Transition from Accounting to Economic Development Career?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>So basically, I’m going to be finishing up my masters at an accounting program, but I’m not sure if a career in the private sector is exactly what I want. While I enjoy finance/accounting, there are a lot of things about the private sector that I do not like and I want to apply my knowledge in these areas to the public sector. </p>

<p>I’m pretty sure that I will need to spend some time in the private sector (if at the very least to help pay for more education in the future potentially), but I’m wondering how I can make the transition down the road. My main areas of interest are in education, infrastructure/transportation, or international policy.</p>

<p>I’m also not 100% sure where I want to go with my career, but ideally, I see myself working in an agency (whether it’s an NGO, state department, etc. I don’t really know) that either helps come up with policies that benefit the public (this is ideal) and helps a country/region grow or I can also see myself in a role where I’m assessing potential costs vs benefits of various policies that are being implemented (particularly those related to the areas mentioned above).</p>

<p>I’m not really sure which career path this is or how I can eventually get in a position like this, so if anyone has any info (I honestly don’t even know what types of firms I’d need to apply to for jobs like the ones I mentioned above), I’d really appreciate it because I have no idea what to do right now.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>It depends on what you want to do. Accounting, I believe, is a shortage field so you may find it possible to teach some accounting courses as a lecturer at a community college or a small regional public or 4-year college. If you want to be an accounting professor, that’s a great field to go into because there are more jobs than graduates. You would need to get a PhD in accounting, but then you could go into teaching that and possibly more general business classes as well if you get enough graduate credits in related fields.</p>

<p>Another way to make the move is to begin as an accountant for an NGO or agency and then see if you can move to doing more development/public sector work once you’ve been at the agency for a while. You may also get involved in financial sector services (like microfinance or something) for developing nations.</p>

<p>Most people move around at least a bit in their career, so these options are not without the realm of possibility.</p>