I would like to need your suggestion and advice... I have completed my CMA during 2015... But I would like to upgrade my skills and develop some knowledge which would be helpful for my future, could you please what should be next upgrade of skill in my career... Whether is there any qualifications can help me out in upgrade like acca, cia or cpa etc
What are the other qualifications can be studied after CMA
Answers
Hi Vinoth,
Everything depends on what you want to do and what will help you in your career. For example, you could work for an insurance broker, in which case having a licence to sell insurance might make sense. On the other hand you may work for a trucking company in which case having a licence to sell insurance might not make sense.
Personally, I find that once your CMA is done, you should consider taking some time off to reflect and focus on other parts of your life and your career. Then what you need to do becomes clear. If things are still not clear, I would suggest the following.
Learn about Excel. Getting better at Excel is a life long learning goal. Take some classes. I would strongly suggest that you become better at the core and that now includes Pivots. Then move on to VBA or Scripting. That will soon be part of core knowledge within the next few years.
Look beyond Excel as well. As accountants we spend a lot of time with databases. Learn your way through them. You can and should start with access and then move on to SQL etc.
Once you've done this you should have a strong grasp in your role. After that you can pick how you want to progress. Going for things like ACCA/CPA might be useful if you are looking to work in that space. There is a lot of overlap between them and the CPA program and enough difference to confuse you (at least temporarily.)
Depending on your company/role you could look into a MBA. I'm just finishing mine up and honestly that can be another large commitment and I'd strongly suggest taking the time to be doubly certain that you want to spend the time and money before you enter into a large commitment of either. For ACCA/CIA/CPA etc note that you will have to deal with continuing education requirements once you get them. For Access/SQL you usually do not and depending on where you are located, you may have several options for classes. i generally prefer in person but for mine, I've done them online. Its nice because you can do them from home but you have to have the discipline to set aside time to do it. There is no doubt that in class is better because you have to be in class and that is motivation for getting your homework etc done.
Best of luck.
Hey, you should think of pursuing US CPA. It's a globally recognized accounting certificate - like having a blackbelt in accounting. Given that you've studies CMA, you have an advantage when it comes to preparation cause there is some content overlap between the two qualifications. Cheers!
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