I bombed CFA level I last december. Was going to retake in June but decided to go for CPA as that type of “financial analyst” interests me more, is way faster to pass, and seems there is way more jobs available for in house financial analysts doing forecasts, variance analysis, etc.
After taking CPA, I feel like level I CFA is going to be a breeze. Did your knowledge base from CPA help in level II and III? My guess is much less than it does on level I.
also, it seems you’re more on the tax side of the CPA, did you ever do any corporate finance stuff? controller? management accountant? “financial analyst”?
or anything on the audit side?
can I get your stream of conciousness on the corporate finance industry and job prospects?
First, it seems like you have yet to begin the CPA exam. Are you eligible? Check your state’s eligibility requirements, but you probably have to have 150 credit hours, at least 30 of which must be in upper-level accounting. (Principles 1 and 2 don’t count.)
If you’re not eligible to take the exam, then you’ll have to go back to school, which might deter you from taking the exam.
Did my knowledge base from CPA help in the CFA exam? Yes–since 1/4 of the Level 1 test is accounting, and about 1/5 of Level 2 is accounting.
But remember–only about 40% of the CPA exam is Financial Accounting and Reporting. The other 60% is audit, tax, and other relatively unrelated stuff. And even then, most of the financial accounting is learning journal entries, which is the lifeblood of accounting, but not important to the analyst. So if you plan on doing CPA solely as a study guide for CFA, I would recommend against it.
Yes, I have done some Corporate Finance. I helped a local company get some ducks in a row to do their first-ever 144A bond offering. This also falls under the purview of “management accounting” and “financial analysis”. I also did Internal Audit (not “regular” audit) for a local company.
As far as the rest of the questions go, read my thread on “Accounting or Finance”. Maybe it will answer some questions. If it doesn’t, come back and ask and we’ll go from there.
http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-general-discussion/91318014
Nah I have a ba in accounting and have passed bec and aud. Sitting for reg and far soon enough. Ill check the thread out thanks. I’m pursuing cfa on top of cpa mainly out of curiosity in financial literacy and partly because cpa/cfa can’t hurt.
So you have a BBA in accounting and have passed BEC and AUD. Then you’re about 25% of the way there, because REG and FAR are qute a bit harder than the others.
My .02 - take and pass the CPA exam. Then get a job as a CPA. Personally, I like tax. But if you want to be in corporate finance someday, Audit is probably the better track. I would NOT go into an industry job right away. The experience that you get in public accounting will be very valuable.
Regardless of which field you decide on, take the best possible job you can get, because if you decide to exit public accounting (which almost everybody does, eventually), you’ll probably wind up going to work for your clients. So pick a firm that has clients like you want to work for.