Top 6 career opportunities for CMA (Certified Management Accountants)
Certified Management Accountant (CMA) is an advanced professional certification that demonstrates a strong knowledge of the critical accounting and financial management skills demanded by today’s dynamic businesses.
According to IMA’s 2020 Global Salary Survey, finance and accounting professionals that have the CMA certification earn upto 92% higher salaries in the Middle East region.
Now that we have established, CMA is a great stepping stone for your career, offers an industry-relevant skillset and excellent job security, let’s find out the career opportunities you can pursue:
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
A CFO is one of the top positions you can rise to in business, and is often considered a CEO’s right hand. They oversee everything from financial reporting and forecasting to a company’s investments and financial business decisions.
Some of the most critical job duties performed by a CFO include tracking cash flow, analyzing their financial strengths and weaknesses, and proposing corrective actions.
Corporate Controller
A corporate controller is someone who oversees a company’s financial and accounting functions. This includes everything from preparing the annual budget as well as internal and external financial statements, assessing current accounting operations, and coordinating activities for external auditors.
Cost Accountant
Cost accountants are responsible for recording and analyzing each cost incurred by a business. In turn, they use this information to identify where the company is losing money and how to improve its financial management.
Some of the everyday job duties of a cost accountant include preparing asset, liability, and capital account entries, documenting financial transactions, making financial recommendations based on the analysis of financial history.
Accounting Manager
These professionals develop and maintain accounting systems and procedures used by other accountants to collect and analyze data. They also oversee daily operations, monitor and analyze data, create financial statements and reports, as well as ensure the organization is following the essential accounting policies and principles.
Staff & Senior Accountant
Senior accountants are more managerial than junior or staff accountants and do not typically perform administrative tasks. Instead, they are responsible for reporting cost margins, productivity, and expenditures within a company.
The tasks include preparing month-end procedures, reconciling accountant balances, and maintaining a general ledger. In addition to this, senior accountants are expected to mentor junior staff, as well as lead accounting initiatives. Hence, they must also have strong communication and leadership skills.
Financial Analyst
If you like topics such as evaluating market trends and the microeconomic aspects of finances, then this might be the role for you. This role requires careful attention to detail as you will need to assess the financial condition of a potential investment to make sure it is worthwhile.
Some other typical job duties for a financial analyst include advising businesses on how to issue corporate bonds or split stock, as well as perform financial research and analysis to provide information on the business’s profitability, stability, liquidity, and solvency.
Management Accountant
Most CMA careers require you to plan and strategize, but as a management accountant specifically, you will budget, plan and strategize so that your company’s top managers and executives will be able to make risk-assessed decisions about their financial future. Along with being an expert in accounting, you must also possess the skill that allows you to communicate this data in a way that is easy to understand for non-experts. Being able to effectively communicate data is a key aspect.
To know how you can start your CMA journey, click here