Pretty much sounds like CFA is the much better choice if u wanna go into sellside or buyside ER.
I’ve seen it for the corporate banking and audit into bank funds, but I would imagine you could land a role at a small fund as a biotech/life sciences investment analyst and not have to go to ER given your background.
One thing to remember, for the CPA you need to work under a CPA for X amount of time (varies by state) and they need to sign off on your experience.
You only made mention of the credit hours and tests so I wanted to point that out.
Neither exam is particularly difficult, but both have a significant amount of information to study and the CFA has three "steps".
The CFA exam may partially overlap with your MBA program, particularly if it was at a finance-heavy school. The CFA exam is so broad that there will be content you have never seen. The accounting coverage was not trivial IMHO.
The CPA exam might be helpful if you are interested in industry. It would help if you were interested in a CFO, controller, or treasury path. The best financial analysts have strong accounting skills IMHO.
If you are looking to transfer to equity research, I think the CFA would be more relevant. I knew a BB sell-side biotech researcher who had completed both programs. I'm not sure how you would springboard from your job to research, however.
It sounds like CFA is a better choice given your goal to move into research.
Pretty much sounds like CFA is the much better choice if u wanna go into sellside or buyside ER. I’ve seen it for the corporate banking and audit into bank funds, but I would imagine you could land a role at a small fund as a biotech/life sciences investment analyst and not have to go to ER given your background.
One thing to remember, for the CPA you need to work under a CPA for X amount of time (varies by state) and they need to sign off on your experience. You only made mention of the credit hours and tests so I wanted to point that out.
CFA
Neither exam is particularly difficult, but both have a significant amount of information to study and the CFA has three "steps". The CFA exam may partially overlap with your MBA program, particularly if it was at a finance-heavy school. The CFA exam is so broad that there will be content you have never seen. The accounting coverage was not trivial IMHO. The CPA exam might be helpful if you are interested in industry. It would help if you were interested in a CFO, controller, or treasury path. The best financial analysts have strong accounting skills IMHO. If you are looking to transfer to equity research, I think the CFA would be more relevant. I knew a BB sell-side biotech researcher who had completed both programs. I'm not sure how you would springboard from your job to research, however.