Whatever your career goals may be, outside certification can be a way to make yourself stand out amongst your peers.  The Chair of the Institue of Managment Accountants wrote the article at the link below for Strategic Finance last fall.  It does a nice job summarizing the benefits of earning the CMA and/or CPA designation in terms of increased earnings over the course of one’s career.  I would add on to this the fact that credential holders, in my experience, are more involved in their profession and maintain more current knowledge through continuing education than non-credential holders.

Check out this link for the article mentioned above:

http://www.imanet.org/pdf/09_08_perspectives.pdf