Big 7: Which order should you take these? CFA, FRM, CFP, CMT, CQF, CHfC, CAIA

When I google FCBV, the second link is this guy’s linkedin profile. Not sure why he has to add F before.

If it is like FASA, it means you are someone really important who contributed a lot. A fellow, I believe.

For whatever reason, business valuation people have the most designations out of any group I’ve ever seen. Maybe it’s because they do litigation work sometimes and want to look super legit in front of a jury, I dunno.

lololol made me laugh to tears

CHfC is a complete was of time. Very easy to pass, and you won’t find any jobs posted for it. Anything offered by the American College is worthless. CAIA…the only reason people know that this license even exists is because Schweser makes study guides for it. Very few job posting for it. Very few people in the business even heard of it. Exams/fees are over priced. And if you do see a job posting it will say “CFA or CAIA”, which really means CFA. CFP…if you want to go into retail sales, get a Series 7 and Series 66. That’s all you need. Sales Reps, aka “Financial Advisors” who are in the industry for more than 5 years will get a CFP in an attempt to convince their sales prospects that they are more than just a salesman. CFP is a waste of time. CMT…been around forever, and is for charts. If you put something that lame on your resume, you’ll probably won’t get the job. CQF…super expensive. You’ll be better off studying C++ and calculus, then applying to a real Masters program in Financial Engineering. FRM… only get this if you already work in Risk Management. CFA is really the only one worth your time. It won’t guarantee you a job, but I guarantee that most employers expect you to have it, assuming you are applying for an analyst position, or a position with a hedge/mutual fund, or private equity. In my opinion, the CFA is worth more than the other 6 put together.

This

agreed

in his defense, I believe he has all other possible permutations of these letters

Camden pretty much nailed it.

^Agreed.

There are only a few “real” qualifications in finance/accounting. All the others are just “add-ons” or duplicates of each other.

There’s MBA (a good one, not a hacksaw one), JD, CPA, CFA, ASA/ABV/CVA/CBA (valuation), and CFP/ChFC (personal financial planning).

All other designations are peripheral in nature, such as the “Certified Internal Auditor”, which is peripheral to the CPA, or the “Certified Retirement Planning Counselor”, which is peripheral to the CFP.

What about the CMA? They have some pretty impressive salary statistics on their website

Why isn’t Claritas on here? That is about as legit as it gets.

Society of Actuaries…

Most accountants, even those that work in industry, view the CPA as the “touchdown” and the CMA as the “field goal”.

I don’t know what they’re claiming, and I’m sure they’re not lying, but I wonder in this case if correlation = causation.

No doubt CPA is more respected, but as someone that only has 18 accounting hours, I cant do the CPA. Been strongly considering CMA though as a decent consolation. Plus I am more interested in corporate managing versus taxation and audit anyway. Just dont know if it’s worth the time, money, and 30 hours a year of continuing education in order to maintain the credential

^I’m not denying that the material isn’t good to know, and for a person in industry it’s probably more relevant than the CPA anyway, since CPA is so heavily geared toward financial accounting, tax, and audit.

But unless you already work in industry, I wouldn’t even bother. And if you already work in industry, then you probably don’t need it. I think your time would be better spent honing your skills or networking.

You mean spend time actually building tangible value instead of collecting more and more letters behind your name? That’s heartbreaking for so many of the young’uns out there. Why would you say something so hurtful greenie?

For some, accumulating designations keeps them occupied to avoid accomplishing more abstract things like networking correctly or owning your job. Although it takes time to study for these exams, it’s an excuse to not get out of your comfort zone.

Agreed. These misguided individuals should spend the hours of valuable time they would have wasted studying for these worthless designations monitoring and posting on anonymous forums built around the concept of these very designations.

True. Fair points. I dont think it will win be any jobs. I just think I might get bored and feel like I need to do school once i finish the mba and cfa. I wont know what it feels like to not study for something haha

Trust me, it feels pretty damn good. Whatever your job is, you can actually focus on learning it now, instead of learning stuff that you’ll never want and never need.