Why Major in Accounting?

[krisgil_aguila]

I want to shift to another major, so I seek some help.
I'm a student and I'm not having an accounting major.
But most people who I'm having conversation with have accounting majors.
They said it's good and can have lots of opportunities.
I'm not against it but i think it is kind of boring when at work.
What do you think? Is it really good?

[papayahed]

Where's Shal when you need her?

[Pensive]

You mean the future career prospects? I guess this is something I would be interested in having greater knowledge about too since I would probably be pursuing a bachelors in accounting and finance in the coming year as well. :)

[keilj]

As far as career prospects - it can be very lucrative. As long as you get certified. I knew an accountant who also taught accounting on the side, and got a lot of side work doing people's taxes and other book balancing

But if you are talking about the boring factor, that is a different story. It will be boring and repetitive as heck. We could have a whole conversation about choosing a career that will make you happy and not just make you money

[OrphanPip]

Well you don't just have to do people's taxes as an accountant. My mother worked several years as a comptroller at Dupont of Canada, and before that she was an auditor for a few companies. So, there are management positions available to accountants as well, and its a decent degree to have for any office track career.

My brother, on the other hand, hated accounting when he studied it at university, so he switched into marketing.

[Shalot]

I currently work as an "accountant." I'll explain the quotation marks around the word accountant later in the post. Specifically I work in Accounts Payable, which means that I pay the bills for the company I work for.

When I went to college the first time, I majored in English with a concentration in writing. When I got out of school, I was afraid to pursue a career in writing and therefore I was unable to get a paying job as a writer in any capacity. I came to the conclusion that my English degree was a waste of time and money. Now I know that such a pursuit was good for the soul.

After searching for work for a while, I ended up in an accounting office as a clerk, and after doing clerical accounting work all day, I decided that I should pursue it as a major. I was mainly motivated by money, but there was also something appealing about the nature of the work at the time. The problem was that the office I worked in was one of the worst places to work. It was a hospital, and there were cash flow problems, which is not good for the person who has to answer the phone call about why an account is 60 days past due. I became very unhappy working in that office, but on the bright side, I learned a lot about accounting and when the right opportunity came along, I was able to draw upon the writing skills I picked up in college and apply them to the accounting situation I found myself in. A job opportunity came along and it was part-time work, but I made the same amount of money I did working full-time at the hospital. I still work there, and now I am there full-time. I am slowly but surely advancing in my accounting studies one class at a time while working.

The upper level courses are okay. Some accounting topics are interesting and some aren't. I am not a fan of tax accounting but I think that's just because I don't like paying taxes. Also, I was amazed and amused when I learned some of the tax laws but that's another post entirely.

Now I will try to explain the quotation marks around the word accountant in the first paragraph. To me, my job seems very clerical still, and I have an inflated job title. I think the pay is pretty good given the nature of the work I actually do. I look at this job as yet another stepping stone. The office I work in now is much better than the one I started in. Also, a lot of the people I work with have majors other than accounting. In fact, there is only one person I work with that I can think of who majored in Accounting alone. We have two English majors, 1 Pyschology major, a Religion major with minors in Math and Statistics, and a Statistics major.

Accounting can be very boring at times, but there are a lot of things you can do with the knowledge you pick up. I wouldn't say accounting is fascinating, but it's good practical knowledge to have. If there is a particular subject you enjoy, then take those classes with your accounting classes. Another word about college - you get out of it what you put into it. If you choose a major you hate based on the amount of money you think you'll make when you graduate, you just might fail to graduate.

Accounting is a practical choice for a major. I also think that there are a lot of more interesting classes out there, and my advice would be to major in accounting if you must and take advantage of the opportunity you have while in college to take interesting, enriching, soul-nourishing classes such as literature, writing, psychology, art, philosophy etc. The people who teach these classes are usually really awesome and interesting and listening to their lectures will be a pleasure. And then you can trudge off to your accounting classes knowing that they will make possible the roof you'll have over your head and the shoes you'll have on your feet.