Certified in the Finance Industry

[quote]Aero51 wrote:
Regardless of what anyone has said, you should not pursue a degree of any kind until you know exactly what you want to do. I recommend staying on the path you are now just to earn some money and get experience. In your free time AUDIT (AUDIT = free)courses and explore other areas. There is no sense in making a big decision if you are uncertain about what you want. [/quote]

Agree, good advice.

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

On the flip side, my wife is a tax accountant for a regional public accounting firm. They require all of their accountants to be CPAs in order to be promoted to manager. She and many of her colleagues also have a Master of Tax degree.

[/quote]

As we’ve learned in this thread, your wife isn’t respected or seen as a “go to” profession anymore though…

It’s amazing how much people pay us for not knowing tax law… You’d figure they would chose to go pay 3-6x more an hour for someone with that shiny “lawyer” title instead… Because you know, people love lawyers, and think CPA’s are hacks.

God this thread has me rolling. [/quote]

I’ll have to let her know that as she makes like 130% of what I make…

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Ya.

I work in the finance department of a multi-billion dollar company. Our legal department is completely separate from our finance department. Our new CFO has an MBA from Harvard the prior CFO received an advanced degree from Cambridge I believe. Point being, no one in the upper level management of our finance department has a background in law in general and definitely not in tax law. Many don’t even have advanced degrees (times are changing, however).

On the flip side, my wife is a tax accountant for a regional public accounting firm. They require all of their accountants to be CPAs in order to be promoted to manager. She and many of her colleagues also have a Master of Tax degree.

Graduate School is a great idea I also recommend (almost through an MAcc program myself), but it makes little sense, to me, to pursue an advanced degree in tax unless that is the career you’ve decided you want. Like, you’ve work in the field for years and don’t want to leave it because that LLM or MST is pretty job specific. It’s also expensive. [/quote]

All fair points. But OP also expressly stated that he wasn’t certain of a particular career path. While OP never said he was looking into tax work, he also didn’t exclude it. I really only have two thoughts on the idea.

  1. OP should get a graduate degree. While he did specifically ask about non-degree certs, I don’t see a B.A. fulfilling his goals as he described them.

  2. If OP considers a graduate degree, he should do so soon. Opportunity cost should be factored in: suppose an MBA gets OP an extra 10K a year (not unreasonable), and OP will work for 35 years. Obviously, going to grad school in the near future will earn more money than in the distant future.

  3. OP should consider multiple career paths. He has an outstanding foundation, and isn’t pigeon holed into one area or another. Law/tax law is a lucrative path. I don’t see how throwing out there as an idea is crazy.

It is not like recommending someone who just completed one PhD level program go to med school, because that would be lateral move. The B.A. OP has is a prerequisite to many things that I and others suggested.

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

To clarify, yes nothing is for sure as of now, and nothing is ruled out (tax). I’m so fresh I can go into what I think is my dream job (financial analyst) and hate it… So I really am open to trying anything and everything right now. My main motivator is money, like most, so my plan is to stay with a company and really work my way up. (Or go into sales like my dad lol)

I was thinking about getting an MBA from a CSU but will need to take out loans to do so.

It sounds like until Im sure with what I want to do, it makes no sense to start getting certs.

Every one of you in this post really missed the boat. You give out advice that is very formulaic…ie. go get this credential or that degree and it will possibly lead to X or Y. While it is true that a top school and an advanced degree will likely open a lot of doors, it isn’t quite that simple. Once you’re through the door, you need to perform and dazzle people. The advice bestowed to the OP should be more along the lines of “Develop great networking skills” or “Learn how to lead teams” or “Learn how to do great presentations in front of your boss and senior mgmt.” I see none of those ideas in this thread.

The critical comment made by countingbeans re: usmccds423 is also off the mark:
“Pretty sure this is the dude that used to post under “The Outlaw” or whatever and is taking a piss/pot shots.”

usmccds423’s comments made complete sense. The thrust of his point (if I may paraphrase) was that the OP was at the beginning of his career and it’s not clear yet what direction he is going in, and thus, giving him advice about pursuing degrees and difficult licensing exams was premature. usmccds423 is correct in pointing out many of the degrees and licenses may not be the best use of the OP’s time depending on which direction he takes. And some of them involve large commitments of time, money and potentially being out of the workforce for a while.

You all should really re-think your comments.

Made me think of this thread:

Why law school is a waste of money unless you get into a top school

Read more: Is Law School Worth the Time and Money?
Is Law School Worth the Time and Money?

OP-

work your ass off for 4 years. See if you like what you are doing. Hopefully by then you have earned the promotions. People will notice things that you don’t even realize. You are being judged, and evaluated with everything you do. Be the person that has the answers. Be good with people and teams. Learn how to influence others.

Honestly, if you network well, and take advantage of advancing your own career…you won’t need grad school.

After 4 years, you should have a good idea of where you want to go and how to get there. Some of these may require certs, like a CFA.

I graduated from a prestigious MBA program. I enjoyed it, but it was a lot of money. My past three jobs have resulted from the network I created there. You will learn some useful things, but an MBA is honestly just a social filter and network builder. If you want to be a McKinsey consultant…or something similar, go do an MBA. If you want to move into a completely different function, like marketing, that may help as well. I work with a ton of people my own age who worked their way up into similar positions without grad school. For me- I would still go back and do it again.