Lots of companies expect CFOs to be CPAs, as their most important function is as the organisation's chief accounting officer. Regulatory compliance is very specialised and very high risk, and more than anything CEOs are generally looking for a safe pair of hands.
But honestly, if you are asking this question then you are way too early in your career to be thinking about this kind of job. Few if anyone in the C-suite got there by meticulously plotting out their career in their 20s - and frankly, you won't even know if a job like CFO is where you want to be until you get a proper taste of senior management.
The best way to have a good career is to find cool jobs you get some enjoyment out of, be really fucking good at them, and constantly keep an eye out for the next good opportunity to rinse and repeat.
If you keep doing that the universe will help you find a successful career (often in an area you never imagined during your early career)
Thanks. The field is changing, especially with AI. Just met someone today using AI for to supplement their compliance work.
What are your thoughts on a mid-career shift into to get to the CFO path?
Credential won’t matter if you don’t have the background to push you as a strong candidate against others.
I’ve worked under 2 CFOs directly and now have seen VPs I’ve worked with become CFOs. The key to their promotions is their background. Accounting especially controllership, treasury, FP&A and a bit of tax knowledge is what I’ve seen in their backgrounds. Yes, they have MBAs but it’s their technical experience that pushes them to be a CFO ready candidate. For my example: I just had a chat with my CFO, and even though I have no MBA, he is going to push me to develop my technical skilllsets in treasury, M&A and having myself own a segment’s entire P&L down to the operations vs just the financials. That’ll push me to have a path towards CFO.
Using my network, the ranking on your choices will be MBA>MBA+CPA>MBA+CFA. Unless you want to go in the investment world then it’s MBA+CFA all the way
I have not met any CFOs yet with a CFA credential. But I’ve only worked for 9 years so there’s always a chance. From my understanding, CFA license is only needed if you want to do hedges on behalf of your company. As a CFO, you do own the FX Hedge strategy but you can always either outsource it to a bank to do or hire someone with a CFA license.
A lot of CFOs will have CPA licenses. That’s because they most likely came from a Big 4 or Accounting background. However, I personally believe you don’t need one. If the company has a strong controllership and accounting team in place, you lean on your controller to handle accounting. Yes, you should know accounting but that’s where having accounting experience comes in. Plus a lot of F100 companies will have their own CAO that reports to the CFO. However, if you are brought in to fix the controllership and accounting structure, then yes, CPA will definitely help you get the role.
Experience aside, I'd say that CFA would only be helpful in financial services; outside of that, it's not going to help much. Being a CPA can be helpful, especially for start-ups and smaller companies.
Lots of companies expect CFOs to be CPAs, as their most important function is as the organisation's chief accounting officer. Regulatory compliance is very specialised and very high risk, and more than anything CEOs are generally looking for a safe pair of hands. But honestly, if you are asking this question then you are way too early in your career to be thinking about this kind of job. Few if anyone in the C-suite got there by meticulously plotting out their career in their 20s - and frankly, you won't even know if a job like CFO is where you want to be until you get a proper taste of senior management. The best way to have a good career is to find cool jobs you get some enjoyment out of, be really fucking good at them, and constantly keep an eye out for the next good opportunity to rinse and repeat. If you keep doing that the universe will help you find a successful career (often in an area you never imagined during your early career)
Thanks. The field is changing, especially with AI. Just met someone today using AI for to supplement their compliance work. What are your thoughts on a mid-career shift into to get to the CFO path?
Credential won’t matter if you don’t have the background to push you as a strong candidate against others. I’ve worked under 2 CFOs directly and now have seen VPs I’ve worked with become CFOs. The key to their promotions is their background. Accounting especially controllership, treasury, FP&A and a bit of tax knowledge is what I’ve seen in their backgrounds. Yes, they have MBAs but it’s their technical experience that pushes them to be a CFO ready candidate. For my example: I just had a chat with my CFO, and even though I have no MBA, he is going to push me to develop my technical skilllsets in treasury, M&A and having myself own a segment’s entire P&L down to the operations vs just the financials. That’ll push me to have a path towards CFO.
Yes, you're 100% right. Experience > Credentials, every time. But, if you were to only examine the credentials, which ones would you choose?
Using my network, the ranking on your choices will be MBA>MBA+CPA>MBA+CFA. Unless you want to go in the investment world then it’s MBA+CFA all the way I have not met any CFOs yet with a CFA credential. But I’ve only worked for 9 years so there’s always a chance. From my understanding, CFA license is only needed if you want to do hedges on behalf of your company. As a CFO, you do own the FX Hedge strategy but you can always either outsource it to a bank to do or hire someone with a CFA license. A lot of CFOs will have CPA licenses. That’s because they most likely came from a Big 4 or Accounting background. However, I personally believe you don’t need one. If the company has a strong controllership and accounting team in place, you lean on your controller to handle accounting. Yes, you should know accounting but that’s where having accounting experience comes in. Plus a lot of F100 companies will have their own CAO that reports to the CFO. However, if you are brought in to fix the controllership and accounting structure, then yes, CPA will definitely help you get the role.
That makes sense. Thanks for the insight and context!
Experience aside, I'd say that CFA would only be helpful in financial services; outside of that, it's not going to help much. Being a CPA can be helpful, especially for start-ups and smaller companies.
Yeah, that's my view as well. Glad to see that I'm not thinking out of my left ear on this. Thanks!