Hello Ashish,
First of all, congratulations for having completed one of the most prestigious courses in the country and being a part of the CA Community.
Well, the word 'Finance Hardcore' is different to different persons. Eseentially, it depends on the perspective of yours here. CA is mainly concerned with Taxation, Corporate Law, Auditing and Accounting. KPMG being one among the "Big Four" certainly provides a lot of opportunities in the acoounting and auditing domain. I am glad you found a job there and that too as Executive - Transfer Pricing.
Now, I straight away come down to business. KPMG is a big firm. It hires CAs mainly for analytical works which may even be done by MBA grads. Now, CAs, basically, are required to solve taxation prroblems, Acoounting matters etc. With Transfer Prcing, I assume you are mainly concentrated towards the documantation and modelling of pricing policies (and Strategies) between two parties which in a manner is helping your clients with taxation problems.
Now lets come down to your aspirations for CFA. See, you mention that by the tme you clear teh exams, you would have experience in the fields of Transfer Pricing and strategic planning (maybe). CFA as a whole is concentrated towards equity research and Portfolio Management. It has no relation to what exactly you are doing at the moment. So, from what I see, it won't actually be adding much to your CV, rather it would be like starting right from the beginning.
I have chosen CA + CFA because I have had a lot of experience with Markets. My dad runs a Franchiee of a prestigious broker-house and I know the ins and outs of the whole damn procedure. Hence, I just need a 'degree' (CFA Here) just to prove that. I still am focussing more on being a successful CA. Besides, all these a lot of people here in CAclubIndia don't know that I am actually in the Final year of my engineering too, the course which I mainly chose to prepare for various exams and gain an experience of Hostel life which shapes your mind quite analytically. My engineering actually added value to my aspiration for CA because you cannot do an audit of an industry unless you know the central operations of the entity. This led me to acquire a job in Headstrong Finacial Services (Noida) as Business Analyst (Finance). I myself always wanted to get indulged into Financial Advisory thing. Right now, my dreams demand from me a thorough knowledge of Portfolio Management, Asset Management, Wealth Management etc. To accomplish this, I chose CFA for Portfolio Management and am later planning to take up CFP for asset and wealth management.
So, I still insist, as I always do, choose courses wisely, because in the long run, it's not the money that matters but the pleasure of doing what YOU actually wished to do does.
Ashish, I might have taken your question wrong, feel free to clarify, if this case actually is here.
Best wishes,
Chirag.
CAclubindia
