 60 people who attended the Wharton class I did in 2013, only 39% completed the designation with successfully passing the last two exams as of this post. My guess is most of you on here asserting claims of this being a “buy your way to CIMA” and a “CFA Light” are students with no real foundation of knowledge of the real world or people who just love to hate. It’s not supposed to be a CFA, and coming from someone who owns a firm with a quarter billion under management, this was a very useful designation to earn that has practical application that can benefit the client. Would you rather have someone building your portfolio’s or managing your assets with more education or less? Is the CFA not as good as someone who has a PHD from Wharton or Chicago no good? Since when does a designation become meaningless if its not a CFA?
In addition, the annual requirements to keep the CIMA designation, require REAL continuing education with real world applications and uses. Take a look at the annual speakers and content and anyone who claims this designation isn’t useful, is someone who doesn’t have it. http://www.imca.org/conferences/imca-annual-conference
hmmmm
You mad bro?
You aren’t going to convince any CFA or candidate that CIMA is rigorous…on a relative basis it just isn’t. It may be challenging in its own right, but you shouldnt expect it to get much respect here, and I think that is fair given you are talking about a credential that is not as difficult, lengthy, or deep as the CFA. You shuuld just accept it.
Its not the designation that everyone hates, its the assumption that it is somehow in the same realm as what most of these people are facing, or that its assocation w/ Wharton makes it sound better than it really is…which seems to be backed up in several of your comments (“the week at Wharton is like trying to do a masters in a week”)…come on man that is just stupid. “a class offered by a Wharton grad himself”…oooooh bow down now it seems prestigious…
I agree more education is usually better, and CIMA may be more applicable to your career path than the CFA given the $250m you manage, but its ok to just acknowledge that it is not a top tier designation. Hey, its better than a certified divorce planning specialist or a certified funds specialist…just accept its rank.
Which ones do you have?
I was a little negative on the CIMA at first, but now I agree that’s it’s probably a fairly respectable designation. I would rank it below CFA/CPA/JD, but higher than AAMS/CRPC. It’s probably on par with the CFP–it just goes more in depth on investments.
That being said, I imagine most of what A316 said is a lot of garbage. An MBA in one week? “Only 39% passed”? How can you possibly know that? How do you know they didn’t finish it at home? Were you aware that CFA also has essay questions? Exactly how difficult was your 100-question, multiple-choice test? (especially after you just got finished pooh-poohing MC tests)
Yea…you destroyed your accusation to us of “ignorance is bliss” by showing your ignorance of the CFA exam. Level 3 of the CFA exam includes essays, a whole morning dedicated to them…followed by a multiple choice (item sets) afternoon session. Oh and btw, that is after you pass a 120 question Level 2 exam, which consists of all item sets and a 240 question Level 1 exam. CIMA is probably not worthless but nowhere near the rigor of the CFA. I have CAIA and I’ll admit it’s rank…it’s definitely down there, it serves its purpose on an absolute basis but relative to CFA, it really falls below…just like the CIMA…accept it.
He works for the CIMA.
When one of you actually goes through and earns your CIMA, then please enlighten me. I don’t work for IMCA and I happen to know how many people passed because you can check the IMCA website for people who have earned the designation. (Common sense something most of you obviously lack since you asked how I know how many passed from my class) You people are pathetic and the fact that you think any other designation other than the CFA is baseless and worthless just shows how jaded you are.
Since you are all so hell bent on the CFA being the only designation worth having, did you realize Warren Buffet, George Soros, Dwight Anderson, Bruce kovner, Paul Tudor Jones, Julian Robertson, Hugh Hendry, Bill Gross, Louis Bacon , Peter Lynch, I mean I could go on and on and on but none of these people have the CFA. So please stop thinking that if you have the CFA you are better than anyone else with a designation and that other designations are meaningless. It’s laughable. I hold my CFP, ChFC, RICP, and CIMA for those of you who asked.
If you read most threads, you would realize that most don’t think the CFA is the be all end all.
That will be “never”. I’ve completed the CFA program. Why would I go do CIMA now? That would be like getting your MBA from Harvard, then going back and getting ab associates from local junior college.
[/quote]
So you either memorized the class roster (or got a copy), then spent XXX hours looking up 60 individuals to see if they passed? And I thought MY life was boring.
You people are pathetic and the fact that you think any other designation other than the CFA is baseless and worthless just shows how jaded you are.
** Sounds like you’re in good company, then.
That’s good to know.
Minor point, but actually Mr. Bill Gross is a CFA Charterholder.
At first I thought this deserves a big yawn, but I’ll bite. This is a case of open your mouth and remove all doubt. If someone wants the most respected investment management designation, what do they pursue? You can figure that out. Simply, there are people that are only comfortable with the gold standard, i.e. Harvard or whatever or bust. I was discouraged from pursuing an MBA or even a masters in Finance by two professors of top 25 programs. They recommended that I get the charter instead. They told me I would be wasting my time unless I went Top 5 given my background and current position. I didn’t have management aspirations and I foresee always wanting to manage money. I think that speaks to the value of the CFA program. I don’t recall them putting CIMA in that category. Where is the ignorance?
A number of top five MBA holders pursue the CFA designation. You tell me why that is? Are they lining up for the CIMA? Maybe they are, you tell me. I’m just not aware of it. The original intent of the CFA Charter, according to the blurb in the DEC '09 level 1 book ,was to have evidence that you have demonstrated a minimal level of fitness in our profession. Anything less, that fitness level has not been demonstrated. Sure, many have such standing no formal evidence is needed, i.e. Buffett(the CFA program has roots in his mentor’s history by the way. Yeah, the ignorance on this board) but that is not the case for the majority. The CFA exams are basics. I believe, as well as a lot of people on this board, that this minimal level of fitness should be demonstrated to handle other people’s money. Hence, why you feel the pushback. Most Charterholders are not salesmen. Charterholders are decision makers. We need to have a basic broad understanding of finance to even get started. Product pushers may not need this basic level, but I’m sure their clients would benefit.
In regard to your comments on psychometrics, the current literature indicates open form essay is a very poor method of evaluation. A candidate pool cannot be measured robustly, fairly, and consistently with open form essays. The CFA Institute spends a good amount of money to be on the cutting edge of psychometrics. Would you be shocked to learn that the institute has eliminated a distractor in recent years? Yep, the test got much easier. Not quite.
As far as wearing the t-shirt when all you have done is tour the campus, I would find it embarrassing. The potential to mislead is enormous. Almost seems intentional, which puts the whole question of trust and ethics in question. Don’t think the CFA Institute would consider paying for association and there in lies the difference.
And finally, why did you pass on the CFA program and how would a charterholder benefit from CIMA program? If God said I’ll give you one or the other, which would you chose? Thought so. One more thing, why do you have a need to expose your insecurities? Promote your designation. Knock yourself out. I’m sure it has value, but all you are doing is exposing the flaws.
+1 to Ghibli. Very eloquent.
A316689 wrote:
I hold my CFP, ChFC, RICP, and CIMA for those of you who asked.
Congrats on the alphabet soup of less difficult designations.
I had to Google the ChFC and RICP actually.
I knew ChFC. It’s a carbon copy of CFP. The only difference is that with CFP you have to pass a mediocre proctored test, whereas with ChFC, you only have to pass several smaller open-book tests.
See my post about alphabet soup. A lot of the time, once you hold one or two, you’re automatically eligible for the others, as long as you pay the yearly fees.
LOL!