Back in April, Linette Lopez at Business Insider compared the merits of getting your CFA or getting a MBA. And in May she wrote another article arguing that the MBA is the better degree. This month, Lopez is again debating the issue. Here, she argues for the CFA. Here is the upshot of all articles in her series (links to both are provided below).
Once bankers reach a certain age and want to be true bosses in their own right, they often ask themselves — should I get my CFA or my MBA?
It’s a great question. While the MBA — the Masters in Business Administration — offers variety and camaraderie, the CFA — Chartered Financial Analyst — offers precision and rigor.
The MBA means you take a few years and go to school (part or full time) and the CFA is a 3-level test that requires years of solitary study (and sometimes solitary failure).
And so Lopez says, there are two ways to skin a cat, and there are pros and cons to each degree.
Lopez continues by defining the parameters of both.
MBA
People get MBAs in specific fields — finance, operations, etc. — but they tend to come out of school with broad-based knowledge and a wider variety of opportunities open to them.
A full time MBA program generally consists of two expensive years surrounded by one’s peers studying various aspects of business from management, to operations, and finance.
CFA
A CFA certification is more niche. CFA charterholders are investment professionals, and the skills they pick up are super analytical. They tend to stay on Wall Street and head to a hedge fund, private equity firm, or bulge bracket bank.
The CFA, on the other hand, is a grueling, individual journey. There are three levels, and it can take years to get through all of them.
Essentially the arguments boil down to these four areas, according to Lopez: cost, time, job prospects and compensation. And the upshot of all her points, which are well-laid out and entirely valid, is:
Cost: CFA is usually cheaper
Time: more difficult to evaluate – CFAs typically don’t quit their jobs and the CFA Institute suggests 300 hours of study before one of their exams; MBAs can take 2 years or longer, depending the program (part-time or full-time).
Job Prospects: Both are good and each is different. MBAs will typically earn less that CFAs and so in this market, tend to be favored. CFAs are more niche and the career marketplace therefore is less generally-open for them.
Compensation: Generally, a CFA will earn more than a MBA.
This is just a very general overview of the series.
The three original articles can be seen here, 1): CFA better than MBA and here, 2): MBA better than CFA. And the general discussion here: Business Insider: MBA vs CFA: How to decide which one to get.
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