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In this economy I heard accountants are still in high demand. I was thinking of taking some classes. There is a stereotype that accounting is very dull and that accountants hate there job. Any input from accountants?
I love my job!! I am a government accountant. It is fascinating and I encourage young people to get into this field b/c so many finance directors are/will be retiring soon and there will be a huge demand!!
you get paid good money plus benefits and retirement. I have been doing this for 10 years and I love it!
Does getting an MBA greatly increase your pay, or should I just focus on a MBS?
For accounting, generally the CPA > MBA. I could only see an MBA being useful if you want to switch industries, or if you wanted to go private (even then, I hear a CPA is very solid if you want to be a financial controller for example). If you want to go into public though, MBA might be a waste of time, especially given the exit opps. This generally involves getting a macc, but whatever you can do to get 150 sem or 225 quarter hours is good enough.
Unless you get into a T7 MBA school. Then I'd say F accounting and do something with even more upside like VC or PE lol.
I disagree about the MBA being worhtless unless T7. It doesn't matter, at least not in the Dallas area gov't jobs I've seen. To me the school, being a top school vs. being a local non top tier is not what matters, I want someone with experience and knows what they are doing. Again, this is from a governmental accounting perspective.This type of career can be quite lucrative. My friend has a CPA and MS in accounting is the Finance Director for my city and makes around $150k. But in contrast I have another friend who works for the same size pop. around 110k and makes the same amount of money but not a CPA or MBA. If you're talented it doesn't matter if you have a CPA or not. I don't have one or an MBA I work for a smaller organization so I don't make the kind of cash they do, but then again, I don't have to deal with all their headaches
Fund accounting is not something you really learn in school. I have taught CPA's all about fund accounting. I know more than they do, why? Experience.
Last edited by CTR36; 11-20-2009 at 08:58 AM..
Reason: spelling
I disagree about the MBA being worhtless unless T7. It doesn't matter, at least not in the Dallas area gov't jobs I've seen. To me the school, being a top school vs. being a local non top tier is not what matters, I want someone with experience and knows what they are doing. Again, this is from a governmental accounting perspective.This type of career can be quite lucrative. My friend has a CPA and MS in accounting is the Finance Director for my city and makes around $150k. But in contrast I have another friend who works for the same size pop. around 110k and makes the same amount of money but not a CPA or MBA. If you're talented it doesn't matter if you have a CPA or not. I don't have one or an MBA I work for a smaller organization so I don't make the kind of cash they do, but then again, I don't have to deal with all their headaches
Fund accounting is not something you really learn in school. I have taught CPA's all about fund accounting. I know more than they do, why? Experience.
I believe you are misunderstood.
Sure, any MBA is good if you want to do accounting.
But that's not where the real $$ is made. HF / VC / PE, all require at least a top-10 B-School or your application is in the garbage. For a top MBA student, $110K / $150K is starting salary. Pay increases dramatically as you continually add value.
And the whole topic is about accountants not HF/VC/PE.
Yeah but the OP inquired about the MBA, and that's why NYC analyst and I are emphasizing that unless you get into a great MBA program, it's basically pointless. There are a few other solid schools outside of the T7/T10 such as Duke, UCLA, maybe even UT-McCombs if you wanna be in Texas, but even at those schools, your opportunities drop SIGNIFICANTLY from the T7-T10. Hell, even if you get a degree just outside of Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, and maybe Sloan/Kellogg/Booth/Tuck, you'll have less opportunities than the HSW people.
And really, if you want to be an accountant and just an accountant, an MBA is not worth the investment, both in terms of opportunity cost and actual money spent on tuition, etc. The CPA carries much more weight in the accounting industry, and if you want to change industries (which is really what the MBA was originally for) then you want to go to the best program you can.
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