I 'm thinking to switch my career to mc after 10 yrs working in application implementation. I have undergraduate degree in Business Admin (major in finance). I'm considering to take CFA. Will CFA help me to switch career?other than CFA, anything else can help?your advice is much apprecaited.

CFA is only useful for investment consulting, equities research, portfolio management. Perhaps for you an MBA might be better.

Perhaps more research is needed if you think a CFA is a gateway to MC? If you do app implementation, how is that in anyway relevant to preparing you for a CFA?Look into an MBA as JM suggests, i would have thought in general if you have 10 years in IT, an MC firm is unlikely to take a look at you without at least something like an MBA.

Thank for your reply. assume you are the hirer, except MBA what will make you to consider to hire me as mc?

Um - the ability to construct grammatically correct sentences would help.

Thanks hmmmm.Could I seek your help to become my mentor?

Other than MBA is experience, which you don't have currently. Are there any in-house strategy opportunities at your workplace? You can also try to be more proactive in other areas e.g. business development. A career change at any stage is a difficult decision and after 10 yrs work experience you need to have very solid reasons...

Of course you can Amy. I give frank and direct but very useful advice. However, I charge £50/hour. Give me an e-mail address if you're interested.

Thanks Km. Business development? Are you meant sales? Does pre-sales in IT solutions will count?

amy, are you fit?

yeh, here's a link to me looking sultry and artistic in my myspace photo:http://photo.sing365.com/music/picture.nsf/Amy-Studt-photo/0DC7C32FB6E2D67648256D5E0008F806/$file/Amy+Studt.jpg

Hi fake "amy" why use my name to post the photo.

hehe

As someone with a degree of experience of guiding people through career change situations, may I offer you a few tips?The most important one is that you are starting with the wrong question. Before sorting out whether or not to take a further qualification you need to sort out in your mind what it is in your old career that you would like to leave behind and what you will be seeking in your new one. Once you have done that you will be able to do a gap analysis between where you are and where you would like to be and then construct a plan to take you there. Whilst that may include a further qualification, it would also help if you identify some “bridges” between your current job and your desired future. Without those “bridges” there's a danger that recruiters will deem you to be too old for an entry level opening in your chosen new career but not to have the experience for a more senior opening.I'm now semi-retired but, for an interest, am in the process of trying to set up a career blog. This is still in embryonic form and there are some technical glitches that need sorting. I will try to do a more detailed post on this subject on there within the next week or two.If you are interested, post a reply to this and I'll let you have the web address of the blog.

Thanks Dorothy for your tips.yes, i'm interested to have the blog web address.

It's http://www.thecareerarenablog.com. This is still in embryonic form. I'll try to get my head around a piece on career change over the next week or so. The challenge for me is condensing something that is quite complex - and has so many variables - into a post that is short and snappy!

DorothyKeep up the good work - I'm reading it now and it's great, some very valuable stuff in there (like the stages of life).

dear dorothy Wilson, i would like your opinion over a dilemma that i am currently having...would it be possible if you search for the thread 'PWC Consulting or EY auditing or Australia tryout' and give me any form of advice...thanks miss dorothy...your help would be very much appreciated...P.S sorry amy i had to use your thread...but seeing i need some advice urgently from an experience professional like miss dorothy, couldnt help it...cheers

np :)