My friend is at the ABD stage of her PhD at NCU. All of her degrees have been received via DL. She is 39 and is currently making $110,000.00 as a CFO. Currently, she is being made offers of $150,000.00 to $200,000.00. This is a great testament to DL and NCU. On the other hand, I have a friend who has an MBA from Pepperdine and was thankful to grab a position for $30,000.00 after being out of work for so long. I guess in the end, a degree is merely a piece of paper. Succees is up to the individual. Hasta La pasta! Abner
My personal experience suggests: The origin of the degree matters if you are in (or trying to get into) academia. It is harder (but not impossible) to cross academic “Tiers” (for a variety of probably very legitimate reasons). The origin of the degree matters as it lets you into a strong alumni network. The origin of the degree matters less, but still some, if you are coming in cold through job boards, recruiters, and HR screeners. The origin of the degree matters very little if you are using your own professional networks and are established in an industry. The origin of the degree matters not at all if you are a self made entrepreneur.
It is who you know and not what you know, most if not all of the time! Hasta La pasta? De Dientes o de macarrones?
Congratulations to your friend on nearing completion of the doctoral stage of her academic education. Obviously, she has established a successful career for herself and with any luck and careful planning the PhD will bring her even more success. Likewise my sister has a successful consulting practice centered around her graduate degrees (masters that is completed and doctorate nearing the research stage). The funny thing is once you start doctoral studies a lot more doors seem to open up even before reaching the dissertation writing and defense.
She is the Finance sector. Her specialty is hospital administration finance, and also non profits. One of the non profits that offered her a lot of money for a CFO positon involved travelling all over the world setting up health care and pregnancy prevention for women. Pretty cool. She really likes to take ailing companies and make them thrive again. The challenge is what she likes. She is in California. Abner
While $110,000 sounds good to many people, it's actually pretty low on the scale for CFOs - more in the range of what a decent accountant would be paid. In fact, even $150-200k isn't great given the level of responsibility and accountability in our current regulatory climate. As a way of comparison, I looked up the public records for the company I work for (Fortune 500). Our CFO has a base salary of $575,000, restricted stock of $1.7M, $212K of options and $48K of "other compensation", plus other stuff. Needless to say she does well but sorry to say she has a Harvard MBA (and an Economics/PoliSci undergrad). Once you reach the executive ranks, which is where the CFO is, non-salary compensation should equal or exceed your base salary. This is obviously different in non-profits but it also highlights the difference between compensation models.
That depends entirely on whether the company is public or is privately held. If privately held it depends on the size of the company and the region of the country the organization is in. Pug
It's both. Sometimes it's the "who you know" that gets you the job first. It's then that the "what you know" has to shine to keep the job. Other times it's simply "what you know" right from the start, as is the case when you interview cold. I was very fortunate that early in my career an exective noticed me, took a liking to me and gave me an opportunity. It was then up to me to make the most of that opportunity. I've since left that organization and become an executive in another firm where I again had to fly on the strength of what I knew, not who I knew. I believe this happens a lot. Pug
Agreed 100% - for kicks I searched for open CFO jobs and found one for a small bank paying $90-100k, another for a foreign bank in NY for around $189k, one in Spokane Washington paying $125-150k, and one in Tennessee for a real estate developer paying $150+ (CPA desired). What's interesting if you look at SalaryWizard you'll see for CFO's the following salary ranges: 10th percentile - $169,771 25th percentile - $228,517 75th percentile - $379,636 90th percentile - $458,477 with bonuses ranging from $193,482 (10th percentile) to $817,766 (90th). The total median package with benefits, etc. is over $520K. There are many at the low end, but quite a few out there earning significant dollars.
