Is business right for me? (finance/accounting)

dyre00
Sat, 19 Apr 2014 21:57:20 +0000

If you’re still interested in some more perspective:
Finance isn’t exactly like economics, and it’s also problematic to lump it together with accounting. I’m not exactly sure what economics do for a living (work in think tanks? teach?). I can tell you a bit about finance as I’m an undergrad senior pursuing a bachelor’s in finance, and I’ve done a few finance internships/have a job as a financial analyst lined up.

In terms of finance, you should imagine yourself doing a mixture of financial modelling (on Excel and more specialized software) and research (sometimes just straight up googling, usually specialized search tools like Bloomberg terminals). It’s a lot more practical and a lot less theoretical than economics. If you don’t make it to something fancy like IB, you’ll likely end up working in a treasury department for a company, perhaps putting together asset packages as collateral for loans to raise money for the company. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s not that bad either.

Accounting, on the other hand, you should avoid like the plague (imho). Whether it’s reconciling debits and credits, updating depreciation tables, or filling out tax returns for every single legal entity that your multinational company owns, accounting work seems terribly dull.

In terms of what to study in college, you’ll probably have an opportunity to take a few introductory classes related to pharmacy, finance, accounting, etc. Depending on the college and the program you should still have a chance to change your mind early on.