Career Advice for Accounting/Economics Major? (1 Viewer)

[Noah Gottula]

I'm looking for not only career advice but also maybe scholastic/life advice. A little background: I'm double majoring with a BS in Economics and a degree in Accounting. This requires 5 years of undergraduate schooling at my college. I have completed 3 of these years and about to start the 4th. I figure now is the time to start getting serious and thinking about what specialized career path I want to follow. I've taken a fair share of math courses (3 quarters of calculus, 3 quarters of statistics), and plenty of general courses. I still have tons of time to take anymore I may need.

As of right now I've only come up with 2 career choices I might wanna follow. The first being an Accountant and the second being an Actuary. I have to admit I know very little about the actual real life day to day lifes of people in these careers but as of now they are the only alternatives that I can think of, or sound good to me.

However I hear from alot of people that being an Accountant can be very boring, and I dont think I wanna be stuck with a boring job my entire life. Although I dont find my accounting classes boring, so that might be a plus.

Actuaries I know even less about. All I know is they make decent pay, and work with insurance companies and use lots of math (even that im not totally sure how correct it is).

Is anyone out there in either one of these professions? And do you have any advice for me, as to what I should do now to prepare for these professions, etc. Or does anyone out there have any other ideas I should look into?

 

[James T]

If you live in the Toronto area, go apply at TTC. They don't seem to know what they're doing. Losing money so they raise the price of subway fair. People don't like it, so they don't go. Lose more money and raise prices again. Even more people don't use the transit now.

As you can see, they need some help from economic majors.

 

[Greg_R]

You should already be interning at a firm. This has numerous benefits:

1) Determine if you like that type of work. My brother is an accountant & enjoys it. His company (Ernest & Young) flies him all over the country and he frequently gets weekend fares to other destinations (cheaper to fly him to Cancun instead of back home, etc.).
2) Make $$$ for school.
3) Make professional contacts. This is critical. Appearance, who you know, & professionalism is very important in both fields that you are considering.
4) Set yourself up for a potential job offer after graduation by the company. Even if they can't hire you the job experience will look very good on your resume.

 

[Eric_L]

I work with accountants professionally. The work is what you make of it. You will likely have to get in with a small practice doing boring crap.

After time you can build your resume and appy to some of the larger firms. That is where the FUN begins!

Other jobs to consider:

Bank auditor; Financial advisor; Tax attorney; tax collector;

One thing; if you just want a job where you are closed away with little social contact then expect tedium. If you don't mind getting out with people and advising/selling then you will get to experience some of the more fun perks, positions and endeavors.

 

[Jason L.]

Don't try and become an Actuary unless you have a huge passion for math.

The 10 Actuary exams are very, very, difficult - even for math majors. To complete all the exams takes years and years.

A lot of people try and hit a brick wall even if they pass the first few exams.

My advice for you - and for all soon to be college graduates - is to get some experience BEFORE you graduate in your field.

You want to interview after college with significant prior work experience under your belt. It makes you stand out from the crowd.

 

[Rob Willey]

Before I went to college, I was planning to major in Acctg. An Econ. prof. at my cousin's school recommended Econ. as a more general major, reasoning that Acctg. majors become Accountants and Econ. majors can go into lots of different careers. I went with Econ. and after graduation got into Finance and then software.

If you're not sure what you want to do, take the advice above about interning, arrange visits to various firms through alumni groups, etc. In short, research your possible choices to make an educated decision.

Rob