FAS certification worth anything?

Hey y’all. Long time lurker, first time poster. I was browsing through some linkedins and I noticed some people had the FAS certification (financial analyst specialist) on the resume. With a little googling, I discovered the designation is offered online by the GTC. (Global Training Certification) http://trainingandcertifications.com/ From my understanding they charge around $850 per class but you get a discount if you take 2 or more. Does anybody know anything about this certification? It comes off like a weak CFA to me. Have any HR people on analystforum seen the FAS designation on resumes? And if so, what are your thoughts? TL;DR FAS designation from GTC? Hot or not?

Nice use of TL:DR, most people don’t use it. I had never heard of the FAS designation until your post (5 yrs in funnance). I’d recommend giving it a miss. If you’re serious about something like that, go for the CFA. If that’s more than you want to tackle, get the regulatory exams you need for your job (series whatever) or the CPA or CFP credentials, if they are relevant to what you do. In my opinion, much like a UofP MBA, a weak designation is worse than no designation. I recognize that some people will disagree with me here, but that’s how I feel about it.

Just as a translation, when SSF said UofP, he was referring to online degrees as his example. Anyhow, I agree, I’ve never heard of it. If CFA seems like too much, just pass level I and leave that on your resume. Employers would have heard about it, and if they ask why just level I, say, you did LI because you “love learning about finance and plan to take LII next June” even if you have no intention of ever doing LII (wise move to just stop at I).

I like this certificate from their website: Business Coaching Specialist (BCS): The coaching field is growing rapidly creating many new jobs and opportunities for those who have the skills and know-how to provide value to others through coaching. This business coaching certification program provides an online method to learn these best practices.

Thank you all for the feedback. A little info on me: I intend to complete all 3 CFA exams (that’s the goal anyways). The reason I bring up the FAS was because it was a listed in conjunction to the CFA. The manner I saw it used was something like this: “In addition to CFA lvl 2, I have also enrolled in the FAS blah blah blah” which added enough credibility of the designation for me to seek a second opinion from people who are well versed in this terrain. @ohai Haha, I noticed that as well.

It’s about as useful as the CFA which indeed I have found to be useless