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OP: Go to reddit dot com and search for "Accounting" .. this,career opportunities, love and hate have been discussed at great lengths.. more topics that you would be interested in.. Good luck on your decision
I have an MBA in accounting and ended up actually never working in what people think as accountings. My bachelor's is in Japanese. I worked for the budgeting department of a wall street firm, then went into multinational portfolio administration, then a database development project for a wall street firm. and now, I do medical billing from home. THe medical billing, although I didn't have knowlege of it, was very doable because of my background on wall street back office work.
A degree in accounting does not necessarily mean you are going to end up doing grunge work for one of the CPA firms, unless you want to become a CPA, but it not only gives you a good solid entry on your resume, it's something that is very flexible to future career paths - such as financial advisor or whatever.
thank you so much for that information. but, how did you get a job at wall street? do you apply for these jobs or is this through networking. because honestly im totally not a people person I don't do very good with networking.
I have a BS and MBA in accounting and I am a CPA. I grew up in the Brentwood/ Central Islip area of Long Island and for me, my decision to major in accounting was based on the availability of jobs and the need to be able help out my parents financially. The dot.com bubble had just burst and accounting roles were pretty much the only openings that would appear for full time jobs and internships. I really wasnt sure what I wanted to do either but it appeared as if this career path provided more opportunities.
I went to school in NY and was fortunate to land an internship at one of the Big 4 accounting firms in public accounting. I have found that a majority of these accounting firms pay their interns decent wages. We started at $22/ hr and a friends at other firms ranged from $15-25 (25 at the investment banks). When I interned, we had a 42 year old widowed intern that had gone back to school. They had also just hired an admin asst who had recently finished school and passed her CPA. Most interns at the midsize and large accounting firms get fulltime offers unless you completly make a fool out of yourself at firm outings.
In terms of your age, 28 is still young in the GRAND scheme of things. Your starting salary would be anywhere from 45k-75k in public accounting. just a guess who the heck knows where the economy will be in 4 years. In 2004, staff auditors at the BIG 4 started at approx 52k, tax staff at approx 55k.. If you had a masters you would get a ~10k jump in the salary and a 5k signing bonus (you would get this upfront) but would have to give it back if you left before 2 years. During the recent recession, from what I hear they have stopped with the signing bonus but starting base is about the same. Not sure what the ranges were in the private industry outside of public.
In terms of the online university, I would be against it. The most important reason beiing networking and job opportunities. Most of your fulltime job and intern opportunities will come from on campus recruiting. SEVERAL accounting firms (large to small) come on campuses (NYU, st johns, Queens college, LIU, baruch, brooklyn college etc) to SPECIFICALLY hire staff and interns for the summer or next year.
In terms of cost of schooling, I think that the SUNY's and CUNY's give you the most bang for your dollar. I did not attend one but I should have. This is because once you finish college, all that matters is getting your CPA license. it doesnt matter where you graduated from as long as you have your CPA (see job postings and talk to employers/ recruiters).I paid 25k per year, my brother paid 4k A YEAR ( at the time) SUNY Buffalo.
Additionally, part of the responsibilty of an acountan is understnading how the business works in order to follow the flow of $$, revenues and profits. Yes, some jobs are boring, some jobs are just a grind. But remember that small to large business has an accountant. Think of the first accountant that started at facebook or google. YES YOU GET THOSE SAME BENEFITS AND PERKS TOO. Any brand or business you can think of, YOU can work there.
I am not in public accounting anymore but my boss is a Harvard Grad and a Columbia MBA.. his boss C.W. Post grad and CPA
thank you so much for the information. I decided to go to school, I just honestly hope I didn't make a bad decision :/
I used employment agencies to get my first few jobs. My most recent job (at it for 10 years) as a medical biller came to me through my mothers' friends' son
I was just about to post something similar to this. At the companies I've worked at, the accounting department is pretty much the same everywhere. High stress and Excel spreadsheets all day.
My landlord's son was an accounting major, but switched this year to business administration, which seems better to me.
I beg to differ. There are various areas of accounting that does not necessarily involves spreadsheet. For example, I specialize in accounting policy for new products. Therefore, whenever my organization has a new product, my job is to provide accounting rules (US GAAP and IFRS) as well as other analysis where necessary. Therefore, I have to keep abreast of new or pending rule changes.
To the OP, don't follow the money follow your heart or you'll be miserable in your career. Good luck with your decision.
I recommend that you consider taking a "live" in person principles of accounting course at your local community college over the summer and see if you like the concepts and ideas behind accounting and see if you're even interested in the topic.
My concern for you are twofold; first, you mention that you don't have much time. Well, the reason that there are jobs in accounting and decent salaries is that it's hard. The coursework is hard, the CPA exam is hard, and the competition is tough for the good jobs. You need time to devote to studying and practice. You will not learn accounting by looking at it on a computer monitor. You have to practice, practice, and practice some more, which takes time....
Second, I'm not sure about your academic background, but online courses/programs are tough for even the best students. You'll also won't have the networking and recruiting opportunities that NYC5555 mentions above. You don't mention which online program you are considering, but if you're considering U of Phoenix, I would avoid this route. This article provides the highest and lowest pass rates, take a look of U of P with a pass-rate of about 30%.
DM me if you would like to chat, I'd be happy to speak with you. I have all the credentials after my name (i.e. CPA, MBA, Ph.D all in accounting) and have worked in both private and public and currently teach accounting at one of the schools NYC5555 mentions above.
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I don't do very good with networking.
