ACCA or CIMA? Most lucrative career?

Hiya,

I am deciding whether to study ACCA or CIMA,
It appears ACCA leads you to a career in either financial or management accounting and CIMA covers specifically management accounting, is that correct?

Purely speculatively, if one was good at their job, between ACCA and CIMA, which would lead to the more successful/lucrative career?

My impression is that ACCA could lead you to a Partner position in practice, while CIMA could lead you to a CFO or finance director position in industry, are these accurate assumptions?

Is ACCA viewed as more prestigious than CIMA?

Which is harder to pass, ACCA or CIMA?
Does one take more time/commitment than the other?

I am personally on an ACA training contract so I can't say I know much about the ACCA and CIMA.. but nevertheless AFAIK the ACCA is much more geared towards financial accounting like the ACA, whilst CIMA is geared towards management accounting.

Personally I would opt for ACCA over CIMA any day of the week (and similarly ACA over ACCA but it seems that you don't have the option). But if you're not set on financial accounting and you know that you're more interested in management accounting then CIMA might be the better choice.

I do however believe that the ACA/ACCA are more versatile.

Your assumptions are a little incorrect. I'm actually not aware of many CFOs who qualified with CIMA, certainly not in the very top companies.. but I do know for a fact that the vast majority of CFOs in the FTSE 100 are 'ACA' qualified. Again I don't know the figures for ACCA/CIMA, but I do know that the ACCA is much more similar to the ACA than CIMA.

I think the consensus in the UK is that ACA > ACCA > CIMA. But again it really depends on what you want to do.

Well, ACCA and CIMA, both of them lead to a lucrative career.
ACCA is a narrower qualification that concentrates mainly on Accounting/Taxation and all technical matters.
CIMA is a broader qualification that concentrates on almost all aspects of business, from Operations, Performance and the Financial aspects as well.
Hence, one could say that if someone does ACCA, the career path will be narrow and vice versa for CIMA. That's the general assumption, and that one would choose ACCA only if he is certain about his career choice.
My cousin did ACCA and completed it off a few years ago, he worked as an audit, then as an analyst and now he actually works as a consultant, hence the assumption is wrong. Two of my CIMA lecturers are ACCA qualified and one works as a Finance manager and the other is a Managing Director. I know a lot of dudes who did CIMA and are working as analysts or even accountants. So the possibilities are endless with both the qualifications.
And, whether you land as a CEO is not defined by the qualification you take, it would be defined by yourself.
Your start can be very rough though, as with all other careers and you need to work your way up.
If you look at the pass rates for each session in their websites, you would come to a conclusion that both are equally hard. An ACCA candidate would say CIMA is easier and a CIMA candidate would say ACCA is easier. That depends on the individual. Both of them require hard work and commitment equally. Professional qualifications demand more than its relevant degree programme.
Both ACCA and CIMA are equally prestigious on a general scale. On a personal point of view, ACCA is just a littttleee bit more prestigious.. may be like by one point lol.

I would disagree with saying that ACCA was narrower.

ACCA = general accounting (including management accounting)
CIMA = management accounting

Why i said so was, ACCA focuses much more on technical matters while CIMA is an all-rounder.

I sense just a small touch of bias in this post

Unless you've done all three qualifications you can't judge them without being biased. You can only judge them on what you've heard so the knowledge of the one you're studying is obviously going to be greater.

It sounds like you're exactly agreeing with what I said then?

Uhhmmm..... yeah.