<p>I currently plan on working as a librarian. I am attracted to its low-stress nature and the forty hour work week. $50k a year is enough to satisfy me and the job is supposed to be very good for introverted people.</p>
<p>However, I know that I need to have a back-up plan. I believe that accountant is the most suitable alternative for me. It appears to be secure and flexible, to some extent. What worries me is whether or not the job will be too much of a headache. </p>
<p>I've heard that accountants work sixty hour work weeks and are always on the chopping block, however, I am skeptical of whether or not the "horror stories" are true. If so, accountancy definitely isn't for me.</p>
<p>With that being said, I also know that accountants make about $65k a year. I'd be willing to sacrifice a good chunk of that money to be able to have some say in my work environment.</p>
<p>So, would accountancy be a suitable backup plan for me?</p>
<p>I’d advise you to post this in the Business Majors sub-forum for more notoriety that will produce more answers.</p>
<p>From the outline of your plan, I assume you’ll be getting your undergrad in Accounting and then applying for an MLIS program to enter the library market. This sounds fine.</p>
<p>Accounting majors can enter all kinds of fields and markets that do not have work environments that you describe. The 60+ hour cut-throat weeks you describe are more or less related to the Big 4 or other large accounting firms that have a lot of competition between it’s employees. However, not every accounting major goes into the Big 4 (though many many strive for it). You can be a bookkeeper for a small business or mom-and-pop shop - very low stress. Or you can enter the public/governmental sector. While the work can still be demanding at times this way, the hours in government are highly regulated so it would be highly rare that you work outside of your scheduled 40 hours, and even then you will get some sort of credit for it in form of time off later or overtime pay.</p>
<p>I just wonder whether or not that path would be realistic. Wouldn’t I need to get licensed as a CPA and all to have any autonomy as an accountant; that would take time? And, I wonder how an MLIS program would feel about a B.S. in Accounting.</p>
<p>CPA licensure does take time depending on the state’s requirements (150 credits, X amount of years in field, pass multiple exams). However, not every accountant is or needs to be a CPA. CPA is the striving goal (or CFA or other certifications) for accountants, but most don’t usually obtain it until they’ve worked as accountants for many years (as most states require that). CPA will make you more employable and offers the opportunity to open your own firm, but many people works as accountants in the enviroments I have already described without it.</p>
<p>I too once seriously considered becoming a librarian and attending an MLIS program, so I spoke to many librarians at both the local college and the local city librarires and they explained to me that it doesn’t matter what major you have in undergrad - MLIS is something totally different than almost every single major. The libraries I visited had librarians with math degrees, history degree, engineering degrees - it really didn’t matter. It may be helpful to at least take some classes they require you to process and organize information.</p>
<p>i just skimmed over this thread, but ill throw in my 2 cents. sorry if i repeated something you said…</p>
<p>you can’t consider accounting to be a “backup” career. accounting is math. some people hate it, some people love it. there really is no middle ground. you need to love math and business if you want to be an accountant.</p>
<p>accountants are always in demand and i wouldnt say they are always on the chopping block. there are many types of accounting jobs. most do require a bachelor’s in accounting and most need a CPA yet there are jobs where getting your CPA isnt needed.</p>
<p>“accounting is math. some people hate it, some people love it. there really is no middle ground. you need to love math and business if you want to be an accountant.”</p>
<p>The only math in accounting is math you learned a long, long time ago. Accounting is a bunch of processes/steps that happen to involve basic arithmetic, but no one in the field of study would consider it a “math” field.</p>
<p>OP, on a purely math level accounting will rarely if ever require computations outside of basic arithmetic. +, -, /, x all apply along with fractions, percentages and other basic functions. As domrom1 states accounting is more based on a set of rules and laws to follow in a process. These are understood in the US as GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. It’s more about following that process, much like determining how laws are applied or how a puzzle is solved, than of math.</p>