to CFA or not, experienced professional

bbcman wrote:
Don’t MBAs have part time programmes? For example Booth does.
I’d go for that.. the killer about CFA, I suspect is the whole ‘I’m learning on my own, I’ve got a full time job’. The part time MBA is taught by professors and are in a group environments which often provokes decent thought discussions that can make you learn the material easier and actually build up working knowledge.. ie shit that you won’t forget in 3 weeks.
Not to mention, if you went to Booth/other big time PT programme, chances are the guy/girl standing in front the class actually knows what he/she is talking about and can be a wealth of knowledge.
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Part time MBA’s are very much looked down upon
 
Why is that?
I’m from Aus… isn’t a part time MBA the same content and what not?
 
Yes, it’s the same content.
Just like I said before, debits go on the left, and credits go on the right. (Accounting lingo for those not accountants.) That’s what they taught me at Local State. They teach the same thing at Big Flagship University, and at Harvard. But for some reason, if you learn it at Harvard, you’re worth more money than if you learn it at Big Flagship University or at Local State.
Why that is the case, I have absolutely no idea. But I realize that I’m not going to change the world, so I accept it and move on.
 
I don’t think CFA is in the same decision bucket as part time MBA. CFA only costs a few thousand dollars and about 500 hours total. You can quit after any level and still show progress from whatever level you have passed. Part time MBA costs like $110k and presumably requires thousands of hours in classes, homework, travel, etc.
Not that CFA time commitment is negligible. It is just a very small decision compared to doing an MBA (part time or full time).
 
You are missing the point. It is all about people in your class, not what you learn. Anyone can learn debit/credit/a=l+e or w/e
 
I don’t think part time MBAs are looked down upon all that much anymore. They don’t have quite as much cachet as the full-time MBA, that is true, but the decision not to take two years of earnings off to get another degree makes some sense for many people, and as more people do it, the less stigma gets attached to it.
If a big part of the brand name cachet comes from the selection process (i.e. we didn’t just teach ordinary people debit/credit and a=l+e, but we taught people who demonstrated leadership and high ability before they arrived, and put them in a room where they could become friends with a bunch of other highly capable people), then the part-time MBA from a highly qualified selection process should produce good people too.
This is different from a purely online degree, which in theory can be good, but in practice is hard for evaluators to differentiate from a mere diploma-mill, unless there is some kind of brand reputation that the provider has a strong incentive to protect. Online MBAs are not the same as part-time MBAs that have real class time, even if part-time MBAs do have a large online component. Purely online MBAs do tend to be viewed with suspicion.
 
ohai wrote:
CFA only costs a few thousand dollars and about 500 hours total. You can quit after any level and still show progress from whatever level you have passed.
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I’m going to disagree with both of these.
I studied about 500 hours just for for Level 2 alone, after studying about 250 the year before and failing it. By the time I’m done, I’ll probably have about 1,300 hours worth of study time. (That includes failing Level 2 once.)
Also, I think ”I passed Level 1 in 2004 and have had eight years to pass Levels 2 and 3, but I haven’t done so yet because I’m either too lazy or too stupid,” looks very, very BAD on a resume. So I don’t think you can show progress.
I think that passing Level 1 is not that great of an accomplishment–anybody with a Bachelor’s in Finance that studies for a couple of months should be able to pass it. Passing Level 2 is more of an accomplishment, especially those who plan to work only in valuation or M&A. But if you don’t pass Level 3 within just a couple of years, I think a prospective employer would ask themselves, “Why hasn’t this guy crossed the finish line yet?”
In the interim, passing a Level or two might be good, but ultimately, you either pass them all, or you don’t. There is no “halfway” in the CFA world.
 
I know this is way off topic now but I posted a financial times article a few months back. It did a poll of hiring managers and from what I remember the top ways to advance in your career was something like below….
Get an MBA 2%
Get a CFA or related designation 7%
hard work in your current position 30%
hard work in your current position and find a job in another organization 30%
The rest I am not sure of, but the last two here were the top responses.
 
ddrobinett wrote:
Yes, it’s the same content.
Just like I said before, debits go on the left, and credits go on the right. (Accounting lingo for those not accountants.) That’s what they taught me at Local State. They teach the same thing at Big Flagship University, and at Harvard. But for some reason, if you learn it at Harvard, you’re worth more money than if you learn it at Big Flagship University or at Local State.
Why that is the case, I have absolutely no idea. But I realize that I’m not going to change the world, so I accept it and move on.
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seriously, stop saying that credits/debits garbage. That’s for pure accountants. Finance professinals don’t give a damn about it. And clearly, you don’t know that the real value of an MBA is the strength of the school’s recruiting. You can learn off the same textbook as an online MBA, but try convincing top investment banks to recruit heavily off university of phoenix.
I find it hilarious someone mentioned Booth. at that school, they literally make part-time MBA kids wear different color badges to intentionally segregate and brand them as Part-Time.
Talk to students there, and the part-timers will tell you themselves they are looked down upon.
 
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