You are a little confused.  A CPA is what you want for the Financial Analyst position you see at Fortune 500 companies/etc.  CFA more geared towards finance and more specifically investment management.  If your goal is to goto a top company and become a financial anayst then finish ur your CPA.

Thanks for the info.  I feel a little better now about the CPA, and am no longer considering the CFA.  Do you think work in a local CPA firm will help my prospects for landing such a position?

To close to tell.  It's going to be a borderline pass/fail.  It was a stretch to take Level 1 in December in the first place.  I just landed a new job a few weeks after I decided to schedule it.  It's a relatively demanding job with increasing responsibilities.  I had roughly 2 1/2 months of study time and the last week before the test I must have clocked about 40 hours of study time (3 hours of sleep each night). 

I got to the test center, didn't bother reviewing.  The turnout was huge, hundreds of people.  All freaking out getting in their last minute review in.  I pretty came in with the attitude that I did what I could with all the time I allotted.  I was very relaxed during the test, took multiple bathroom breaks.  The test itself is broken out into 2 sessions.  A morning and afternoon session with about a hour break in between.  The morning session went well, I nailed the accounting portion of course.  Afternoon session was a little tough.  It just came down to whether I knew the material or not.  If I didn't know I just blindly guessed.  There was definitely sufficient time. 

In comparison to the CPA,  I'd say definitely harder since there is a lot more information.  The material itself is about the same, maybe a little more difficult since I haven't had much exposure to fixed income.   I would say, think about it as taking 3 parts of the CPA all in 1 sitting.   I can only hope for the best.  I'm getting a little tired cramming 4 months straight for the CPA/CFA.  Just scheduled GMAT in February.