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I knew I had seen the name before somewhere...
Any referals for robert half
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Thoughts on Sikich? Coming from IA/SOX at KPMG
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Personally if I wasn’t pushed so hard to it by both parents and my college advisors (once there was a little interest) I never would have found it, and looking back I think I would be happier if I never had
Exactly the same!!!!!
There is an inverse relationship between how well the economy is doing and how many people go into accounting. When the economy us doing well, people feel comfortable to pursue passion careers/degrees. When it's not doing well, people will pursue more stable but less sexy degrees/careers. I expect that covid will be pushing more student toward accounting since we were not hit as hard as most other professions.
Ps. I'm an adjunct accounting prof at an accredited university
Director 1 I agree. I'm an adjunct as well and accounting enrollment had record numbers
The economics of a career in accounting are no longer attractive. These are one of those career paths that was attractive a generation ago, but in the modern day is very much commoditized.
I feel like engineering and data science are pretty attractive. I had no fuckn clue what I wanted to do and was bad at math so I chose business, but those fields seem like they’d be fine.
Pro
I never thought accounting was an "attractive" major. It was a major that would get me a job during the global financial crisis over a decade ago when the prospects for law grads were terrible. It worked, I'm employed.
I thing Gen Z is even less motivated than Millennials to find a path in corporate America
Same here. IB and law, two avenues I was looking into, were both horrible at the time. Went with accounting/big4 since they were still somewhat hiring.
I remember when I was in college, a lot of kids in my class didn’t even care about accounting. They just did it because it sounded stable. If the passion isn’t there, it would be hard to put in a lot of hours and work. So that’s not surprising at all that it’s not an attractive major.
Lol the other majors have their problems too. Computer science with its reputation isn’t actually that great anymore since there is now a rather large supply of computer science grads. It’s still a solid choice but not as much of a slam dunk as some might believe. Finance has its own professional exams and high hours. Some marketing managers I know work extremely long hours. Maybe the grass isn’t always greener on the other side?
From what I heard, it’s 80-100 hours a week.
You also have to make MD before partner. Takes about 15 years now. I work in a group that's heavy in Senior managers and MDs. Many of them are pushing 20 years in. Value proposition to work your tail off is waning.
Sometimes there are reasons to do a year as an MD before becoming a partner and they vary from recently joining the firm (lateral hire trial period), waiting for another partner to retire, etc. Some choose to do MD forever and some are asked by the practice to do it for a brief time.
I’m on a board of a business school. In my state accounting majors popularity has increased almost 200% on average. Accounting majors take the highest average starting salaries amongst business school graduates amongst all schools in the state. It’s not just public accounting but accountants are being fought for in many industries. They may not be showing up to your event in particular, but unless your situation is an abnormality, I’d say there are definitely students out there.
Yes, that’s because accounting majors have more certifications to go after. CPA has to compete with CISA, CFP, CFA etc etc. Accounting majors have realized they can do more than what they had historically thought was possible, and employers have put accounting majors in a wide variety of positions. Accountants are in demand because they understand the language of business, even if they don’t end up becoming a CPA
You guys are doing in person recruiting events again? Maybe turnout was low because of the pandemic?
Accounting is not attractive anymore if students are motivated by the financial aspect. College grads in computer science and other STEM fields are starting at salaries that would take you 5+ years to reach in PA. I would discourage anyone to study accounting unless they are really passionate about the field.
The article I found was specific average starting salary for class of 2018... pa really isn’t meaningfully above average to start. It does grow faster than a lot of careers, but I’d still posit that it doesn’t grow that much faster for the overall commitment of pa, and accounting overall has an average of $70k
Either way though - agree that salary growth has been limited across the board
Just wondering - what other majors in the business school is attracting more students? Finance, marketing, management, or MIS?
The long hours are way worse in IB, but yeah the pay sure is nice
Personally I was never attracted to accounting. However big 4 has way more niches than just audit and tax and I was interested in a niche, and knew a job in big 4 would help me with my future. I think that’s the main appeal.
Once the economy starts a downward trend more people become interested because were the one industry that continues hiring. That’s why I pivoted from law in 2008.
No... accounting is low margin and grueling and will be replaced by blockchain.
Maybe there’s a capacity limit due to the pandemic.
Many don’t do accounting yet end up in accounting
Question for the business school profs here, has there been a trend of the accounting courses incorporating more data analytics into the program?
Also, wonder how many business students are looking at accounting as a way into data analytics?
Short answer is yes to your question. Masters programs in accounting are shifting into business analytics or data analytics, even if the core content is still accounting.
As a 2011 graduate, accounting had a “sexier” view back in 2005-2007 following the fall of Enron; placing financial reporting at the forefront. Cybersecurity/computer science are more sexy. Most financial audit/accounting functions are automated. The CPA profession has been working hard to modernize the profession to attract folks.