Recently, I came across a guy who has the CIMA. What is the purpose of this designation and who actually uses it??? This guy insulted the CFA designation and said it was lesser than the CIMA and put the CIMA on the same level as an Ivy degree. In all honesty, I was offended for all CFA charterholders and candidates out there as well as Ivy graduates. From my understanding, 9/10 fund managers and top folks on the street are either CFA charterholders, Ivy grads, or both. The CIMA sounds like a joke from what I read. Can anyone provide insight into this apparent nonsense?
Everyone thinks the designation they study for is the best out there, that’s why they study for it. Is he even working in the same field as you are?
CIMA is to CFA like an executive MBA is to a fulltime MBA: more expensive, less rigorous, less selective. The one thing that CIMA has going for it is that it has managed to loosely associate itself with Chicago Booth and UPenn Wharton. If you mostly wanted to be able to name-drop a fancy business school on your resume, CIMA is likely the cheapest and fastest route to that. However, no knowledgable hiring manager will take CIMA seriously.