Professional Qualification - to do or not to do?

This is my second post for “Risk Insights”, entitled “The three most common questions about doing a professional qualification in banking, finance and risk management”.

This is a common topic that I encountered a lot in various alumni panels as a guest speaker. The questions can be broadly grouped into three main themes:

1.   Why consider studying for a professional qualification?

2.   When should I study for a professional qualification?

3.   What professional qualification should I choose?

Looking back, all my learning has given me a solid foundation to build a career that I like. Thank you, #GARPFRM #ACCA #CIMA. If I rewind around ten years, my initial decision to study for a professional qualification was taken in order to change discipline from law to finance. I self-studied for Association of Chartered Certified Accountants membership (ACCA) first and then combined this with Financial Risk Manager (FRM), receiving chartered status in 2015 and becoming a member with relevant years of professional experience. Learning is a journey, not a destination. In 2019 I became an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (ACMA) and received Chartered Global Management Accountant membership (CGMA).

So, here are my insights on those common questions:

1.   This is a decision that will be driven by your career direction and your personal interest. Having a clearer objective upfront will help you to have a more enjoyable learning journey. Some of you may be thinking of doing it because your friends or peers are currently pursuing it, your degree is offering you exam exceptions into many professional qualifications (Why not enjoy the benefit of fewer exams?), or maybe your school is encouraging you to do it to increase your technical knowledge, improve your competitiveness and enhance your job prospects. Arguably, my motivation has mainly been a personal interest to expand my knowledge base, grow my technical and soft skills and build my confidence. Professional qualifications provide me with useful frameworks to become familiar with technical language and a systematic way to build my knowledge in a new field. Please don’t feel obliged to do a professional qualification. From my past experience, around 20–30% of learning has been formal training programmes such as professional qualifications, and around 70–80% has been on-the-job learning. Arguably, learning by studying and learning by doing are both effective ways to acquire knowledge. So, what is your motivation? Is it to escalate your existing career, is it to help you facilitate a change of discipline, or is it just for personal interest?

2.   There is usually no best time to start learning. You can start as soon as you are eligible, or you can hold on until you know which qualification will be most beneficial for your long-term career. Some of us may start doing a professional qualification at university to create synergies between our degree and the relevant qualification studies. Many may be offered to do one as part of their graduate programme, with sponsorship from their employers. As far as I am aware, except for a few specialist areas in banking, finance and risk management, a professional qualification is not mandatory, and it is largely a personal choice regarding career development. Please note that you need not only to pass exams but also to gain relevant work experience. It is important to plan in advance if your current and future roles will help you to obtain all the required work experience. That is to say, learning itself will not guarantee that you know how to use them in a real case, so you will need to actively find an opportunity to apply this knowledge in solving real business problems. For example, you can get involved in leading projects and resolving specific assignments, which will help you to integrate textbook learning to deliver business priorities.

3.   When I first started my learning journey, I tried a wide range of certifications, but with three of them I went through the full journey. These are just a few examples of what I did and how I have found them relevant and beneficial to my career so far:

• ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants, covering various important aspects through several modules, including auditing, assurance, taxation, financial reporting and many more. The key takeaway for me is the ability to interpret financial information, even just awareness of the technical language used, to improve my confidence and to help me perform my role as a risk analyst.  
• CIMA (the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) is the world's largest professional body of management accountants. This account certification has a different focus from ACCA, covering more the management and strategic aspects of an organisation using financial information at operational, management and strategic levels. The case study element was my favorite part. Although these cases are challenging in nature, it is a way to consolidate knowledge, integrate learning and apply theory in practice, which has been particularly beneficial for my role as a business planning analyst.
• FRM (the Financial Risk Manager), offered by the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GRAP), is the globally recognised standard for those working in risk management, with a focus on managing financial risk. As a leading certification for risk managers, I learnt several useful foundations of risk management, as well as advanced knowledge of financial markets and products, valuation and risk models, market risk, operational risk, credit risk, liquidity and treasury risk, and many more. I am still benefiting from this qualification and maintaining the latest knowledge through continuing professional development.

I hope that my insights will help you to make an informed decision if you are thinking of doing a professional qualification. One final tip is to be aware of the time required for your study, the personal commitment in terms of funding and resources, planning your study and dividing the task into manageable pieces. Some of my friends like to have a similar time commitment every day, whereas I prefer to block study over weekends and use weekday mornings before work or evenings after work to catch up on lighter reading. Learning while working is not easy, but all the hard work, stress, doubts, late nights, weekends, personal and social sacrifices will finally be worth it when you receive your certificate and become a member, ultimately contributing to your future career success.

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All the best and have a good day!