One of those candidates will become the millionth person to take the test. That is phenomenal growth for a qualification that, as recently as 1995, was taken by fewer than 20,000 people a year. This expansion partly reflects the lure of earning big money in finance (at least until the credit crisis). But it also shows the growing appeal of the CFA brand outside its American birthplace; more than two-fifths of this year's candidates come from Asia, where job ads in the South China Morning Post now often say “CFA-required”.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
CFA vs. MBA
Is it better to hire job applicants based on input measures, like an MBA degree; or output measures, like CFA certification? This weekend, 175,000 people round the world will take one of the three exams required to earn the coveted status of chartered financial analyst (CFA).
Interestingly, our undergrad business program moved away from offering an accounting degree to offering a degress that ciombines accounting and finance. No one quite understood what it was (and the institution has promoted it badly). This is some confirmation that we were not wrong.
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