Econ Major here minoring in Finance. You should be ok no matter what choice you make. Just do what intrigues you most man.
Parents are accountants, they say they're getting jobs and accountants make the most for rookie salary. It gets crazy during year end and quarter end though.
I would say go for accounting. I am a little bias seeing as how I have my BS in accounting and finishing my MS in accounting too. Strongly consider a CPA because that will open even more doors for you.
I just graduated last December with an Accounting degree. It all depends what you want to do really. From what it sounds like, you want to be an accountant and that is what suits you. In that case then go for the Accounting degree. In Houston especially the job market is strong right now for accountants. If you want to go into anything with banking or investments on the other hand, finance might be the way to go. I work as an accountant right now and started right away after graduating. I didn't have to spend a lot of time job searching and had it lined up before graduating. My girlfriend also graduated with an accounting degree in December and she found a job quickly as well and also turned down two other offers aside from that. If you ever need any other information or advice contact me any time and I will be more than happy to help in any way that I can. I can tell you the one thing that is important is the start getting internships as early as possible. I waited until the summer before my very last semester to get one and I really shouldn't have waited that long but I got lucky. I hope this helps!
Hey Mystery008. Your situation sounds almost identical to mine as I went through highschool. I recently graduated from UH with a major in Finance. I currently hold a Financial Accountant position at an Oil and Gas company. Also starting pay is higher than the 50K range that has been mentioned. I never even thought I would be working in accounting, but working here has been great and so much different than college...but I think majoring in Finance does give you more opportunities than just accounting. I had two internships prior to my job here and they were both different. You go to UH which has an abundance of resources to huge companies. Career fairs are your friends, they landed me my gig. I would say do finance and keep your options open to different types of positions.
I thought about doing this but I can't stand sitting down in a cubicle for 8+ hours. I do 12 hour shifts running with that nina.
I suggest accounting. My wife and I are accountants. I was a staff accountant, moved into audit and back into accounting. She was an accountant and moved into finance. She's currently a financial analyst. From what I've seen, accounting is the more flexible degree. If you work in accounting, and find finance to be the more interesting field, you'll find a finance department willing to train an accountant. BE PREPARED to get the "do you plan on getting your CPA?" at every job interview you have forever. I don't have mine. If I would have had the resources, I would have loved to taken a path through UH that would have prepared me for the CPA upon graduation. My brother triple majored Accounting/Finance/Economics. He's been in Audit for the last 5 years, and his about to get his CPA. He's WAYYYY more motivated than I am.
I have an accounting degree. It is a very flexible degree. There are many career paths you can take with an accounting degree. For me, it was a great springboard into law school.
It really does especially during year end. I work in the external reporting team, but I don't have a college degree at all. I just got my foot in the door and figured out what everyone else hates.
Reporting are the ones that get hard like that. I'm in revenue so I just have one busy week each month and no significant increase in work at quarter and year ends.
I'm a CPA. Accounting is the safer route and they are needed whether the economy is doing great or not. I've never had an issue finding "a" job and you always have the option to work for yourself. Finance potentially has a bigger payoff though, especially for certain jobs right out of school. You should answer the two questions: 1) Do you want to maximize stability or salary? Accounting has more of the former while finance has more of the latter. 2) How much do you like math? Accounting really doesn't have as much advanced math but finance does. Also remember that employers feel comfy hiring accountants to do any type of business job, especially if they have audit experience. That really isn't the case for finance, especially right out of school. When I graduated I could have got the same jobs the finance guys were getting. That wasn't the case for them and some of the accounting jobs. Good luck!
Well if would be silly to get an accounting degree and not get the desigination. That will limit your pay and options. Ultimately it comes down to what is most important to you. My advice to you is to lay out your career goals and then plan a path to get there, rather than start down a path and see where it takes you. Good Luck!
1) Strongly suggest taking the CPA, or at least don't blow off the thought of taking the CPA one day. It's really only a 9-12 month commitment (max 30 hrs/week) if studied for effectively. Also, if you want to work for a big four or mid-cap, they'll want you to take your CPA. They'll also pay for it, both the exams/study materials, and extra classes required. Usually (depending on the group you work in), you won't get promoted to a senior associate unless you have your CPA, so you will be potentially limiting your career path. Always nice to have a credential as it adds credibility and solidifies your interest in your career. Think of it from an employers perspective. I think a 9 month commitment (or more if needed) is def worth it. 2) Great GPA, keep it up. If you want to get recruited by top tier firms, >3.5 is key. Not to say it's not doable otherwise, but >3.5 will significantly improve your attaining interviews success rate. 3) To answer your original question, it depends. It's pretty tough to have a clear answer to this because even within accounting/finance field, there are sub-fields and often go hand in hand. You could be a finance major and end up in a quasi-accounting reporting role, and vice versa. Accounting is def less risky imo as your role traditionally consists of either auditing, or reporting/forecasting numbers. These numbers are driven from the decision makers who have skin in the game. You will also be making key decisions as an accountant, but they will be more on the reporting numbers topic. Finance role - you will be involved with driving those numbers. Your role will traditionally revolve around creating the assumptions to forecast the numbers that the accountants than record/report/audit/forecast. It's definitely more skin in the game, and as a result, higher risk and generally higher reward. However, finance is generally more competitive to get the higher reward positions. Both these majors, given you get good grades and wind up at a decent firm, lead to successful six figure career paths. Key is to maintain good grades, start at a higher tier firm, so your entire career can be with higher tier firms. Good luck!
Whether or not you pursue a career in accounting, the coursework is valuable. You can still take all the requisite finance courses such as financial statement analysis, investment theory, etc. The accounting skills will help distinguish you from your peers when looking for an internship/FT job.
I appreciate all the suggestions and opinions. I truly appreciated it. I think my question was too vague, so I'll be more specific later today. Once again, thank you!
I majored in accounting and I have my CPA. I did 5 years in public accounting and recently moved to industry as an accounting manager. I once had someone ask me if they should do accounting. I think it is a good way to learn a lot about business, but it definitely isn't exciting. You'll never really be thrilled with doing spreadsheets and posting journal entries (or reviewing them as an auditor). Of course, accountants don't become accountants because they want an exciting job. They want a stable job where they know on the 1st and 15th they'll get paid. You have to decide if that is what you want. I have a buddy who worked in audit and is now a financial analyst. I had plenty of opportunities to become an analyst when I was trying to leave public accounting. At the same time, there are plenty of finance majors who are now accountants. I don't think you necessarily need one or the other to do something in that realm of a business.
