<p>Hi everyone,
I have found out recently that CMA exam is changing in some ways. For instance, instead of 4 parts of examination, there will be only two parts that are more career focused. However, I do not know anything about the working experience required to be certified. I remember that in order to be CMA certified, a person was supposed to have 2 years of working experience in a management level. Did they change something? And by the way, does the regular working experience as an accountant or financial analyst count towards these two years? Is it possible to take the exam right after the college and later on satisfy the working experience, as it is possible with the CPA exam? Any answers are welcomed :)</p>
<p>I made a smiliar thread about a week ago.</p>
<p>Check here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/business-major/887076-new-cma-exam.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/business-major/887076-new-cma-exam.html</a></p>
<p>Personnally I don’t think the CMA is marketed towards people in college, which is probably why they’re second to the CPA. But I’m still considering it.</p>
<p>I agree, CMA is not as well known as CPA and a lot of people do not even know about this licence. I personally consider it the second after the CPA, as a most useful certificate in accounting field. I have read somewhere that CMAs have a higher salaries than CPAs, because they are working at the management level and obviously getting paid higher than a regular accountant or a CPA who is working for a company, not as a manager or controller.</p>
<p>However, most CMAs are already CPAs; It would be interesting to hear from someone who is only CMA, what kind of opportunities he/she has and so on. So, anyone who has CMA only or knowledgeable about it, please leave your response here :)</p>
<p>Just a question here while we’re talking about other accounting certifications. Does having a CMA, CISA, CIA certification in addition to the CPA give you any more leverage?</p>
<p>The CMA, like the CIA and CISA, are only good ideas without the CPA if you don’t have the education to qualify for the CPA exam. I saw a guy once with an IT/MIS background doing internal audit at a Fortune 100 company who was a CIA/CISA/CFE…my guess to balance out the fact he wasn’t a CPA. Once you are a manager it’s probably too late to get another 30 hours of credits to take the CPA. </p>
<p>I think the new CMA, like the CFA(which is harder), are more suited to accountants who already have CPA’s but want to do jobs in finance or accounting which are far enough away from auditing that employers might want some kind of assurance you know more than CPA type stuff. The only thing I remember from the CMA which I haven’t come across in school as much as I thought I would is budgeting. The old CMA and new one probably ask a lot of budgeting questions which are important to some accountants but not public accountants, internal auditors, or financial reporting types. My hope is that I get a job doing public accounting, hopefully Big Four, and the CMA will be a small point in my favor if I try to broaden my horizons to something other than the type of things ex-public accountants generally do. If your goal is to be a public accountant forever, the SEC/SOX compliance officer at some company, an internal auditor, a financial reporting guy, or something like that…you are probably just fine with the CPA.</p>