Have ACAs, worth doing CIMA?

Locomotion

Hi, I am sitting my ACAs this year and will hopefully be fully qualified by November. Are the CIMA exams worth sitting too because I noticed that a fully qualified ACA has 11 exemptions out of the 14 exams.

I noticed you have to do 3 years in industry as well as the exams, does my 3.5 years with my training firm count towards that?

If so, it does seem worthwhile getting a full other professional qualification simply for sitting 3 more exams.

Any opinions?

Richard571

I don't think completing CIMA would give you any advantage over your current qualification. I am CIMA qualified and have worked extensively with accountants from ACA, ACCA and CIMA - in my experience all give a good basis for working in industry just make sure you are with a company that gives you good experience / oppurtunities

Depending upon what your training experience was you could count some or all of it towards CIMA qualification. You would need a min. of 18 months experience in the areas below (and a further 18 months in basic/advances and core areas

2a Preparation of management accounts
2b Planning, budgeting and forecasting
2c Management reporting for decision-making
2d Product and service costing
2e Information management
2f Project appraisal
2g Project management
2h Working capital control

Follow the link below for detailed practical experience requirements
http://www1.cimaglobal.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-0AE7C4D1-2BD367E3/live/root.xsl/1316.htm

Ideo

I think I read somewhere that said you are not allowed to be a member of another accounting body if you are a member of the ICAI. I could be wrong though but it might be worth checking out. And I don't see it offering any additional benifit, I mean CA is tops right?

smcgiff

Locomotion wrote: »

Any opinions?

An MBA would probably look better on a CV if you're looking for more finance study. I can't recall who made the argument now, but I remember someone saying that two accountancy quals. i.e. ACA and CIMA looks bad on a CV - I think they were saying the person didn't understand what their original qual meant or something like that - Okay I'm gibbering now.

Put me down for a no.

Running Bing

smcgiff wrote: »

An MBA would probably look better on a CV if you're looking for more finance study. I can't recall who made the argument now, but I remember someone saying that two accountancy quals. i.e. ACA and CIMA looks bad on a CV - I think they were saying the person didn't understand what their original qual meant or something like that - Okay I'm gibbering now.

Put me down for a no.

Big difference between doing three extra exams and taking a year out and spending tens of thousands to do an MBA.


I am only starting out but I would see my long term career in management accounting (Im doing ACA). I always half expected to do CIMA once I was qualified but its interesting to hear people say it would'nt make that much of a difference.

Is the material pretty similiar between ACA and CIMA?

Bren1609

smcgiff wrote: »

An MBA would probably look better on a CV if you're looking for more finance study. I can't recall who made the argument now, but I remember someone saying that two accountancy quals. i.e. ACA and CIMA looks bad on a CV - I think they were saying the person didn't understand what their original qual meant or something like that - Okay I'm gibbering now.

Put me down for a no.

+1

Do an MBA or tax exams

smcgiff

Babybing wrote: »

Big difference between doing three extra exams and taking a year out and spending tens of thousands to do an MBA.

You could get an Oxford Brookes MBA (take about 21 months via distance learning) for about €6k before deducting tax credit. You wouldn't give up your job.

Good luck either way.

Running Bing

smcgiff wrote: »

You could get an Oxford Brookes MBA (take about 21 months via distance learning) for about €6k before deducting tax credit. You wouldn't give up your job.

Good luck either way.

How are the distance learning MBA's looked upon within industry? Would they be rated highly.


Also I know you can do the tax exams too. I know these focus on the Irish tax system but how attractive would they be to oversea's employers? Do they have any relevance at all?

Thanks.

smcgiff

Babybing wrote: »

How are the distance learning MBA's looked upon within industry? Would they be rated highly.

If you get a distance MBA that means you've stayed working while studying and not one of those lazy, fly by nights, that take a year out to get their MBA full time.

To answer your question - unless you're getting your MBA from a top university it doesn't matter at all I imagine.

slave1

I'm ACCA and always fancied completing the CIMA qualification also, never got around to it and my reasons would be to upskill and improve my profile from an academic perspective

smcgiff

slave1 wrote: »

I'm ACCA and always fancied completing the CIMA qualification also, never got around to it and my reasons would be to upskill and improve my profile from an academic perspective

Then you can go on to do CIPFA

From an employer perspective I'd really question the merits of someone doing this.