It's easy to live in the present when you're a college student: things like marriage, family, even owning a home probably seem like a long way away when you're worrying about midterms and making the dean's list. You probably have a similar attitude about your career.

If you're an accounting or finance major, you're probably familiar with the CPA designation and its value for landing a job in public accounting. What you may not be as familiar with is the Certified Management Accountant (CMA^®), which is the certification of choice for a position in industry. In fact, more then 90 percent of finance function professionals work in industry, where the CMA is most appropriate. They have job titles ranging from staff accountant and cost accountant to vice president - finance, and controller – and work “in-house” as management accountants at public and private companies, nonprofits, as well as government.

As the diagram on the left shows, while the CPA exam focuses heavily on audit/internal controls and financial reporting, the CMA tests a broader range of subjects, including decisions/capital budgeting, economics, and strategy/marketing. For industry professionals, the CMA demonstrates mastery of a comprehensive body of knowledge that puts one in a position to make decisions to drive business performance and become active strategic business partners.

John Brausch, CMA, CFM, CPA, ICMA^® Board of Regents chair, agrees: “As a finance professional, you need more than just knowledge of numbers and accounting rules – you need to be able to help company leadership make strategic decisions, to become a business partner. The CMA equips you with the tools to do that.”

Mr. Brausch, vice president, property controller, for the commercial real-estate firm Edens & Avant, knows first-hand the applicability of the CMA to today's finance professional: “The Board puts considerable effort into seeing that the CMA exam is relevant to today's business world. As a result, I think that most CMAs in industry would agree that the certification covers the issues they deal with on a day-to-day basis. I know that's certainly true in my role as controller.”

For students, Mr. Brausch recommends that they consider taking the CMA exam as soon as they possibly can. Some schools even allow seniors to take CMA review courses for credit and then take the exam. These students graduate with their degrees and completed CMA exam; only the experience requirement must then be completed.

So, consider thinking about your career for the long-term and take the CMA exam. You'll likely not regret the choice when you're sitting behind an industry desk a dozen years from now.

(For an excellent article on the benefits of dual certification and the opportunity for students to take both the CPA and CMA exams, see “Take Two!” in the April 2007 edition of Strategic Finance magazine at http://www.imanet.org/pdf/04_07_hargadon.pdf.)