<p>If it isn’t, you shouldn’t be in accounting anyway. Really not that hard.</p>
<p>Thanks for the Motivation!</p>
<p>It’s not really a motivation question. I personally would be horrified if I was getting into an oversaturated career where there’s thousands upon thousands of people who can easily do what takes me a lot of studying and practice to do. If you need lots of motivation to do well in those two classes you need to realize that your motivation won’t last your whole life.</p>
<p>Thanks for the Advice Jonahrubin.</p>
<p>this question is for taxguy (or whoever that can give a good answer lol).</p>
<p>I am contemplating to earn a MPP/MPA degree, in order to get a meaningful job in the public sector. what are the potential career opportunities when this degree is paired with the CPA credential? </p>
<p>For example, from my work there’s this guest speaker that has financial and public policy background. He worked as a budget analyst and legislative analyst for DHHS, moved to OMB, and eventually worked his way to the Senate Appropriations Committee as a director. looks like a good use of expertise in these two fields. </p>
<p>What are other opportunities? Perhaps outside of the scope of gov’t?</p>
<p>I know the question was for taxguy, but I have a family friend with an accounting degree who was VP of finance for a pretty well-known company and is now a city manager for a city in Texas.</p>
<p>I’m sorry. I don’t know enough about the MPP or MPA to answer your question.</p>
<p>Taxguy: thanks anyways.</p>
<p>Inmotion12: does your friend have the MPP/MPA? </p>
<p>i guess fields such as public finance are rarely mentioned here on CC. </p>
<p>it appears that for high-level public sector jobs, just by having accounting background might not be enough. on the other hand, it seems to be useful for finance-oriented people/CPAs to also have legislative/policy background for jobs that involve financial policy making.</p>
<p>gobluecpa, If you are interested in high level public sector jobs why not get an undergrad in accounting with a masters in MPP or MPA? You would need 150 credits for the CPA anyway and can accomplish both goals.</p>
<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>Can someone advise me on how to beef up my resume? I am a sophomore accounting major at a csu school. I joined a club and am trying to become an officer for next semester. I’m thinking about taking an income tax course by HR block but am not sure how much that will help. My goal is to get an internship for one of the big 4 my junior year and I will be starting my upper division work then. I am on target to graduate during my senior year. 2009-2013. </p>
<p>But my resume sucks as of right now. I’ve had jobs in the past but they were before college and useless towards accounting. I don’t know how I can stand out. My GPA is relatively high though. 3.7 and going up next semester. any advice?</p>
<p>Hi everyone.
I have a question
If I entered a public accounting firm with a speciality in tax what would be my exit opportunities? What kind of position will I be able to get in a coporation or government?
What if my speciality was on Accounting, what would be my exit opportunity then?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I received a job offer from EY and it says “employment is contingent upon maintaining, at a minimum, your current GPA and timely completion on your degree. The firm may withdraw at any time if these conditions are not met”</p>
<p>Right now my GPA is a 3.71 and the courses I’m taking now will complete my master’s degree. I decided to take some difficult electives this semester because I was interested in the particular subject matter. What is the chance that the firm will rescind my job offer if my GPA falls? Also, how much do you think it would have to fall for them to rescind it?</p>
<p>If you are talking about a slight drop, such as .2 or so, don’t worry. I honestly don’t think they would pull their offer unless your gpa drops below 3.0.</p>
<p>Big 4 firms require a minimum of 3.2 I believe.</p>
<p>The chances of getting your offer rescinded due to a slightly lower GPA, but I would keep the GPA up anyway. There is absolutely no advantage to having a lower GPA. If your classes are harder, study harder. Don’t just accept harder classes = lower GPA.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is saying there is an advantage to having a lower GPA. Of course people want to keep their GPA up. Sometimes harder classes do = lower GPA, especially if your GPA is 3.71.</p>
<p>I think most people would agree that you should be able to maintain an acceptable GPA regardless of harder classes. If you are the type that smoothtalked your way into a job from a 3.05, then it shouldn’t be hard to maintain or improve that. If you had a 3.9 it is hard to keep it that high but they’ll forgive you if you go down a little bit.</p>
<p>This is a post for taxguy and anyone else who wants to reply. All replies are greatly welcome, and I thank ye posters in advance for your responses.</p>
<p>Here is my issue along with some backstory. I thought I would give you as much information as possible so that you could perhaps give me the best advice possible.</p>
<p>My main question:
Should I go for a degree in accounting?
Subquestions:
Should I double major?
Should I go for a masters degree instead?</p>
<p>Background:</p>
<p>I’m a biology major at the Uni. of Illinois at Chicago, and I’m considering double majoring: this means tagging on accounting. </p>
<p>I have 23 credits until I graduate with my B.S. in biology. I’ll be taking 13 in the spring (this oncoming semester), so I only have 10 more credits until I’m out of the system. I’m 24 years old, so I’ve recently qualified for the pell grant. I’m getting a decent amount of money along with the SMART grant, so I’ve had about 80% of my tuition paid by grants; it would be all of my tuition if I had known about the MAP grant.</p>
<p>I have a 3.5+ GPA, but I’ve got a bad academic history where I have dropped a lot of classes and whatnot. I have about 8 withdraws of my academic history. Surely, I wasn’t all self-involved (into only doing everything for myself); I was more of a lover than a narcissist. Times have changed, thus causing me to become more self-involved, looking for money and opportunities, and so forth.</p>
<p>I haven’t held a decent job in a while. The last job I had I only held for about 3 weeks and then quit. I had a seriously bad viral case of mono, which was destroying me. I literally felt like I was dying. I tried working as hard as I could doing night-shift and working the job. It was a job at CostCo. I moved around a lot of heavy stuff and had to be quick. I tired really fast and it was a painful experience. But I found that I wasn’t recovering at all, so I quit.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until a few months later after I quit that I understood I had mono. Doctors failed to adequately tell me what was wrong. They refused to attempt a diagnosis and played ignorant. That was a really bad time for me. It also made me hate doctors.</p>
<p>And this job I held was around October of 2008. So, we can see that I haven’t had a job since the recession took off. I trained as a CNA, and I thought about getting a job after getting CNA certification. I never jumped on any CNA jobs, because I went to university shortly after certification; but I’m sure I can work the CNA jobs.</p>
<p>Anyway, I haven’t had a stable job. I went to college starting in 2005, changed majors a couple of times, never really worked, and am doing pretty decent in school.</p>
<p>I believe my work experience history puts me at a distinct disadvantage. I’ve even considered delaying my graduation in order to work for a while. I went to school during the summer “double full-time” as my peers tell me: I didn’t know I was doing that, so I’m surprised.</p>
<p>I could have worked during that time, but I didn’t. I wanted to kill the courses and get out of the system.</p>
<p>I have an opportunity to work during the summer of 2011, and I’m considering it, too. This most recent fall semester, I made myself a slave of the system, became very depersonalized and derealized, and gave my coursework all of my best. I decided there just wasn’t time to also work a job. I suspect it’s the nature of the biology major and keeping a 3.5+ GPA. I’m a hard worker. If I know how to make an A, I’ll put in the effort. UIC courses lack transparency for the most part.</p>
<p>The only thing that is deterring me from considering working is the fact that the pell grant is offered during the summer (this offer started in 2010), and I’ll be able to use that money to kill more courses, grab more credits, and get out a little easier if not faster. </p>
<p>Otherwise, I’d have to tag on the courses to a fall schedule, and I’m not too interested. I’m primarily interested in taking at least one course during the summer (maybe organic chemistry lab, because it’s a pain), and then working while doing summer.</p>
<p>Last summer I considered after I was done that I no longer held any interest in doing summer school ever again. So, maybe I should work or something.</p>
<p>I’m also doing research right now, and I’ll be able to do a year of it. As such, I think because I’ll have a year of research along with a good GPA that I’ll be able to get into a masters program (hopefully neurobiology or neuroscience-based), maybe get a TA-ship, and free tuition. I’m looking for the free stuff, money, food, boarding, etc…</p>
<p>I’m not too sure about a Ph.D program, despite the good grades and the research experience. I consider this due to my withdraws and lack of work experience. On another note about work experience, I could go work for my brother who has owned his own business for a while. But he often denies me the opportunity, because he’s more interested in having an apprentice, and I’m definitely not interested in his trade of doing flooring and side home construnction as a career, but his business is well-established.</p>
<p>I think I might have a chance at being successful with what I have. Despite all of this, I am still considering a degree in accounting, which would help lead me toward becoming a CPA. I think I may be able to double major, use the pell grant to get a B.S. in accounting along with my B.S. in biology, and then walk out of academia with a fall back in case I don’t quickly get into a Ph.D or masters program.</p>
<p>I’m honestly not too interested in a masters program in biology, and that seems like a serious waste of my time and effort, as I’m solely interested in a Ph.D. I’ve been told there is greater and grander competition these days for people want to get their Ph.Ds. As such, I think I might even have to wait around a while (maybe a couple of years?) to get into a Neuroscience Ph.D program.</p>
<p>If I’m going to have to wait around a while, I’m surely going to have trouble with getting a job with my B.S. in Biology. But if I am waiting around, get CPA certified, then I can adequately move into a job, make money, and sustain my lifeforce until I get into a Ph.D program.</p>
<p>I’ve had periods in life where I’ve felt an entire year was wasted just sitting around doing nothing and making no money. I think a lot of Americans are experiencing this right now. I’ve somewhat experienced it, and I’m not too interested in experiencing it anymore. As such, I’ve considering getting a degree in accounting to be a fall back. However, I feel as though I’ve fallen behind as I should have made this decision over a year ago.</p>
<p>Question:
How hard is it to be an accounting major? Really?</p>
<p>Being a biology major is pretty hard. There is this constant competition with delusional, sheletered, greed-mongering pre-meds: Sociopaths at best. It’s a serious pain. Things don’t often filter out until after the majority of necessary, narrowly institution-selected major-required courses are out of the way: such as organic, cellular biology, genetics, etc… All filled with people who only care about a grade and nothing else.</p>
<p>I would love to get a response from someone who has done biology and done accounting and can compare and contrast the workload.</p>
<p>I’ve considered that maybe I should get my B.S. in Biology and just walk away. Maybe afterward take on a bunch of debt to get a masters in accountancy or something like that in order to go for the CPA. When I was a junior in high school, I would have easily been persuaded to be IT and an accountant if I knew days were going to be like they are today. I took some accounting classes in school and enjoyed them. I’ve often enjoyed mathematics and have a love for statistics (because when you know the statistics, you know the odds and can attempt to predict the future).</p>
<p>I consider that if I can work a B.S. of Accounting into my current status, then I wouldn’t need to take on two years of debt that I would with a masters degree.</p>
<p>I considered tying in a B.S. of Nursing to my pell grant, but honestly, I’m somewhat tired of working with people. Furthermore, I’d probably have to take more credits to get done with that kind of program than an accounting program.</p>
<p>More questions:
Would it be very difficult to get a masters degree in accounting?
How so? How difficult? Any experiences to share?</p>
<p>The classes appear to be 400-level and 500-level classes. I’ve experienced 400-level classes, and they are a serious pain. They are a bit more easy going, but figuing out how to do everything right in order to get a good grade is more cryptic than ever. Otherwise, if the grading is transparent, a person has to put in a lot of work in order to study the material… a lot of work. So it’s either easy-going and cryptic <em>or</em> transparent and very hard. The cryptic nature (lack of grading transparency) of particular classes can make getting a good grade very hard.</p>
<p>It looks like the masters degree would be a lot more of a pain, suffering, and work than a bachelors degree.</p>
<p>The advanced level of the accounting classes without me having any college-level accountancy background makes me think that being a biologist and walking into a masters-level accountancy class would set me up for failure, a beat down, and more.</p>
<p>As a final note, I find it interesting that I’m talking about doing a degree related to something with business. Along time ago, I talked with some scientists about money and getting a science job with a decent amount of money. They told me that if I was really interested in money that I should get involved with a business degree (or something business-related). I guess that is still true to this day.</p>
<p>Outlaying of questions asked:</p>
<p>My main question:
Should I go for a degree in accounting?
Subquestions:
Should I double major?
Should I go for a masters degree instead?</p>
<p>How hard is it to be an accounting major? Really?</p>
<p>Would it be very difficult to get a masters degree in accounting?
How so? How difficult? Any experiences to share?</p>
<p>Sorry to double post, but I thought I would also throw this in here:</p>
<p>From a critical and analytical eye, could anyone tell me if finishing off my B.S. in Biology and then going to a community college to gather accounting credits would be enough to sit in for the CPA exam?</p>
<p>Someone (a person who had once pursued accounting but chose a different life path) once told me that all I really need in Illinois is a bachelors degree and some accounting classes. It wasn’t that I need a bachelors degree in accounting, but I just needed a bachelors degree. As my university does offer accounting classes, and I’m sure it’s certified, mandated, etc… by the particular organizations that are required, I’m thinking all I need to do would be take some classes at my old alma matter?</p>
<p>Here is the Illinois website with education requirements:
[Educational</a> Requirements | Illinois Board of Examiners](<a href=“illinois-cpa-exam.com”>illinois-cpa-exam.com)</p>
<p>Here is what my community college offers:
[Business</a> - Accounting](<a href=“404”>404)</p>
<p>I suspect I should email legitimate people and ask about this, but if I’m reading things right, I can get away with my bachelors and taking the accounting classes at the community college in order to sit in for the CPA exam.</p>
<p>Going back to my old community college would surely save me a lot of money.</p>
<p>I’m reading something, and it seems like only one person from my old comm. college (rock v alley college) sat in for the CPA exam, so maybe it is possible?</p>
<p><a href=“illinois-cpa-exam.com”>illinois-cpa-exam.com;
<p>tl;dr</p>
<p>.</p>