So...here I am again....

Basic

You guys might remember me from a month ago about how I wanted to switch majors. Well, I still want to switch majors, but now I am seriously considering accounting.

Can anyone tell me about any specifics about accounting?

Seattle Thread

It's a lot of work. And a lot of math. The basic gist behind accounting is to keep everything balanced--i.e., have all assets be equal in value to one's liabilities & equity. There are a crazy amount of details involved; entire semesters are devoted to things like depreciation.

Accounting fits good with a type-A personality. Someone who's very organized and doesn't mind tedium would like it, I think.

Dark Moon

I think finding a person for whom accounting is a passion is a very rare event, one you might celebrate by killing the poor soul. Joking aside, I worked as an accountant for a year and I found that no one in my department really enjoyed their work, but rather did it to fund the rest of their lives. That's a perfectly acceptable career choice, one that many people choose over finding a job they really have a passion for. But accepting a job like that really requires that you have a lot of things to do outside of work - a hobby or sport you are extremely fond of that will take up your free time and make life worth living. If you don't have one, I think you'll find yourself terribly bored at work and depressed when you get home. If you do, it can be a very lucrative career with reasonable hours and excellent pay - just don't expect too much in the form of job engagement. I'm afraid I can't get much more specific than that, as I do not have any sort of certification or professional training in the field.

LadyM

I've worked closely with accounting departments for eight years. In my opinion, it is some of the most tedious, soul-numbing work there is. But maybe you genuinely would enjoy it, who knows. Just be sure you enjoy 1) math, 2) working to specific, concrete deadlines, 3) searching and searching and searching through old work to figure out why a fucking account is off by a few bucks (Accounting tried to make me track down 58 cents in a year end account once--yeah right!), and 4) extremely repetitive work. Attention to detail is a must . . . Type in one wrong number and you will have to track it down later and correct it.

It also did not pay very well in the places I worked, although that may not be universal. I mean, it wasn't minimum wage, but it was only a few thousand over the poverty level. Maybe my employers were just cheap or my city just sucks?

Most of the people I've worked with in Accounting departments don't love their job, they just sort of fell into it and stayed because they were getting paid. I'm not sure about my current workplace, but in the first place I worked none of the accountants actually had Accounting degrees (though by the time I left the company was trying to hire people with Accounting degrees.)

Dark Moon

If you get a major designation you will make very decent money. In my city, which is fairly small and has a very low cost of living, most folks with their CGA (certified general accountant) are making $80k+. If you do decide to do this, after you've got the college part done and find a job as an accountant somewhere, look into getting them to pay for you to do your designation. It's fairly expensive and there's a yearly fee of $1000 to keep the designation active, but any competent employer will pay all of this on top of giving you raises corresponding to how near completing the designation you are.

Basic

Well, believe it or not, I don't mind tedium. I am going to college to have a better life, not necessarily to pursue a passion. I don't mind doing mind-numbing work, so as long as it can provide for a comfortable life.

I still have a question though...is the pay anything like this?

Basic

Dark Moon wrote: »

If you get a major designation you will make very decent money. In my city, which is fairly small and has a very low cost of living, most folks with their CGA (certified general accountant) are making $80k+. If you do decide to do this, after you've got the college part done and find a job as an accountant somewhere, look into getting them to pay for you to do your designation. It's fairly expensive and there's a yearly fee of $1000 to keep the designation active, but any competent employer will pay all of this on top of giving you raises corresponding to how near completing the designation you are.

What, exactly is a designation?

Sorry if that is a stupid question.

starmanbrand

I am going to school for accounting. That salary link you did? Fucking joke for where I am (So Cal). If you live maybe in the middle of no where I can see that.

Honestly, I hear of a lot of people starting at at least what the 5-9 bracket on that scale makes. plus if you go CPA? fuggetabout it.

If you have questions PM me. Don't know what kind of specifics you are looking for as the post is very vague.

LadyM

Are you interested in computer programming at all? Because I think that would have many of the qualities of Accounting (math? and attention to detail), but in the end it pays much better:

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Sr._Software_Engineer_%2f_Developer_%2f_Programmer/Salary

I don't know how the computer programmer market is, though.

starmanbrand

LadyM wrote: »

Are you interested in computer programming at all? Because I think that would have many of the qualities of Accounting (math? and attention to detail), but in the end it pays much better:

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Sr._Software_Engineer_%2f_Developer_%2f_Programmer/Salary

I don't know how the computer programmer market is, though.

Before hopping on that bandwagon that those salaries are for Senior level people, while the accounting one including people without CPA licenses

Edit: I am leaving the grammatical mistakes as a testament to my fail.

LadyM

Ah, you're correct, I googled and didn't notice that. But the "regular" Software Developer one is pretty good too.

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Software_Engineer_%2f_Developer_%2f_Programmer/Salary

Basic

The thing with CS is that I am smart enough to appreciate it's genius, but I find it very boring - especially since a lot of the work basically teaches you theory rather than application (though there are enough classes to teach you how to program skillfully).

I am not bad in math at all - I am actually pretty good at it. But I hate CS because it bores the living crap out of me. The thing is, you really have to have a passion for CS to learn it and apply the theories in coding - something I lack.

Accounting, on the other hand, seems much more practical (and also much more beneficial for me - I can learn how to manage my own money).

starmanbrand

hahaha ok, man. Turn around. DO NOT DO THIS. If you think CS is boring...You don't want to do accounting.

How practical is it going to be when most of your tax information involves making finacial statements for s-corps? Or finding out the depreciation you need to write off for a companies new line of transport vehicles?

What else are you interested in because you can learn how to balance your books by taking a one night a week class at community college.

Basic

Nothing really interests me to a passion, but I do like physics.

I could become a physicist but then I found out the don't get enough work and pay is not so great.

Electrical Engineering seemed fine, but what keeps me from it is the fact that it is like CS in a way since I'm "coding" wires and conductors and stuff rather than programs.

Is Accounting really as bad as CS? I thought it was supposed to be much more procedural than CS.

Basic

Also, what are the benefits of getting a Masters?

starmanbrand

Ok, well. There are a ton of different things to do in accounting. But honestly? You have to really love accounting to enjoy it at all because every month, week, or quarter. You are doing the same thing over and over and over again. It's not like every day you sit down with some different type of formula and attempt to set this company straight. People call it boring for a reason. You have to love money, and love accounting.

A masters for accounting, I guess it depends on what you want to do. A masters in business admin would help if you want to progress to be like a senior partner. A masters in economics or whatever would help for financial planner things. But a lot of people just go accounting and then CPA and stick with that for good money. And by a lot of people, I mean most people I know that do this. This may be a regional situation and be completely different in New York or wherever else.

It is really hard to find a career you are passionate about. I did not love accounting at first, but did it as a part time job and to help out my stepdad. But after taking a class and doing it more and more, it grew on me. I love the style of the work and the things I have to do.

But honestly, if some things like programming bore you, chances are accounting will do the same.

Maybe you need work that is more active and engaging? I cant really tell you what you like, and if you think you may have a hard on for the ol' bean counting. Give a class a shot before you switch majors.

what is your current major?

Basic

My current major is CS.

But I've taken a year and a half worth of classes, and realized that it really isn't for me. The thing with CS is if you make a mistake, you have to reverse engineer your entire program. And like all programming or CS projects, it happens often. That is not fun - it kills my will to live.

Your advice is a good one though, maybe I should take a class or two in accounting.

Thanatos

I am speaking as someone who really loves accounting:

Have you taken any accounting courses? I highly recommend it. Even if you don't end up majoring in it, you will not regret taking a class or two so that you can understand the basics. Even if you end up sticking with CS, being able to speak finance to the guys in your accounting division can go a long way.

You can talk about tedium or boredom, but as someone who enjoys untying knots and working out problems, it really appeals to me. Finding that $.58 error in a series of accounting ledgers just gives me a good feeling. And it's not like accounting is an art; everything will always work out in the end. A certain amount of OCD is very helpful to finding it enjoyable.

The level of math it actually requires is pretty minimal; if you can add, subtract, multiply, divide, understand percentages, and do basic algebra work with forumulae, you can do accounting.

Basic

Thinatos wrote: »

A certain amount of OCD is very helpful to finding it enjoyable.

That might be perfect, I know I have some OCD, nothing serious - but if it's significant enough for me to know that I have it.

starmanbrand

If rewriting your program would kill you, how would you feel about piling through hundreds of journal transactions, looking from computer monitor to ledger, trying to figure out where you went wrong with one entry?

Basic

Hmmm...how should I describe it...?

When coding a program, there is no fixed formula as to how you go about it. You are literally making your own formula, and it will be many pages long.

What made me consider accounting is that I hard that even though I will go through pages of information to find out my mistake, it's much more procedural, meaning I will end up depending on formulas that are already used by everyone else and I don't have to reverse engineer or reorganize a person or organization's entire financial structure or accounting system just because of one error.

Seattle Thread

Basic wrote: »

Hmmm...how should I describe it...?

When coding a program, there is no fixed formula as to how you go about it. You are literally making your own formula, and it will be many pages long.

What made me consider accounting is that I hard that even though I will go through pages of information to find out my mistake, it's much more procedural, meaning I will end up depending on formulas that are already used by everyone else and I don't have to reverse engineer or reorganize a person or organization's entire financial structure or accounting system just because of one error.

That really depends on how serious the error is.

Than is right, though, you should indeed take an accounting course. I have absolutely no interest in the subject, but the course I took in college was one of my better investments.

Penguin_Otaku

I hear both business and accounting are hard majors to jump back into. Meaning if you've been taking classes for something else, its hard to catch up with all of those classes you've missed.