Roxycuty

Hi

I moved to Montreal, Canada few years ago soon after I got married. Now in my late 20's I'm deciding whether to go into CA or CGA designations.

I did my degree in International Business but am taking higher level accounting courses at the moment to get into one of the two accounting designations. I know that CA is the most prestigious award but also the most stressful. All I want to do at the end of the day is pass quickly and get a good job: perhaps in relation to tax. Is it worth it going through all that stress that a CA goes through? Does CGA provide many opportunities compared to CA?

Cheers
Roxy

JonboyE

B******s.

JonboyE CGA

JonboyE

Being serious for a while, in BC at least, this isn't true. It may have been once, but it isn't amongst people who use the services of professional accountants these days. I know several, supposedly CA, firms where the majority of qualified accountants are CGAs. In industry CGAs and CMAs are perceived as more "real world" professionals compared to CAs.

That said, I think CAs are still thought of as the go to people for audit and strategic corporate and international tax planning. The big CA firms have resources that the typically small to medium size CGA firms simply cannot match.

You can think of the above as sour grapes or blowing my own trumpet and this is a fair point of view. However, for someone not currently working with a CA firm the CGA program offers a very accessible route to qualification that is designed for people who need a life of sorts.

phat-dave

i used to do recruitment specifically for the accounting and finance industry and all my clients would prefer a do'er not a review'er.

as JonBoy said, in industry CGA/CMA would have trump cards over CA.

Atlantic Xpat

To echo the above, I'm not an accountant but I have worked for and with accountants in Canada & they were all CGA's incl. CFO levels.

Budgie1

You have asked the wrong question.

It looks like you need to think harder and do far more research into the exact type of job and industry you want to work in, "accounting" is a huge field that can mean just about anything which is partly why Canada has three professional designations (CA, CMA and CGA).

Once you have a more concrete idea of what you want to do simply ask people in those positions already and they will let you know what designation would be best.

In general I would say:

CA = looking for 1st job in top tier public accounting firm, doors still open to move into a high corporate role or smaller public firm later when you realise you don't want to sell your soul for partnership.

CMA = looking for 1st job in the corporate world.

CGA = generalist, happy with 1st job smaller public accounting firms or business jobs.

Above all remember that a career is based on your experience and people skills, not your designation, so the more time you spending getting the right roles and experience the better off you will be regardless of the designation you end up getting.

Roxycuty

Hi all. Thanks for ur replies. Very helpful. Especially Budgie1- very good point u made there- Need to speak to people in positions that I'm interested in - the prob is finding these people cheers