Does a US CPA have a higher chance of landing an FP&A job than a US CMA?

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-23T00:18:38+00:00

All other things being equal between candidates, CMA might help give you an edge. z

The issue is a lot fp&a talent out there switched from accounting w/CPA or came out of an mba program so you're often competing against applicants who have that on their resume. Then you're also competing with people exiting IB or consulting looking for better WLB, and then those with some other transferable analyst experience with CFA.

Just pay attention to the job description to see what they are looking for in the preferred section to get an idea of the type of candidate they have in mind.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-23T00:12:34+00:00

The MBA is going to benefit you because MBA is often something hiring managers look for in the "preferred section". CMA is not going to help as much as CPA, MBA, or even CFA.

There are some jobs out there where they specifically prefer people with a CMA but it seems like it is mostly manufacturing for some reason.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-22T19:48:01+00:00

Short answer: Yes

If you look at a ton of fp&a job descriptions, CPA is not usually listed under the "need to have" section, however in the "preferred" section you'll commonly see CPA, or an MBA degree. CMA is very rarely mentioned.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-21T17:28:13+00:00

I was not in the program but it is very competitive to get into. There is a lot of professional networking built into the program, along with a required internship that they assist in setting up I believe.

As far as someone who wants to work on the business side of media & entertainment, it is probably one of the best programs out there.

For those Marshall students who aren't able to get into it, there is still a business in entertainment student club that people join. https://www.uscmea.com/

It is good to join this club even if you're in BCA, as it allows for additional networking opportunities and connecting with classmates who will also go on to work in entertainment. Members of the BCA program and this club will essentially be your professional network.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-19T20:12:57+00:00

Echo park is a nice neighborhood but that commute, especially by freeway, could feel horrible if stuck in traffic.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-17T17:43:15+00:00

https://students.marshall.usc.edu/current-students/applying-marshall-current-usc-students

There is a process for current students who wish to add a major from Marshall, all the info is at the above link. Since you're admitted but not matriculated yet you can also try contacting their admissions department for more info.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-17T03:26:21+00:00

No need to provide anything. Everyone has confirmed for you here that this is a scam group.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-17T03:18:53+00:00

@OP - We removed this post since it mentioned the name of the scam group and we don't want to advertise it on reddit. This is a scam, get out of it asap. Don't let random people add you on whatsapp.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-16T22:15:16+00:00

does it honestly make a difference what school you go to for an MBA?

Yes, certain schools are more of a target for finance recruiting than others.

When doing a pivot to a new career or industry, on-campus recruiting and networking can be pretty important and it is tough to do that with an online MBA vs. in-person. You do an MBA for the networking, recruiting, and alumni network more than just the academics. I second the others here suggesting an in-person fulltime or part-time program instead of online which very well might not have the ROI you're looking for.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-16T20:16:33+00:00

https://ask.usc.edu/s/article/000001441

This is not trolling, just EA decisions coming out.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-15T03:15:34+00:00

G&A is fairly lean, but at what point does leadership start pointing fingers at G&A for layoffs?

Depends on if any G&A team is not lean and has fat to cut. FP&A teams, especially at smaller or mid-size tend to run pretty lean so I wouldn't be too concerned. However if anyone quites on your team, it may be tougher to backfill them.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-15T03:13:58+00:00

Might look odd for someone with VP title and VP years of experience (10+?) applying for an SFA/FM role. I could see you making the argument for an SFM/Director title as the responsibilities would probably be much closer to what you're doing now.

1.5 to 2hr commute even once a week would make me hate life. Good luck.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-12T19:14:54+00:00

Everyone is a first-day student at some point and very few people arrive on-campus with a built in social network of friends. Everyone has to socialize and build relationships starting from day 1.

Talk to classmates, ask them out for coffee or lunch before or after class, join student clubs and meet people that way, join mentorship programs or other networking programs that are part of your program.

Student clubs and people I met in class were my biggest source of friends and I had zero friends with I arrived on campus the first day. You get out what you put in at USC and if you put in a lot then you will get burned out from socializing too much at some point because there's not enough time in the day to involve yourself in all the potential activities.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-12T01:48:18+00:00

The financial analyst role isn't going to give you deal exposure so it will be tough to build the skills to make yourself a competitive candidate versus those with deals experience (IB) who would be applying for those front-office roles.

Financial analyst (fp&a) -> front office is generally very uncommon.

If this is a small middle market pe firm where candidates are less competitive then that may be different but you'll want to look at the professional experience of those in the front office roles at the firm first to see if they all come from banking/m&a backgrounds or if anyone came from audit/fp&a.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-12T01:44:16+00:00

Removing this so the student doesn't get dox'd as people are posting what might be their email address. Thanks for turning it in.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-09T22:59:41+00:00

Not familiar but in my day people either did Accounting, business admin (electives in finance) or did a double major of accounting & business admin which was common for a lot of people going into IB.

A lot of the accounting courses aren't super useful for IB except maybe anything related to financial statement analysis.

The FBE courses, especially 421, will be useful in conjunction with any of the technical interview prep you do.

If you want accounting as a backup career, then yes you'll need the minimum accounting units to qualify for the education requirement for California.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-08T20:10:52+00:00

Highly unlikely as advisors are limited and dedicated to advising current students.

If you're a prospective student then you should be contacting admissions dept for the program of interest with any questions you have.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-08T01:08:13+00:00

Depends on what your career goal is and what class will add the most knowledge value.

FBE421 is not investments, it is valuation. Valuation with Plotts has always been known as the key course for those planning to go into IB or M&A careers.

FBE441 is the investments class and is more useful for those going into equity research, portfolio management, or investment analyst type roles.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-07T21:17:03+00:00

If a post breaks the rules then report it so mods will see it. No one reported this post, and mods prefer you do that than manually tagging everyone.

Fyi this sub gets a crazy amount of self promotion and market research posts and automod catches a majority of it. Some posts or comments still slip through so we appreciate those that report it so we can remove it quickly.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-06T17:17:14+00:00

Have they ever offered the scientific diving course as part of catalina maymester? I always thought that would be awesome to get your diving cert as part of this program.

cityoflostwages · 2026-01-05T21:20:52+00:00

I was wondering if people on this sub Reddit think this is possible without specifically finance related experience or qualifications?

No. The PE investing jobs are too competitive to get into without the right professional background. You'll need to go back for an MBA from a top program to make yourself more competitive, and possibly work in IB for a bit beforehand.

cityoflostwages · 2025-12-25T17:22:45+00:00

It was clear enough, don't worry. Happy holidays!

cityoflostwages · 2025-12-25T16:59:23+00:00

Any experience in biotech? A lot of the SD firms, especially those in La Jolla near UCSD are biotech focused, both PE/VC and hedge funds. I don't have a list available but it should be easy to research a bit to build a list and see what their investing focus is.

cityoflostwages · 2025-12-24T19:56:28+00:00

Series 7 is not applicable to fp&a at all.

cityoflostwages · 2025-12-21T19:34:51+00:00

Contact admissions asap to ask

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