I think … if level 1 proves too hard for you to manage, you are very unlikely to get an entry level job in high finance. And… that’s that. Passing level 1 in 3 tries or 10 tries does not matter. You won’t get hired in top tier IB, or too late for that.
On a side note though - few interviewers did mention favorably on my L2 candidate status on the CV. So … judging from personal experience - getting the charter itself isn’t all that useless.
then again , I agree many others here - don’t regard CFA as your golden ticket to the door of top tier IBs… it is not.
I am 24 turning 25. If I go to study for Canadian CPA, then get an accounting/financial analyst job to get the practical experience to get the title, then study for the rest 2 levels of CFA, then I will have CPA and CFA for the rest of my carrer. How does that sound? I will be 30 years-old by the time I finish the studies though.
WIth the CFA, one can become a portfolo manager…I mean I think if one gets CPA and CFA, he can pretty much be flexible in the kinda jobs he can do, right?
First of all, 30 is the new 20, 30 years old is VERY YOUNG in the job market, especially in finance.
Second, not to burst your bubble, but it’s likely that you won’t complete BOTH programs before 30 - you need work experience for both and it’s not easy to do it at the same time.
Finally, perhaps you should try to focus on one thing before thinking about being flexible. The truth is, accounting is probably more “flexible” as the program applies to more jobs (esp entry level jobs), so if you want flexibility and try to see if you’re the right “fit” then perhaps you should start with that? But if your mind is set on being a PM, then you need to go out there live and breathe the industry - the truth is, some people NEVER make it in the industry. You just have to try hard and hope for the best!
FYI - I am a CPA and waiting on Level 3 results. See the “accounting or finance” thread for more.
You need to know what you want to do. If you want to be a Portfolio Manager for a big wealth management firm, then the CPA will probably be 100% useless to you. Similarly, if you want to work in a local tax practice and do business valuations regularly, then CFA is probably overkill. CPA + ABV is probably better because you don’t have to learn all the useless fixed income/derivatives/portfolio management stuff, and it definitly suffices to do what you want to do with much much much much much less work.
If you don’t know what you want to do (like me, several years ago), then I would personally go for CPA, because a good CPA can transition into finance, be it personal or corporate. However, it’s hard to transition from finance into accounting.
So far, I have no interest in becoming a PM. Insted, I want to become a junior financial analyst at a big company to plan budget, forecast revenue, evaluate projects, reduce expenses, etc. I am a logical person and I am good at math. I guess that is why I want to do this kind of jobs. Since lot of financial analyst jobs in Canada require accounting designations, it would probably be more realistic and better for me to study for accounting.
I guess I need to learn to love accounting now (used to hate accounting classes during undergrad studies) since if I wil go for CPA, I will stick to accounting for the next couple of years (taking into consideration of the pre-requist courses+CPA program itself). I will be around 28-29 when getting the title.
P.S. I have been working as an accounting technician. Hopefully this work experience will give me some competitive advantages when competing with those new graduates out of school who are also studying for CPA but without work experience. Right?
Go the accounting route. It will open more jobs for you. Once you have some experience and have a better idea of what you want to do, then you can branch out to other designations.
Are you Canadian? I don’t know if they have CPA’s in Canada. You better check with somebody in your area to ask these questions.
Yeah, I am a Canadian and Canadian’s acocunting designations CA, CMA and CGA are on their way of merging to CPA. I will be the ‘lucky’ one to catch the new path to become an accoutant.
It’s funny how you claim to “loathe” your accounting classes but what you want to do IS exactly accounting! (budgeting, forecasting, costing… they are all under “corporate finance” but in reality, they are carried out by accountants NOT CFAs).
I think you really need to get a reality check, because i’m hearing conflicting ideas.
On one hand, you mentioned you want to be a financial analyst, performing the tasks i mentioned above. This is probably a good career path, possibly guide you toward a management position or controllership. HOWEVER, you don’t seem to enjoy any of your accounting classes. My immediate thought is that, you either don’t truly understand what it takes to do budgeting and costing (A LOT of number crunching and manipulation of accounts), or you’re basing your judgement on Accounting from a very limited exposure to fundamental accounting classes (perhaps you never did more than debits and credits).
I would truly encourage you to study the job descriptions of the roles you’re interested in, and perhaps go to a few networking functions to meet some financial analysts from industries. These are NOT the “Chartered Financial Analyst”, you should also study the curriculum of the CFA program - it gears toward PM at the end of the day (over half of the material in L3 is on portfolio management), so you really have to learn to differentiate the two.
Anyway, the conclusion is that, from what you just mentioned for your ideal career path, CFA is definitely NOT for you.
ps* don’t worry about the age when you graduate, it’s better to go into a program knowing what you get out of it, then diving in without thinking it through.
A lot of people don’t like debits/credits. However, that’s the basis for all accounting, so get used to it.
One of your goals in life should be to graduate from debits/credits and get to budgeting and FP&A. Once you do that, life becomes a lot more enjoyable.
The reasons of why I didn’t like the two accounting classes taken at University are probably 1) Professors were not good enough to spark my interests; 2)They are the first two accounting classes I had ever taken in my life so I was a bit lost; 3) Most importantly, I didn’t know what I wanted to do and didn’t realize what/where accounting designation could lead me to. My misconception back then was that accountant only works on debit and credit and works with balance sheet to balance numbers all day long. But there are different job titles that require an accounting designation in reality. And lot of them involve management, analytical skills and interaction with people.
I may still don’t like the accounting classes very much now but at least it can bring me to somewhere I now want to be. But meanwhile, I am going to ask fds that are in accounting field about their experience to have a better idea of what I am going into.
Throwing in my two cents zxfmontreal, as I spent a large amount of time in corporate finance (specifically FP&A at a large Fortune500 firm) before moving industries.
While unaware of the market in Canada (you mentioned many corp. FA jobs require accounting qualifications), in the US these types of qualifications would be less required for a job in FP&A specifically if you had an MBA. If this is what you truely want to do (view the business from the CFO level, abstract information into a clear message for the BOD/investors, ad-hoc analysis around dividends, debt, etc.), an MBA is invaluable, the CPA is a nice to have, and the CFA is virtually useless (obviously the knowledge is usefull, but on paper it won’t help you). Again, things could be very different in your local geography - but I surmise 2 years work experience + MBA would be much better in the long run than CPA/CFA for what you want to do. Just something to think about.
For the budgeting/FP&A route, I already have a BBA from a Canadian university. So what would others recommend? What kinds of masters programs are available because an MBA is just redundant.
Yeah, budget analyst/financial analyst is what I want to do. Right now I am managing the full accounting cycle. With CPA, I target a financial/analyst position.
Honestly, start with accounting designation, it’s the most recognized in the world and with your experience, it’s probably appropriate.
Not to say MBA is completely useless, but not at this stage of your career. “Long-term” is a very vague concept because if you can’t get your foot in the door and get some concrete experience, there is no future for you in corporate finance. Not to mention entry to intermediate financial analyst jobs rarely require an MBA (i doubt the immediate supervisors even do), and it’s very dependent on the business school’s reputation as well…
Do not invest money on an MBA until you have more experience and at least on your way to managerial roles.
I just had a second thought on this. I believe there are jobs that can fulfill the work experience requirements of both CPA and CFA, i.e. accountant, auditor, (financial analyst is yet debatable, need more info and research on this). I mean, it is possible to get a job and work towards the CPA title and then write the remaining CFA exams and then become both CFA and CPA. But the real question is, how much will CFA actually help in my career? Is the combination of CPA and MBA better than the combination of CPA and CFA?
Maybe I am thinking a bit too far ahead. Right now, I would like to do forecasting, costing, therefore I will word towards CPA for the nearest future. But I mean, if I can get the CFA title while doing the same job, then why not? Who knows in 10 years, what I want to do then? But it seems ppl say how useless the letters CFA are on one’s resume…so I am not sure then.
Greenman, what made you decide to pursue the CFA exam initially? From your other posts, I know that you are already an CPA and MBA. I think with those two designations, one can pretty much rock in the career (I think). Why would you decide to study for CFA? How much competitive edge it gave you?
Actually, although the subject of this thread is about ‘’we should all quit the program’’, personally I wouldn’t say pursing CFA is that useless.
I had an interview for an investment analyst position last month. During the discussion, the interviewer pointed out at my resume and told me the fact that I wrote my CFA level 1 exam was definitely a strong plus. But again, when he asked me about my experience and exposure to Bloomberg and personal investment on stock markets, I honestly answered ‘’very limited’’. The result is I was not considered for the second round interview. But then I figured out investment is not what interests me anyways. Therefore…
Dude, chill! I would say that CFA certification and program is all about standardizing financial knowledge. Although the curriculum in some areas goes into details, in my opinion it learns basics of broad set of areas known to the CFA target audience. The CFA charter is therefore an excellent credential and enables you to prove your level of financial/economical knowledge. You can definitely find more on the topic at www.timeprep.me/blog as they really try to help us with advice and answers …
