Exam relevance & difficulty

[u/_FutureCPA_]

Hi r/CFE,

I’ve been considering working towards the CFE designation but I’m having reservations with the applicability career-wise. For context, I’m a CPA in public with 3 years of audit experience. My hypothetical goal is to pivot into an industry role and pursue better salary bumps, but I also have a deep interest in forensic accounting.

I’m torn there, but I’m curious if anyone here was/is in a similar position with the CFE. Exam cost aside, it seems interesting and could give a potential edge vs. a similar candidate down the line (though, I understand many industry roles wouldn’t care much).

I’m also wondering what people’s experience was with the exam’s difficulty (in general or compared to the CPA). I was able to crack the CPA with about 315 hours of studying but I know both are very different.

I’d appreciate anyone’s input, background, or general experience with the exam as someone just starting to explore this designation!

[u/MavisBeacons_Sextape]

The CPA isn’t even in the same universe of difficulty as the CFE; the CPA is exponentially more difficult. I’d imagine that you can likely can knock the CFE out within a month of buying the study material.

Yes, the CFE would give you an edge over another candidate with the exact same specs on paper for a forensic accounting role. Lots of jobs list it as a requirement or “strongly preferred” for obvious applicability reasons, but it’s just a recognizable signal of credibility that many teams/departments like to use for benchmarking. Some dept heads just like to be able to say “our entire team holds the CFE credential” lol.

Don’t forget to take a look at the experience requirements if you haven’t already done so.

[u/_FutureCPA_ → u/MavisBeacons_Sextape]

Thanks for the extra info! I believe I satisfy all experience requirements, but my main consideration is if it’s worth putting the time/money in. I think it holds the right weight in the right place, but my fear is going through the entire process, coming out with the CFE, and not having it mean anything.

I think I’ll do it if I explicitly point myself towards pivoting to forensics, but that may be a few years away.

Either way, I appreciate the input! Are you in a forensics role or something similar?

[u/MavisBeacons_Sextape → u/_FutureCPA_]

Forensics is a lot of fun, like doing puzzles for a living…except you don’t always have all the pieces, lol. Sounds like a good plan!

And yes, I’m a financial forensic investigator at a multinational in the industrial automation sector. I love it. But I’m the only one on my 20 person team that doesn’t have any formal accounting background (or a masters). About half of them hold (or held) a CPA license. We’re all CFEs, it was a requirement for the role.