To be FP&A Mgr - Should i get CFA, Msc in Biz Analytics or Excel PowerPivot?
 

Hi there,

i had been one year in cost analyst and two more years as financial analyst in two commercial firms, all of them being high tech manufacturing plant in singapore.

am a singaporean, got engr degree from local u, ACCA and CPIM (supply chain equivalent of ACCA). Based on CPF research/survey it was found that FP&A mgr for a commercial firm is not a bad job at all as it fetches around 10-12k per month and was ranked top 20 of Singapore's 100 highest pay job. Not forgetting the potential to go up to be a VP Finance/CFO who is Singapore top 10 highest paying job that fetch 15-20k per month.

i'm 29 yo, pretty free after completing ACCA and CPIM, and have be through two rigorous budgeting cycles, now looking for more qualification to accelerate myself to be a FP&A mgr.

The question is. what should i study?

1. CFA - not that relevant to a commercial firm setting, though my company to going to be spined off, and the size is pretty big (more than 50+ finance people), passing a tough exam increase creditablity.....i guess?
and is very cost-efficient, guess can complete it using less than 10k


2. Master in Business Analytics - NUS - kinda interesting to me, but need to get GMAT first and is heavily IT oriented, i'm ok with VBA programming but not sure i'm really good enough for Oracle/ODBC/SQL stuffs
i know this is a boast to be a data scientist....but FP&A mgr? is it even relevant? Does it helps?
and the cost is 40k, pretty expensive

3. Good old MS excel certification. i've got basic, advanced excel MS cert. maybe i just continues the spreadsheet and business intelligence path and take up the latest Microsoft installment of PowerPivot? Does starting up a business intelligence company helping company in mgmt information system earn higher than a FP&A mgr?
the cost is lowest, online course for PowerPivot is less than 2k

i'm a pretty good mix of extrovert (can talk/persuade/pressure to numerous stakeholders during budgeting period) and introvert (can write Macro programming using VBA) and have a little wish to earning five figures after another six or seven years of hard work, please help

3 is out. ms excel is seriously outdated. industry standard now going in R, SAS, SPSS.

2 is a waste of money. true data scientists are statisticians and mathematicians. you will fight with them, your past experience gone down to waste, and your five figure wish will take longer to complete.

1. CFA can lead you to CFO, risk management and portfolio manager roles. no doubt it's tough. go for it.

Thanks a lot for the advice and motivation (i felt it:) , this really helps