CFA for Accountants

Is doing CFA worthwhile for someone who has Accountancy credentials currently working with one of the Big 4 firm? Kindly share your views

Not if you plan to stay in accounting…

What are the possibilities once I decide to move out of accounting?

are you a CPA? My friend went to a top 40 school in the US, worked big 4, got CPA, then moved into Investment Banking after 3 years no problem. He passed the CFA exams in 18 months and now has a charter working for a REIT at the associate level. If you are an exceptional person coming out of Big Four, the possibilities are endless.

im a fan of the cpa+cfa

It depends on what your career aspirations are. If you want to stick to Audit / Financial Reporting as a career, you are fine with CPA.

Definitely, if you want to get into ER or other banking related discipline etc, it may be worthwhile to pursue the CFA. It would also be beneficial if you want to stay at the Big 4, get out of audit and do something like valuation advisory or transaction services. Furthermore, it would also be worthwhile if you decide to go to a Corporation of sorts and take on a role that is more than Financial Reporting (ie. corporate treasury, planning, corporate development or have aspiration to move up to Director of Finance or CFO someday).

It’s great, unless you have to enroll in tax accounting classes at the undergrad level and you have already graduated. That’s a requirement where I live and maybe everywhere? Was gonna do it but was not an Accounting major :frowning:

Yea when I looked into CPA when I graduated they just bumped it up to needing 150 credits. Making you have another 30 credits under your belt instead of making it more challenging was a joke. I couldnt afford another year of classes or grad school, was really a bs way to try and make it more exclusive.

Another full year of classes, even at the Jr College level is like 5 grand. Yeah no thanks.

thats some bs. do online course lol

I would prefer moving towards Corporate development, planning, corporate treasury etc. Let’s see what the future holds :slight_smile:

Im an ACCA affiliate will be a member next year. Yeah that’s the plan. I am stuck in audit for now but that’s exactly what i wanted to know, how probable is the shift from audit to IB etc. BTW I work in Financial Services audit.

Definitely up for these roles. Thanks mate

Speaking from personal experience, CFA has definitely helped me with transitioning to these areas (I am a CPA by background as well), but CFA more importantly helped with progression in the aforementioned departments. I think you can make the transition with your CPA to these areas, but might have a tougher time progressing up without a CFA / MBA in Finance.

Thanks mate. I didn’t have the money for doing MBA and plus the working hours didn’t make it possible to attend classes etc. So CFA was the choice to make. I think a CFA’s role will become more diverse in the near future especially in the region that I live in. Thanks people P.S was having second thoughts. You guys really helped me circle back to the reasons i choose to pursue CFA.