Qualifications to Survive in the Finance or Accounting Industry
Different professions require you to have different sets of skills. Some of these skills you can pick up by studying in college whereas a major percentage of skills you can develop or learn to nurture yourself. Skills that you could nurture make up around 80% of your probabilities in being able to secure promotions and exceptional performance (presentation, self-development, personal selling, effective public speech-making, psychological influence etc.). However, in this article I'll discuss about the types of academic qualifications that you could attempt to achieve to give yourself a strong platform to survive in the accounting or finance industries.
Firstly, I should distinguish between accounting and finance.
Accounting refers to working with numbers and being a specialist. On the contrary, finance refers to being able to make managerial decisions after interpreting accounting data. This doesn't make an account inferior to a financial manager, as the financial manager would have business management skills that the accountant doesn't have, and the accountant would have a comprehensive understanding of cost-cutting and the 'insides' of a business which a financial manager wouldn't have.
With the definitions differentiated, the next part is where we talk about the qualifications that you could attempt to achieve:
1)ACA: an ACA is someone who has completed his studying under the authority of ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants of English and Wales). He would have ACA in his business cards meaning that he is an "Associate", and after adding some work experience, he can become an FCA (Fellow Chartered Accountant).
2)ACCA: an ACCA is an "Associate" of the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) - which is based in London, UK. The type of accountancy knowledge that
You could hope to gain by becoming an ACA or an ACCA varies by 10-15%. However, none of them has complete superiority over the other.
3)CIMA: an ACMA (Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) is someone who has studied the books under the supervision of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. There is a big difference between becoming an ACMA and an ACA or ACCA. CIMA students work in the middle of a firm's value-chain. If you are familiar with Porter's value chain, the CIMA has the abilities to work in widely varied departments of a firm and use numbers to take managerial decisions. On the contrary, the ACA or ACCA works at the end of the value chain - taxation or auditing and so on. The works of tax accountants or auditors begin after a firm has published its financial statements.
4) CFA: CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. It's an American degree and is suitable for those willing to work in Investment Banks, Financial analysis, stock trading, equity research, investment funds, hedge funds, mutual funds and so on. As you can see, the areas where a CFA would work are totally different from that of an ACMA or an ACA. One big advantage of having a CFA is that it's really recognized all over the world (developed nations with English as an official language). This is a bit different from the reality that an ACMA or an ACA has to face. ACA or CIMA isn't really recognized and valued all over the world.
5)CIA: CIA stands for Certified Internal Auditor. It's an American qualification and you generally want to appear in CIA's exams after getting a post-graduate degree in Finance or Accounting. It's a 'smaller' but very specialized qualification that would only add value to your resume if you wanted to work as an auditor in America.
Firstly, I should distinguish between accounting and finance.
Accounting refers to working with numbers and being a specialist. On the contrary, finance refers to being able to make managerial decisions after interpreting accounting data. This doesn't make an account inferior to a financial manager, as the financial manager would have business management skills that the accountant doesn't have, and the accountant would have a comprehensive understanding of cost-cutting and the 'insides' of a business which a financial manager wouldn't have.
With the definitions differentiated, the next part is where we talk about the qualifications that you could attempt to achieve:
1)ACA: an ACA is someone who has completed his studying under the authority of ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants of English and Wales). He would have ACA in his business cards meaning that he is an "Associate", and after adding some work experience, he can become an FCA (Fellow Chartered Accountant).
2)ACCA: an ACCA is an "Associate" of the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) - which is based in London, UK. The type of accountancy knowledge that
You could hope to gain by becoming an ACA or an ACCA varies by 10-15%. However, none of them has complete superiority over the other.
3)CIMA: an ACMA (Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) is someone who has studied the books under the supervision of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. There is a big difference between becoming an ACMA and an ACA or ACCA. CIMA students work in the middle of a firm's value-chain. If you are familiar with Porter's value chain, the CIMA has the abilities to work in widely varied departments of a firm and use numbers to take managerial decisions. On the contrary, the ACA or ACCA works at the end of the value chain - taxation or auditing and so on. The works of tax accountants or auditors begin after a firm has published its financial statements.
4) CFA: CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. It's an American degree and is suitable for those willing to work in Investment Banks, Financial analysis, stock trading, equity research, investment funds, hedge funds, mutual funds and so on. As you can see, the areas where a CFA would work are totally different from that of an ACMA or an ACA. One big advantage of having a CFA is that it's really recognized all over the world (developed nations with English as an official language). This is a bit different from the reality that an ACMA or an ACA has to face. ACA or CIMA isn't really recognized and valued all over the world.
5)CIA: CIA stands for Certified Internal Auditor. It's an American qualification and you generally want to appear in CIA's exams after getting a post-graduate degree in Finance or Accounting. It's a 'smaller' but very specialized qualification that would only add value to your resume if you wanted to work as an auditor in America.