Is it worth majoring in Accounting?

[vladtess]

Hey guys,

Please tell me if you are experienced if majoring in Accounting is a good idea. In general, I do not want to work for anyone. I want to open a small business and invest into various companies (long term)

I also plan to MBA as Business Admin/Managment right after Bachelor's Accounting. That should get me some job as a manager and from there I plan to open a business.

Money is not a problem here. The first 4 yrs my parents will pay (I thank them so much) and the MBA I'll pay while working part time, somewhere; maybe in college itself.

The reason for me to major in accounting is to get the sense of financial literacy - ability to read financial statements, etc.

Please tell me if my path is correct and if you can amend it, please reply.

Thanks a lot,

Vlad

[kat]

I'd advise against it. Basic accounting is pretty simple, and anyone with a solid math or science background will pick it up in a snap; more detailed stuff will probably be of limited use (linked to a region, subject to change, not critical to entrepreneurship, etc). Either major in something related to what you'd want to work in, something that teaches you about humans, or something -difficult- (such as a hard science).

The rationale for the first should be obvious. The second would be so that you have an understanding of psychology, marketing, what humans respond to, communication, or other critical factors. The third makes picking up quantitative parts of new fields fairly easy.

For instance, I have a bachelor's degree in computer science. In under a month, I've managed to pick up a -large- percentage of what people learn in undergraduate and master's level finance degrees. When I had a few classes on basic accounting, it was a breeze.

Pick something intellectually challenging, whatever it is. Don't pick something that consists of rote memorization, and lots of picky little exceptions. You'll need to deal with that to some degree in practice: but it's damn near useless as an education. I'd argue that this was true even in the past, when jobs were more stable, and many things changed more slowly. I'd say it's unarguably true today: jobs change, workers tend to be mobile, and if you're planning to work for yourself, you need to be able to adapt and learn, hopefully quickly.

[vladtess]

I truly agree with your opinion. In this case, what major would you recommend, in your opinion, that deals with finance, which would make good sense to major at to prepare for the future.

On this site (http://www.careerplanner.com/Career-...ring-Jobs.htm), I found that there is this major: "Tax Accountant", which is predicted to stay in US (scroll all the way down on that page) Do you agree/disagree. I need to absorb as many opinions as possible.

Thanks a lot

[Zukin]

Originally Posted by vladtess

In this case, what major would you recommend, in your opinion, that deals with finance, which would make good sense to major at to prepare for the future.

If you want a major that deals with finance, then why not just major in finance lol

Finance Major | What can you do with a College Degree in Finance?

If you want financial literacy, just pick up some books on financial statements and see if you like it.

If you love reading about it, you'll be ahead of the game and more prepared than all the other students.
If you hate it, you will have saved tens of thousands of dollars and can pick another major.

[vladtess]

Thanks for reply Zukin.

The thing that I am worried about is if I'll have a job in the beginning of my career to make sure that I can get enough capital to start a business. At the same time, I want my major to educate me financially (financial literacy) so I don't end up failing the business due to lack of financial knowledge.

Do you think majoring in finance (and MBA in similar major, maybe Business Admin.) will create a slot for me in future (next 4 yrs.; I'm a high school senior).

Like, Accounting, which I thought of in the beginning, sounded like a good choice, but as I see, many jobs are offshoring.

I really appreciate all of your opinions.

Thanks.
Vlad

[Lauxa]

It doesn't sound like a good plan to me, especially since you don't want to be an accountant. First, I would agree with Zukin to read more books to get a clearer idea of what interests you. Second, college is going to point you in the employee direction. Third, maybe you could interview people who have a manager position similar to the one you'd like to obtain after college and see how they got there. I think there are many paths to becoming a manager; one is working from the ground floor up, and by doing this you get more experience in all the jobs necessary to run a company. One of my managers started out as a janitor at a tech company, but rose quickly to a programmer position because he was always ready to learn new things and contribute in any way he could.

Maybe you could get a job in some capacity at an investment firm. It might give you a chance to observe the day-to-day activities of people who work there and meet some people who could better advise you how to proceed.

If you want to go for a degree, I'd say to go with math or computer science. It seems like excellent math and computer skills would come in very handy in finance. You can always get an MBA afterwards. I think having BA finance and then an MBA is a pretty narrow focus.

[vladtess]

OK, thanks a lot to all of you guys!

[CStrunk]

I'm currently a Junior in college studying Financial Engineering. It's pretty much a beefed Finance degree which has more economics, statistics, calculus, and tons of excel (Which I think a regular Finance degree should have). I applied to college as an Accounting major, but over the summer before my freshman year I switched over to the Finance side. I have two uncles who are both trained-Accountants (CPAs) and they agreed that Finance was the better route.

The more Accounting you take, (1) the more attractive you will be to future employers, and (2) the more fluent you will be in financial statements. I guess you can pretty much decide after taking a Financial Accounting course whether or not you want to continue.

Make sure you study something you like, whether it be a language or some other science or social science, because this is the only time you have to do whatever you want. I'm taking an MBA class right now as an undergrad and I can tell you that those MBA kids don't mess around.

If you really want to do some Accounting, you could try to minor in it if your school allows (mine doesn't).

[Doku]

With the accounting degree + MBA, you should be able to get pretty high pay as a CFO of a company. If you want to start your own business based around an accounting degree, you can be an independant tax accountant, or with the accounting + MBA, you could be a "hired gun" for many small businesses that have no financial sense. (I pay someone to do that for me, and a second person to check over the first person's book keeping once a quarter.) There's also supposedly tons of cash in actuarial sciences which is math/stats/finance/probability/economics/...

[silicon toad2000]

accounting and an mba will make you more marketable to employers.
If you are looking into investing in companies then the finance aspect of an advanced finance degree will help you imesurably. I would suggest that perhaps instead of doing and MBA do a master's degree in commerce.
As far as running your own business, what are you going to do, you might want to look at majoring in marketing or something like that.

You said that money is not an issue, but I would recommend getting a part time job while at uni, it will give you a valuable insight into the lower echelons of the company that other finance managers may not have.
I am a CFO and I started working on the factory floor, that experience has been more beneficial to me than my post grad.

[vladtess]

Thanks guys. I admire your responses and will go to Zaclin School of Business, where various types of majors are offered from accounting to Real estate (a-z)
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Thanks again.