I’m going to be a freshman next fall and am deciding my future plans at some universities of interest. I am either doing petroleum engineering or seeking a major in finance. Yeah, I know these paths diverge greatly from one another. But I am trying to see my prospects with a financial major.
My career interests with a Finance major:
Corporate law after obtaining an MBA
Investment banking/hedge fund
Should I complement my Finance major with another major in International Business or attain a minor in a foreign language like Spanish or German? I am currently studying Spanish and already have a basic understanding of German due to an aunt in Switzerland. But would a minor in a foreign language even be useful? What do you guys suggest?
Also, are there any basic computer certifications that would improve my career prospects? Ex: Java processing… blah blah
This is my first time using College Confidential so if you know of a similar thread pertaining to this area of discussion, post it please. It would be greatly appreciated.
It is way to early for this post. First you need to figure out if you want to major in engineering or finance. For many schools you would need to choose between business or engineering as part of your application process. If you do eventually go with business, you need to first start taking classes in the area. See where your interests and aptitudes lie. Only then will you have a basis on which to consider the different options available to you.
@happy1 It’s never “too early” to prepare for college. Preparing now will give him/her more time to study and get their GPA and scores up. It’s actually quite beneficial to start now.
@prettygreat - I agree that it is worthwhile to “prepare” for college. My post did not say otherwise.
However, I think is premature is to decide on a major and an entire life plan before taking even one semester of college level work. Preparation is great but I think too people can get locked into things they don’t really want to do and may not be especially good at by making decisions before they get enough information. I stand by my suggestion of taking some college level courses before deciding on a major/minor. IMO, being informed by taking college level coursework is the best preparation for developing a career.
@aceversace It seems like your mind is a little all over the place with petroleum engineering, finance, corporate law, and international business.
Basing your college major purely from career prospects isn’t always the best idea. Your career prospects are based on your interviews, college performance, and obviously field of study. You are basically trying to pick your career prospects based on field of study but omitting how that might affect the other 2 largely dependent variables. Four years is a lot of time to dedicate toward studying a subject that you may not be passionate about. That will come through in your performance and interviews which will in turn impact how successful your career prospects are.
What are the reasons you are interested in petroleum engineering versus finance? There are a few similarities but obviously stark differences both in career progression and in curriculum. Where does law and international business rank in your decision? Each one will have a different curriculum progression that you might want to plan for (BS, BA, MBA, JD/MBA) and this will also largely depend on what school you will be attending in the fall. Ideally when you applied and chose the school that you would attend freshman year, you chose it for a reason that factored in their academic offerings.
So a few questions for you to help answer your initial question:
What school are you going to in the fall or what are their top academic offerings?
Why did you choose that school?
What aspects of a career are of most importance to you in terms of (work life balance, compensation, amount of teamwork, qualitative vs quantitative work, travel, etc.)?
Thank you all for the responses. In response to your follow up questions AoDay:
Due to the market demand in law, I have placed obtaining a JD at the bottom of my priorities.
I’m either going to accounting or banking.
I am either attending the University of Florida or Florida State University next Fall.
FSU has a good accounting program while UF has great programs in both accounting and finance.
The more important career aspects for me are compensation and travel.
So basically I didn’t really phrase my question properly since my thoughts are jumbled up and I am asking questions through a series of possibilities.
Alright so I am either going to major in accounting or finance or both. Screw the parts where I mentioned Petroleum Engineering and Law since they do not necessarily apply to this thread. If I major in finance, I would like to enter investment banking or another well compensated line of work in the financial field. If I major in accounting I will consequently strive to become an accountant. I just want to select a major(s) that allow me to smoothly transition to either IBanking or Accounting. For example, could I possibly enter IBanking with an accounting degree?
happy1: Thanks for the input. I understand that I am looking into this far too early but I just want to be well informed once I make a decision for my career path. On my mind accounting and IBanking are at the top of my choices and I just want to see how I can improve my career prospects if I select one of them. Too much information is never a bad idea
I’m not exactly sure what the market demand is like in law, but finance isn’t that good right now as many of my closest friends in both banking and buy side have had massive layoffs at their firms given recent market conditions. You really won’t travel that much in either accounting or banking and if you do, most of the time it won’t be to anywhere exciting.
You could double major in finance and accounting if your schools’ programs allow it to cover your bases in terms of recruiting and opportunities. It will also provide you with flexibility during your college career to determine which might interest you more. It’s unlikely you will be able to enter right banking out of school with an accounting degree since you won’t have much modeling experience. I have had old classmates that made the transition from accounting into banking a few years into their professional career but it isn’t an easy process and you often have to develop the skills on your personal time as well as likely start at a lower positional than your given experience level.
I agree it is great to get information, but I think you have things narrowed down pretty well to accounting and finance. The next big piece of information you need you will get by taking some classes in both disciplines. It may become clear which subject interests you more, which you are better at etc. I would also suggest that you talk to career services at whichever school you end up at and get an idea about if one major is more employable than the other and what types of jobs graduates in both majors end up at.
I am a CPA as is my S. It is a great career in terms of being able to get a job after graduation and having a career which will give you options down the road (ex. public accounting, move to private etc.). You should be aware that to become a CPA you now need 150 credits (a typical undergrad degree is 120 credits) so many students now get a one year master’s in accounting to fulfill that requirement. Again, once you are in college you can find out what people at that school typically do and what types of programs the school has for that.
I’ve actually heard that accountants travel pretty often but I guess that is determined by which field you enter within accounting. Haha yes I looked at all the requirements to become a CPA. Isn’t the CPA exam ever-changing? Thanks for the input
The CPA exam evolves as the rules of accounting evolve. It is necessary.
And I guess some accountants travel, depending on the job, but there are jobs to be had with little or no travel as well. It is a question you can ask during job interviews (ex. What is the % travel for this job?).
Of course I am biased, as an accounting major, I think accounting is best. But when it comes to being more interesting I would think finance is much more fun. I had an exH that got his MBA in finance and he wanted so badly to go into wall street. He was smart, top of his class, but he didn’t go to one of the ivy leagues or wherever they recruit from. But he did get interesting work. He worked for Department of Homeland Security for awhile (they need finance guys) and last I heard he is working for some company in China making $$$. In that case, you would want to take finance and a foreign language. So there is plenty outside of ibanking for finance majors.
As for law. I think an undergrad degree in accounting/finance with a law degree would be great if you wanted to do tax law. There are a ton of lawyers, but not as many tax lawyers. So that’s an option too.