Second Bachelor's VS MBA for Liberal Arts Major

But the problem is that it doesn't broaden your reach. It is a specific credential for a specific area of the business. It isn't like a PMP where a person in a variety of roles can benefit from it. It's a specialty certification. Work outside of that specialty? It does you no good.

Without seeing the individuals you looked at it is hard to say definitively. But the first thing that comes to mind is this...

There was a time when financial planners were getting the CFA. Keep in mind that it is equally "acceptable" for a person with a degree in Finance to work retail side or back office. Financial planners were doing this, ostensibly, to ensure that they had the best training to be the very best "stock pickers" they could be.

For an independent stock broker this might make sense. But many financial planners work for large companies with a lot of resources dedicated to research and analysis. If I become a financial planner at Company X, Company X doesn't want me sitting there spending days upon days picking stocks. If I do that then I'm not meeting with existing clients or prospecting for new clients.

CFP is geared toward client service. CFA is geared toward financial analysis.

So you have guys and gals who got the latter and now, still working on the retail side, find that not having their CFP is being held against them. You also have people who were back office analysts stepping out to become financial planners. But I think the former example is probably more common.

Think of it like when Rich spoke of how the USAF more or less penalized you if you didn't have an associate's degree from the Community College of the Air Force even if you had a bachelor's from another school.

For a financial planner to have a CFA, ok fine, but career advancement is likely going to necessitate earning the CFP. For an analyst CFP doesn't come into the equation. Even though the words may all sound similar it just doesn't offer any benefit that an employer would value unless you intend to jump to the retail side.

All of the CFP analysts I found on LinkedIn werent analysts at all. They were all financial planners who tacked "& analyst" to their titles.

 

Going back to the OP's question, it may be worth looking into MS in Finance programs that are oftentimes more closely geared towards pure econ, finance, etc. as opposed to much of the general curriculum that an MBA would require (although this GenEd could be valuable to you since you apparently don't have a business degree/background).

However, before jumping into a time consuming and potentially costly venture, you may want to look at interning or doing some work in general finance or even with a professional who is working a position that you are interested in obtaining at some point. The industry can be tough and better to see how you like it (assuming you don't have much experience with it), before jumping into an arduous program.

 

Online Finance MBA Programs | Online Finance MBA Degree | US News

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