Why is it considered to be incredibly dorky to put “MBA” after your name on a business card or bio, yet it is completely acceptable to write “CFA” after your name if you are a charterholder? Consider that an MBA takes 2,000 hours of study and costs $80,000, while a CFA takes only 750 hours and costs just $2,000. Discuss.
It is lame.
Clearly the MBA is better because it costs more. You can emphasize that by putting some $$$ symbols before your MBA if it is a premium program. BTW, the MBA should be in your bio, but if it is put just after your name, it creates the impression that you haven’t actually achieved anything in business except getting the degree. Business is measured by achievements, and the MBA is nothing more than an entry ticket of sorts. Remember that even with the low entry costs on the CFA side, there are more newly minted MBAs every year in the US alone (about 150,000) than the entire number of charters ever given worldwide (although it’s getting close now: total charters are probably numbered in the 140,000s by now). In short MBAs are a dime a dozen, despite the $80,000 price tag. CFA, CPA, PE, etc. also communicate a particular specialization which is relevant in a particular community. But no one is stopping you from putting MBA on your card. If you think it should be there, and that’s your best achievement in your professional life, then put it there.
I wish finish the questions off with the right answer, and then everyone can proceed to laugh and flame. Currently, 95k people hold the CFA charter globally, with about 5k awarded each year. It’s a standardized exam, everyone takes the same curriculum. There are millions of MBA’s with over 130,000 awarded EVERY YEAR, obviously the majority from garbage schools. Compare a full time Harvard MBA vs. an online university of phoenix MBA, and yet want both people to write MBA after their name?? The only argument you can make is: the CFA exam was much easier 20 years ago. But those people have 20 years+ experience against you. So, they’re still better.
You add specializations after your name, not general degrees. Even BE, BA, BS… every college course costs more than CFA and takes requires more hours of study. It’s like… if you have a CFA then you know stuff about portfolio management, if you have a PhD then you know stuff about science, if you are an actuary than you know stuff about insurance, this solves a purpose to inform people. Adding generalized degrees doesn’t inform anything, just try to accept that practices which people are adhering to since decades solves a purpose that’s why they are there in the way you see them, world doesn’t run on BS!
Bernanke Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- if you have a PhD then > you know stuff about science i know a guy working in the industry he carries himself as Mr. Big Shot, PhD he does have a doctorate, in middle eastern studies whatever the f. that means, but so what.
Many PhDs don’t put that on their business card if it’s an unrelated discipline (like chemical engineering). I’m often surprised to hear after working with someone a couple months that they have a PhD and never mentioned it. Reminds me of a joke: How can you tell within 5 minutes if someone went to Harvard?.. They tell you.
Interesting point Mobius… I too have noticed several people on Wall Street proudly presenting themselves along the lines of … Dr. Joe Blow, PhD., CFA … and then you find out that their PhD is in something like Political Science. These guys aren’t limiting themselves to presenting only specialized and relevant designations.
Wendy, there will always be douches in the world. If you want to be one, noones stopping you.
Because an MBA is just a master’s degree. If the money and the time you have to spend to get the degree is matter, then an Ivy League undergraduate degree or most private colleges - for that matter - will cost you double and not to mention the time you have to spend to get the degree. We don’t see a BA or a BS on a business card.
I’ve known someone with a PhD in Political Science and a CFA and both turn out to be highly relevant to what they do.
not sure why bring poli sci as a bad example, more often than not it is relevant i would think. i mentioned middle eastern studies as a specific example which is a load of horse$shit. but generally, Jon Doe PhD can be just as ambiguous and possibly irrelevant as Jon Doe MBA (perhaps to a lesser extent since there are way more MBAs). as many have said, standardized designations such as CFA dont leave room for ambiguity
skycfa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Because an MBA is just a master’s degree. > > If the money and the time you have to spend to get > the degree is matter, then an Ivy League > undergraduate degree or most private colleges - > for that matter - will cost you double and not to > mention the time you have to spend to get the > degree. We don’t see a BA or a BS on a business > card. I see plenty of BS on people’s business cards…
if you went part-time or did it online: yes
Keys Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > skycfa Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Because an MBA is just a master’s degree. > > > > If the money and the time you have to spend to > get > > the degree is matter, then an Ivy League > > undergraduate degree or most private colleges - > > for that matter - will cost you double and not > to > > mention the time you have to spend to get the > > degree. We don’t see a BA or a BS on a > business > > card. > > > I see plenty of BS on people’s business cards… I see it too. (Chuckle)
mba on business card reeks of tool, imo.
Yes Viceroy; we established in the very first sentence of the very first post that putting “MBA” on your business card make you a tool. That much is not in question. The question posed was: Why do the same people that think putting “MBA” on their business cards is toolish, don’t also think that putting “CFA” on their business cards is toolish.
It’s because saying that you are an MBA does not provide any useful information. Maybe you went to Harvard or maybe you went to University of Phoenix. So, the only reason that you would put it there is to be pretentious. “CFA”, on the other hand, has a very specific meaning in terms of academic content and difficulty, so putting this on your resume does provide useful information. Similarly, if you work in accounting, you might put “CPA” on your business card - it has a very specific meaning and is therefore useful from an informational perspective. This is not to say that people don’t put “CFA” there to be pretentious.
It is because CFA conveys a specific skill set that is relevant to the profession, MBA doesn’t. Now PhD, I don’t know.
Wendy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yes Viceroy; we established in the very first > sentence of the very first post that putting “MBA” > on your business card make you a tool. That much > is not in question. > > The question posed was: Why do the same people > that think putting “MBA” on their business cards > is toolish, don’t also think that putting “CFA” on > their business cards is toolish. Wendy is starting to reek of troll. The answer couldn’t have been more clear from the first few posts and notice how Wendy totally ignored it and still calls using the CFA letters as being a tool. I’m going to call it: Wendy is a disgruntled CFA candidate who’s getting fed up with studying and failing