ACA vs CFQ (Corporate Finance Qualification)
I will be joining a mid-tier firm in their M&A team in the UK soon, and it’s common for these firms in the UK to put their new hires through the ACA qualification which after 3 years would make you a chartered accountant.
The firm has told me they are now offering another qualification being the CFQ (Corporate Finance Qualification), as another option instead of the ACA, since I'm doing M&A they are saying it'll be more relevant for me but I still have the choice to decide.
I would love some advice on which option would be best to pursue. The pros of the CFQ is that it is only 4 exams vs 15 for the ACA, therefore it will save a lot of time and stress with exams, which means I have more time to work on deals. It is also more finance and M&A related whereas with the ACA, I have to study for irrelevant exams such as audit and tax.
But the negatives are that I won’t be a chartered accountant at the end of it, unlike the ACA. This may mean I have less options and versatility after my graduate scheme is finished in 3 years with this firm. I don’t know how important this will be though, if I plan to stay In M&A anyway. I’ve heard some banks do like hiring freshly qualified ACA professionals in London, so maybe the CFQ would make me less attractive in the future.
I don’t know anything definitively, but I’ve worked in audit and I’ve worked in IB and know countless people with an ACA and have never heard of the CFQ
Damn if someone who did audit and IB does not know about the CFQ, then it does not bode well for that qualification lol. I guess I'm just trying to make an excuse to go for the easier workload of 4 exams of the CFQ vs 15 for the ACA. There's no way around it I guess lol, will have to put in the hard work if I want a shot at landing into IB
Also how did those people with the ACA enter IB? Any recruitment tips to look out for post qualification, I'm 3 years away but want to be prepared?
On your first point, if you’re a bit scared of putting the work into an ACA then not sure an Investment Bank is the job for you anyway (and there’s nothing wrong with that!)
On recruitment, there’s actually cycles to it in the UK but it is fairly standard, just get in contact with recruiters post qualification
Yeah definitely I understand your point of the work ethic needed for IB. I think I'm not scared of the hard work of the ACA, I can put that in if needed but I'm just not looking forward to having to study subjects I find mind numbingly boring like audit and especially tax. That's the reason why I chose to go into M&A instead, since I found finance topics in uni more interesting
ACA- it's a hard slog yes but well worth it. It's way more recognised and essentially acts as a future safety net in case you lose your job.
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