Are Houston area employers hell-bent on the BA Degree for Accountants? (find a job, salary)

[SYeera]

Hello! I am moving to the Houston area from Southern California. I am an accountant with 20 years experience with an AA Degree. I am actually from Northern California where a BA Degree was not a necessity; in fact I usually always got hired because of my experience. When I moved to Southern California, I struggled to find a job without the BA Degree. Almost 90% of employers required it, regardless of your experience. Does anyone know how it is in the Houston and surrounding cities area?

[texas7]

Well small places might not be sticklers but employers here can be very picky because they have an extremely large pool of prospects to choose from. The better paying jobs will hire the best they can get and that would mean taking the higher degreed applicant in most cases.

[Spartacus713]

Originally Posted by SYeera

Hello! I am moving to the Houston area from Southern California. I am an accountant with 20 years experience with an AA Degree. I am actually from Northern California where a BA Degree was not a necessity; in fact I usually always got hired because of my experience. When I moved to Southern California, I struggled to find a job without the BA Degree. Almost 90% of employers required it, regardless of your experience. Does anyone know how it is in the Houston and surrounding cities area?

There is a lot of accounting related work in the Houston area. For some jobs, an accounting degree and a CPA are absolutely required. For other jobs, they are not. Experience helps a lot. Contacts probably help even more. In fact, I expect it is the same in California on all of these points.

Good luck!

[Huckleberry3911948]

that make outrageous demands because they can. remember how we hated unions and got rid of them?
welcome to employment at will.

[eastontracks]

Yeah see other posts by 979 Texan. They usually have a sour grumpy tone. Kinda like disgruntled LA native on their forum lol.

To me, I think the experience would still be beneficial but it may not get you the top higher paying firms. But a job in accounting I'm sure you can find. Still jobs to be had with qualifications. Good luck.

[979Texan]

Thinking that an associate's degree means anything in a city that's bursting at the seams with cheaper talent is an attitude. Thinking that your experience in a different state entitles you to a job that has higher hiring requirements is an attitude. Whining about it in a public message forum is an attitude.

Hope that helps, folks. Have a pleasant Friday evening!

[texas7]

Op asked legitimate question. Didn't see any attitude either. Yeah sometimes experience does entitle people to a better job and they may be highly qualified but employers may be sticklers for that piece of paper if they have enough choices.

[bhammaster]

I'd say at least 70% of the time experience is more valued than the piece of paper alone. Combining the two is even better though.

[travelguy_73]

I'm a CPA in a high-level position. I have both degreed/CPA employees and non-degreed employees. In my experience, it is hard to find good replacements for the non-degreed because I need strong experience and professionalism, which honestly is a tough combination. With that said, from what I have seen over the years, the sheer number of positions that don't require a degree is far fewer than those requiring one, a trend that I don't see reversing.

So the good news is that if you have that combination of skills and professionalism, you will be in demand, but for a smaller pool of positions than even 5 years ago. So your best bet is to get with a recruiter (e.g., Robert Half) and see what's out there.

Good luck!

[nervouslaughter]

Originally Posted by 979Texan

Thinking that an associate's degree means anything in a city that's bursting at the seams with cheaper talent is an attitude. Thinking that your experience in a different state entitles you to a job that has higher hiring requirements is an attitude. Whining about it in a public message forum is an attitude.

Hope that helps, folks. Have a pleasant Friday evening!

Lol. Dude, you're reaching and justifying your sour attitude. OP wanted answers to a question, so if you consider that whining in public, I guess that applies to 95% of us. I didn't see any entitlement at all in that question. You have some kind of bias toward non-Texans. Pretty sure that's not how we are known as being the friendly state.

That being said, I'd hire a well experienced accountant with an AA than a rookie who just got his BA. Not worth making a potential million dollar rounding error to save a few thousand on salary costs. Ideally would be experienced with a BA.