<p>Currently in HS and was thinking of becoming a CPA after visiting a CPA firm. However, whenever I mention it to my classmates, they always seem to ask "Why is someone as smart as you becoming a accountant, you should be a lawyer or something".
Most of the students actually think of accounting as their backup jobs if their first major doesn't go well. </p>
<p>I mean I'm not completely 100% set on being a accountant, just the one trip to the firm got me interested. Definitely something in business though.</p>
<p>What do you guys think? Should smart people go for other jobs? (Don't want to sound cocky but I do consider my intelligence above average, though perhaps not at CC level :P)</p>
<p>I was considered very smart but I think I’m way too lazy to be a good lawyer(got to do well in law school which is a grind as is your first several years) or doctor. Remember that the country is full of lawyers who make a lot less than the average person thinks they make.</p>
<p>Some of the smartest people I’ve ever met are accounting majors. Accounting is easily one of the most practical majors you can have.</p>
<p>As for your dumb high school friends who are counting on accounting as a backup major; if you can even get into the accounting program at the university they want without doing amazing in their current major, then they are probably not smart enough to be looking at really good universities to begin with, because that shouldn’t happen. Here the road only goes one way: people fall back from accounting because it’s too hard.</p>
<p>Besides, if you decide not to become an accountant, accounting is one of the best things to major in before going to law school.</p>
<p>So you’re going to make a career decision (aka something that will occupy a vast majority of the rest of your life) based on what your friends consider “cool”?</p>
<p>They said the career isn’t for the brightest people not that it wasn’t “cool”. Apparently, according to them, brighter people should go way beyond accounting.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m trying to decide between Accounting, Finance, and Business Management.</p>
<p>If you really want to go for the career that’s for the “brightest” people, be a mathematician or theoretical physicist, maybe even Doctor. Its not like being a lawyer and drafting legal documents all day is particularly challenging either. In the end though, this is again doing it for all the wrong reasons. I can understand wanting to be challenged by your work, and that is definitely important, but in the end, you need to pick something you enjoy. Plus, I’m sure at the higher levels accounting can be plenty challenging (especially things like tax law, etc.). </p>
<p>Going off of other peoples’ perceptions of what is challenging is not smart IMO. And the bottom line is that if you’re one of the best accountants (not even best in the world, I’d say even in the top 15-20%) you will be paid well, and if you enjoy it, the pay will be the icing on the cake. Although I could be wrong, from your original post I get the sense that you feel that pursuing accounting will be selling yourself short in your peers’ eyes, but if you are successful and earn a good living, people will respect you.</p>
<p>Meh, accounting isn’t mind bending work. They’re criticizing you for selling out as a high schooler (rightfully so). Where are your hopes and dreams, young man?</p>
<p>I agree. Your classmates are dumb. They probably think that accounting jobs are mainly sitting at a back of a retail/grocery store counting cash.</p>
<p>I was stupid in high school navyarf, I pictured accountants sitting in front of a one of those typewriter looking machines adding up receipts. Boy am I happy I was wrong.</p>
<p>Unless you are at Wharton or another top business school for undergraduates, Finance is not going to be a better bet than accounting or for the smarter people. Quite the contrary actually. Besides, the people doing the finance things(investment banking and whatnot) that have the biggest prestige and whatnot aren’t likely business majors at all…they’re people with great GPA’s at the best schools(Ivy League, MIT, etc). j</p>
<p>“Business Management” is a vague term, not really a major at many places(or rather every business major is covered under that umbrella). “Management” is for idiots, not future managers. It’s more for future Management Professors or for HR people.</p>
<p>Hi everyone, guys can you advice something for me. I see that people over here are knowledgeable about accounting profession. My thread is “which is the best way to fulfil the CPA educational requirement” Can you give any advices? You will help not only me, but others, who have the same question.</p>
<p>Mr. Payne notes,Accounting isn’t an incredibly high IQ profession. That’s essentially what your classmates are saying."</p>
<p>Reponse: I am aghast at this comment. Yes, you don’t need the sophistication of a neurosurgeon;however, most CPAs that I have met are quite sharp, particularly partners in CPA firms. Upper level accounting does require a great deal of knowledge and intelligence.Certain special fields of accounting also require a great deal of intelligence such as tax, forensics, bank specialists, computer consulting ,which also involves internal control consulting etc.</p>