I have both CPA and CFA and currently working at an IB. It’s not fair to say one designation is better than the other. They are just different (사과와 오렌지 중 어떤게 더 맛있냐고 물어보는 꼴임).
In terms of difficulty, both designations are definitely doable if you put in the hours. To be honest, I never found them to be difficult. What’s for sure is you will find accounting in CFA curriculum to be very easy if you already have a CPA, and you won’t need to study as much to pass CFA level 1 and 2. I studied one week and passed level 1. Level 2, I studied about 3 weeks straight and passed.
Level 3 is a different beast. You gotta learn how to tackle the essay questions in the way CFA Institute wants. I failed once after studying for 1.5 week but passed in my second try after putting in good 3 weeks of studying in the following year.
CFA – It’s not so much about the designation that is powerful, but rather, it’s the experience that you need to acquire that makes a difference in the person who holds the designation. I’ve seen people with CFA doing average jobs, but i’ve also seen people with CFA making tons of money working for IB (or something equivalent), so when it comes to CFA, success seems to depend a lot more on the experience rather than the designation itself.
CPA – The designation is like a barrier to entry in the accounting field. It has its own competitive advantage. There are lots of jobs in the market (a lot more compared to CFA). You will likely get a job somewhere and likely won’t go broke (무얼 하던 먹고 살순 있음). Some are very successful as a partner of an accounting firm or as an executive in industry (i.e. CFO at a small company, etc.). But there are also many average income earners in this profession, just doing some sort of financial reporting or internal audit work at an average company.
