In most companies, a CFO is the second person after a CEO, even though the nature of their professional responsibilities is a bit different. A CFO is in charge of all things finance (including the financial implications of the CEO’s plans), but they also play a crucial role in shareholder and investor relations. Given how challenging yet prestigious and well-compensated the CFO position is, it’s no wonder many job seekers are after it.
A Relevant Bachelor’s Degree
No one becomes a CFO fresh out of college. But this doesn’t mean that your college education is irrelevant to your chances of becoming a CFO one day. A young person with their eyes on the prize and their educational journey ahead of them should choose the right degree for a successful career in finance (and ultimately, the sought-after CFO position in the future).
Years later, you'll need a great application when looking for top-level jobs in finance. It’s always a good idea to invest in a professional written resume and cover letter by attorney resume writers, but they can’t substitute for relevant education and accomplishments. So the number one thing to ensure is that your future resume's “education” section features the right degree.
Accounting or finance are great options if you want to become a CFO one day. Which one to choose depends on your interests and plans. But if in doubt, go with finance. It’s a more well-rounded degree that will equip you with various skills necessary for any CFO, including everything that has to do with leadership. Accounting tends to be narrower.
A Professional Certification
Once you graduate and start your career, it’s a good idea to get a professional certification, especially if your Bachelor’s is in finance instead of accounting. Some of the best choices are a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA). Still, you can also go for a Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) if you’d like something beyond accounting and if you need to add it right to your resume use a monster resume writer.
Here’s what you need to know about them:
Certified Public Accountant (CPA). A CPA is the go-to choice of most people who want to dedicate their lives to accounting. It includes training in everything that matters for an accountant, including taxes, compliance, risk management, and more. Keep in mind, though, that you typically need at least a year of relevant professional experience before you can apply for a CPA.
Certified Management Accountant (CMA). This one’s arguably the best choice for someone who’d like to become a CFO one day. A CMA is more practice-oriented than a CPA (which is mostly theoretical). It teaches financial management with everything that it encompasses. Most students agree that a CMA certification is more challenging but also more interesting than a CPA.
Certified Financial Analyst (CFA). A CFA is perfect for equity analysis and hedge fund management. But it also works for a would-be CFO. The problem is that you need at least four years of relevant work experience on top of a Bachelor’s degree to apply for it. So a CFA is definitely not for the impatient.
An MBA or MSF
As a CFO has a “C” in front of it, having a Master’s degree helps. The best choices are a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Master of Science in Finance (MSF). Obviously, an MBA is always a big plus on one’s resume. But given how competitive it is, it might be wiser to get an MSF while also gaining diverse professional experience to convince any recruiter of your expertise.
Suppose you’re okay with being a CFO at a smaller company and would like to avoid spending too much on formal education. In that case, it’s possible to become a CFO without a Master’s degree. But you’ll have to be extra convincing and ensure your work experience is unparalleled. Otherwise, your potential employers will likely go with someone with an MBA.
Professional Experience Beyond Accounting
Most CFOs indeed start as accountants. But even if you spend ten years in accounting positions across different companies, you’ll hardly have the right experience to land a CFO position. A CFO is so much more than just an accountant, so you should purposefully seek work experiences that allow you to expand your skills beyond accounting.
Among other things, knowledge of human resources and the supply chain is paramount. Accountants don’t typically get to work in these fields. This means that you’ll need to deviate from accounting and ask your employers for new training and development opportunities at some point in your career. Luckily, most of them appreciate interested and ambitious employees, so you shouldn’t have any problems with that.
The Right Skills and Connections
In addition to all the professional skills, a CFO is supposed to have leadership skills. This is one of the rarely discussed aspects of a CFO career. If you’d like to become a CFO one day, you must keep working on your leadership skills throughout your educational and professional journeys. That’s one of the reasons why it’s not enough to be an accountant and why an MBA degree is a plus.
Also, one rarely becomes a CFO by finding a job opening and sending their resume. Most companies fill their C-level jobs through networking and headhunting. It’s rare to see a job opening of that caliber posted on a regular job board akin to Indeed.
That’s why a would-be CFO needs to foster professional connections throughout their career. Keep in touch with your fellow college alums, use LinkedIn to connect with big names in your industry, attend networking events, and so on. The goal is to ensure that you know everyone and, most importantly, everyone knows you.
Final Thoughts
There’s no one correct way of becoming a CFO, but there are a few milestones that hardly anyone can afford to bypass. If you want to be a CFO one day, you need a Bachelor’s in accounting or finance, an accounting certification, and, ideally, an MBA. At the same time, it also matters how diverse your work experience and skills are and how good you’re at networking and you need a great resume by professional resume services.
