Accounting Majors

TimothyL
Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:58:11 +0000

Accounting is a profession that is much less focused on university pedigree than others. Although, if you plan to start work in a different state/market than where you go to school, national recognition of the university is generally a must, which is what I have done.

The salary range goes up only for a couple things, namely graduate school degrees and prior work experience, and cost of living for the area. The range does not go up THAT much, however. The range is generally something within the ballpark of 42k-59k starting. However, those numbers increase every single year. There will be a 3-10% raise second year, and after you pass the CPA and get promoted to Senior you’re getting ready to catapult into the big bucks (Big 4 management or industry job after Big 4).

To a lot of people that starting salary doesn’t look that great, but remember that is a starting salary after 4-5 of college. That’s it. There’s no $100,000 of debt and years of school after that, although many get into the Big Four with graduate work. In order words, you can be on the road to great money much earlier on in your life than the Med school guys.

Some people in public accounting do get MBAs, but not as many. If you look at top tier MBA programs you notice a small percentage are accounting undergraduates. An MBA is generally not totally applicable to career progressions for accountants, particularly public accounting. Public accounting firms will not (at least none I’m aware of) help pay for an MBA program because of this. I do know of quite many that left public accounting and either went straight in or got a MBA degree to go into I-Banking, consulting, general management, investing, financial analysis, etc. That’s the beauty of accounting, it’s a bus that will take you anywhere!