Audit or Tax?

<p>What would be the best path to take for accounting if I would like to work for an international company and do a lot of international traveling? Also, I will minor in Chinese.</p>

<p>Most people will say Audit, and that’s probably true if you want to travel, but there are still opportunities to travel in tax if you enjoy doing it. Tax consultants, or international tax managers probably do a bit, but if you really want to travel, accounting isn’t the place to go. Go into consulting at the McKinseys, Bains of the world and you’ll be jet set all day.</p>

<p>From what I understand, there are way fewer jobs in tax at firms, but i imagine tax is more useful for a corporate accountant. </p>

<p>Creamgethamoney, you say go into consulting. That is one topic I know little about. Obviously there isn’t a “consulting” major so is it related to finance?</p>

<p>Management consulting is what I’m referring to. Its literally related to “management” (whatever that means), but basically the background for getting into that field is elite school + quantitative/analytical skills (although many business/econ majors from the Harvards and Stanfords of the world get in just because of raw potential) => McKinsey, Bain, Boston Consulting Group (and maybe some elite boutiques like LEK, Parthenon, Marakon). If you get into MBB and McKinsey especially, you’re basically guaranteed admission to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton MBAs and great exit opps.</p>

<p>So to answer your question: there is no set criteria, you just have to be smart/innovative and have a good background.</p>

<p>I can’t do consulting after graduating from a state school–University of Arizona - Eller College of Management. My plan is to get my undergrad degree in accounting and then a masters degree in accounting at either Eller or USC Marshall(if I could get in). I am pretty confident I will have over a 3.5 GPA after graduating from UA. Hopefully I can get into USC Marshall. Also, I will be studying abroad for a year in China during my sophomore year. I will be learning Chinese this fall, and next spring I will take international business classes at the University of Hong Kong. Would it be best to incorporate this international experience by studying audit or tax (or something else…)?</p>

<p>if you do consulting you may still end up without going on a single international business trip. honestly, i’ve seen it. i would recommend tax but it does not still guarantee international travelling but it surely guarantees, travelling with the country. i would say you should work for an accounting firm which has branches all over the world, so can still go to those branches atleast for a reason, since you’re auditing, and maybe get to travell.</p>

<p>By Creamgethamoney, “but if you really want to travel, accounting isn’t the place to go.”</p>

<p>It is not always true. If you work at the big 4, you can easily travel (visit or transfer) around the world, for they have so many branches, almost at every major city. I know people who transfered from other countries to U.S.,and otherwise, without any problems.</p>

<p>However, if you want to travel inside the U.S., then External Auditing is for you. Tax accountants also travel, especially
EAs (Enrolled Agents), within the states because they have an authority to deal with taxes in any state.</p>

<p>Any special reason why you capitalized ‘external auditing’ but not ‘big 4’? If the argument could be made for anything to be wrongly capitalized, it’s ‘big 4’, due to it having the word ‘big’ in it in addition to its similarity to other capitalizable phrases such as Big Ten.</p>

<p>And yeah Big 4 offers opportunities to travel, but consulting is the stereotypical travel-heavy industry typically. Accounting is probably second, but consulting is where you want to be. In the end though, most of it is luck (being placed on the right projects be it consulting or accounting), and traveling to all the cool places will require that you’re high up on the food chain so that the company will actually pay to fly you out (which isn’t cheap)</p>

<p>I thought that consulting offices usually accept people and other companies, but not send their workers somewhere. It is like when you go to visit an accountant, dentist, or psychologist—but not that they come to your house.</p>

<p>No, just no…</p>

<p>Trust me: put Whistleblower on ignore status. You will be glad that you did.</p>

<p>

Once again, taxguy has one of the best posts on CC. So nice not to see that clown anymore.</p>