Accounting experience for a finance career

<p>I am currently an undergrad and I would like to pursue a career in finance. However, I have been told that to get a decent job in finance one needs to have attended a top university, which I do not. So I was wondering if a good way to get into finance would be to major in accounting and later getting an mba with a concentration in finance. Would I:</p>

<p>A. Be able to get into a good mba program with 2/3 years work experience in a Big 4 firm?</p>

<p>B. If (A) is possible would i then be able to get i a job in finance despite not having any finance experience?</p>

<p>Another option: ignore what “people” say, keep studying finance if that’s what you want to study, and get an MSF (masters in finance). You can get it at another, higher rated school if it would make you feel better to do so. The MBA with finance concentration would also do the trick, but many MSF programs don’t require (or even want) work experience, so you could seamlessly move into it. [ [MSF</a> work experience definition | WallStreetOasis.com](<a href=“http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/msf-work-experience-definition]MSF”>MSF work experience definition | Wall Street Oasis) ]</p>

<p>The problem with studying accounting and working at a Big 4 firm before getting an MBA is that with an undergraduate degree in accounting, you won’t be able to take the CPA exam. In most cases, you’d need to take an extra year of school. And many accounting positions want a masters degree, so that extra schooling would probably need to be a masters in accounting program (some of which are closer to two years, and almost all cost at least $35k). All of that only to get a Finance MBA later? To me, that seems like a really expensive, time consuming, and round-about way of getting into finance. </p>

<p>It’s up to you and what you want to do, but I personally couldn’t imagine putting the extra time and money into school to create some round-about path, instead of just going straight for the degree I want.</p>

<p>Accounting is also very different from finance, you realize that when you get to the work-world. The only thing they have in common is staring at formulas and spreadsheets all day (which does count for something). But accounting can be a real side-track from a finance career.</p>

<p>My DH is a VP of Finance for a large corp. I always hear him advise Finance majors to have at least 12 to 15 credits of accounting. When he is hiring new folks that is what he looks for on those coming out of college</p>