Does Accounting Ever Get Interesting?

College Majors Business Major
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<p>angryengineer, you are completely contradicting what you have been saying or implying from your previous responses. You are clearly looking down on the accounting major/accountants as inferior.</p>

<p>Original Post:
"Going along with taxguy, studying accounting gives one a solid understanding of business and corporations. It is truly “the language of business.” Thus, accountants can eventually take on most any upper-level corporate position given that the person excels and is passionate at what he or she does. "</p>

<p>Your response: “^keep dreaming”</p>

<p>My response: What are you trying to imply? That it is wrong about that accountants can take higher level positions at a corp? There is a lot of truth in what he is saying.</p>

<p>Your post:
Yup. I don’t respect nepotism and enjoy innovating and problem solving. Witnessing their boring miserable lives was reason enough to not go the accounting path. Best of luck. "</p>

<p>My response: Once again, implying that accounting is inferior to engineering. Just because you studied engineering doesn’t mean you are good. There are plenty of mediocre engineers that don’t accomplish ****. It is highly likely that you are one of them. I know for sure my job and career success dominates your success in the engineering field, but that’s a whole different story. It’s not fair to compare me to you. Back to the topic, you are pretty ignorant if you think accounting doesn’t involve any problem solving. Also you like innovation? What have you invented?</p>

<p>Your post:
"My apologies, I’m not into pettiness. Next to that, I’ve already completed my UG. Along the way, I met plenty of engineer wannabes who couldn’t hack it so decided to go into business. Good luck with that. "</p>

<p>My response: Once again implying that business majors/accounting majors are inferior because it’s inherently easier than the engineering major. Yes 3.5 GPA in engineering > 3.7 GPA in accounting. However, 3.7+ accounting is tougher than your 3.0 GPA in engineering buddy. </p>

<p>My response to your entire essay: You are very ignorant about the business major. Why do you even attempt to talk about what you don’t know about? So you think basic accounting is going to change in 10 years? You think the calculation for covariance, duration, or NPV is going to change in 10 years? You think the four P’s of marketing are going to change in 10 years? </p>

<p>Your post:
“I believe that this country is great because of down to earth creative people who used ingenuity to invent and innovate. Those that did contributed to humanity and the improvements of our everyday lives.”</p>

<p>My response:
Yes I agree with this, but engineering isn’t the only way to invent and innovate or even contribute to everyday lives. The question is, what the hell have you done? You just studied engineering and all of a sudden you are an innovator? You might want to re assess your usefulness to society and also how your accomplishments coincide with your values or beliefs before talking down on other fields.</p>

<p>Your post:
"I have more respect for the struggling street artist who actually produced something over a Can’t Produce Anything. "</p>

<p>My response:
Are you mistaken here? Anyone in any field can produce something at any given time. Artist = Art, Finance = Models, Cook = Food, Accounting = Financial Statements/reports/analysis.</p>

<p>Either way, I own you and I don’t even like accounting.</p>

82

<p>I realize I’m most likely in the wrong forum so accept any flack I may get but don’t appreciate being disrespected based upon unfounded assumptions. Lil dawgie, you come across to me as a con artist with all the personal issues that go along with being one. Sorry, but arseholes are generally not the type of people I like to associate or engage into an debate with. Enjoy</p>

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<p>You alleged unfounded assumptions, yet you’ve yet to disprove a single one of those assumptions as true. You had set the tone of your intentions from the beginning, clearly with disrespect. You then accused us of disrespecting you when the actual performances were expressions of facts (though Dawgie did throw in an opinion or two).</p>

<p>I’m not trying to “attack” you, if you will, but rather I’m trying to get you to actually respond to what we are saying. However, you instead chose to continue your soliloquy.</p>

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<p>He can’t respond. I already destroyed him. I mean, the guy thinks an artist on the street does more for society than people in business. Enough said. FAIL.</p>

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<p>I dont understand this guy (or gal?). (angry engineer) I mean lets be honest most people dont study something because there trying “contribute to society.” There trying to make a living while doing something they enjoy. Anyone who says otherwise is either a saint or full of s***. </p>

<p>“I mean, the guy thinks an artist on the street does more for society than people in business.”
Agreed. Since when does any engineer show such reverence to artsies and use words like intrinsic (what?)</p>

86

<p>I disagree with most of the people here. Unless you’ve been in both Engineering an business you can’t really argue anything. I started out in engineering, and although I could “hack it” for the limited time I was in it, I learned that I would hate being an engineer. That said, it’s still tough. I remember exams in aero/astro</p>

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<p>that the averages were like 34%. I never saw anything lower than a 70% average on my accounting exams. I haven’t taken higher level accounting, because the dirt couple classes satisfied my needs but if you think for a second that accounting is tougher than thermodynamics, etc. Than you are a bit looney. On the other hand. It’s unfair to judge business majors without walking in their shoes as well. Just because you hacked your way through an engineering program does not mean you are cognitively superior to any business major. Maybe that’s what you told yourself when you spent your nights in college studying the nights away instead of partying in order to make yourself feel better. There are plenty of extremely intelligent business majors, there are a lot of dopes</p>

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<p>as well. As a side note I would like to apologize for the multiple posts and the typos, I’ll stop posting from my phone.</p>

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<p>“I never saw anything lower than a 70%, granted I never took a higher level accounting class.”</p>

<p>Another person contradicting themselves. You claim that accounting is relatively easier than engineering, yet you never took a higher level accounting class? Doesn’t sound like you are the “qualified source” you claim to be. </p>

<p>Anyways, I can just as easily refute your above claim by stating that in my accounting class, one person (according to the published grade distribution) has below 60% in the class, three people have below 73%, and the median score is about an 84%. This includes all curves, etc. This is an INTRO financial accounting class! To make a claim that a thermodynamics elective is substantially more difficult than the high level accounting electives is silly. An aerospace engineer will look at an exam for such a class just as dumbfounded as an accounting major would look at a thermodynamics exam. It’s like comparing apples and oranges to use the cliche.</p>

90

<p>From: The Default Major: Skating Through B-School
By DAVID GLENN
Published: April 14, 2011 </p>

<p><a href=“The Default Major: Skating Through B-School - The New York Times”>The Default Major: Skating Through B-School - The New York Times;

<p>Statement in relation to my soliloquy:</p>

<p>“One of the institutions praised is Babson College, a business school in Massachusetts. Its president, Leonard A. Schlesinger, says that concrete business skills tend to expire in five years or so as technology and organizations change. History and philosophy, on the other hand, provide the kind of contextual knowledge and reasoning skills that are indispensable for business students.”</p>

<p>“Business majors spend less time preparing for class than do students in any other broad field, according to the most recent National Survey of Student Engagement: nearly half of seniors majoring in business say they spend fewer than 11 hours a week studying outside class And when business students take the GMAT, the entry examination for M.B.A. programs, they score lower than students in every other major.”</p>

<p>Comments:</p>

<p>"I have a marketing firm with business and clients around the world. I would no more hire a business undergrad than I would sprout wings and fly to the moon. Philosophy, psych, English, religion, poli sci and history - come one, come all but a “business major”, forget it. Not only can we teach liberal arts majors in a year what they need to know about “business”, but I have found that graduates in the disciplines care about what they learned and were far more academically curious than a “business major”. As a business owner I need brand new undergrads who are smart, can write, are curious and are willing to work. Other than some of the kids I run into during guest lectures at Wharton, this does not describe </p>

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<p>trizz, you have a point. By using his own logic, his position means absolutely nothing. Either way, I agree the engineering major itself is inherently harder than accounting. However, that does not mean that engineers are smarter than accountants.</p>

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<p>[The</a> Audacious Epigone: Average IQ by occupation (estimated from median income)](<a href=“http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2011/01/average-iq-by-occupation-estimated-from.html]The”>http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2011/01/average-iq-by-occupation-estimated-from.html)</p>

<p>According to the average Occupation and IQ chart ranking:</p>

<ol>
<li>Petroleum engineer 126.1 superior</li>
<li>Aerospace engineer 120.2 superior</li>
<li>Software engineer 116.9 high average</li>
<li>Electrical engineer 115.2 high average</li>
<li>Civil engineer 112.2 high average</li>
<li><p>Industrial engineer 111.8 high average</p></li>
<li><p>Accountant 105.5 average</p></li>
<li><p>Bookkeeper 94.1 average</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>Nice average, why am I so much smarter and more successful than you then?</p>

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<p>angryengineer, I do not believe in the statistics. If you believe it, you forgot to include Financial Planner (#15): 122.8.
Accountants/CPAs do financial planning. You can check these websites if you don’t believe it. [PFP[/url</a>]
[url=&lt;a href=“Sign Up | LinkedIn”&gt;Sign Up | LinkedIn]AICPA</a> Personal Financial Planning Section Members group | LinkedIn](<a href=“http://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/PersonalFinancialPlanning/Pages/default.aspx]PFP[/url”>http://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/PersonalFinancialPlanning/Pages/default.aspx)
I guess Financial Planners (or CPAs in this case) are smarther than Nuclear engineers (121.1) and Aerospace engineers (120.2).</p>

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<p>According to the average Occupation and IQ chart ranking:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Corporate executive 148.0</p></li>
<li><p>Petroleum engineer 126.1 superior</p></li>
<li><p>Aerospace engineer 120.2 superior</p></li>
<li><p>Software engineer 116.9 high average</p></li>
<li><p>Electrical engineer 115.2 high average</p></li>
<li><p>Civil engineer 112.2 high average</p></li>
<li><p>Industrial engineer 111.8 high average</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Fixed! Voila!</p>

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<p>Utterly ridiculous statistics. </p>

<p>1) Stats like this include bookkeepers as accountants and you don’t even need a higher education for it. It would be like including train engineers and repairmen in your average.</p>

<p>2) IQ tests aren’t valid for any real measurement. It’s like a polygraph - if it really worked, they’d mandate it.</p>

97

<p>@biolife</p>

<p>A CFP is not the same thing as a PFP.</p>

<p>@jdnely</p>

<p>There is a similar argument proposed by religious people that radiometric dating methods are not valid either.</p>

<p>I don’t need a statistical analysis to be 100% accurate nor are they meant to be. Using your analogy, there is still a very high probability rate of accuracy when using polygraphs. The repeatability of results side with their being a closer correlation towards accuracy being the rule rather than the exception.</p>

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<p>The inherit issue with those statistics is that the accountants category, if you were to see how many people comprise of it, is huge. It’s not difficult to be an accountant, yes. But, to be a good one is just as distinguished as anything else. At that point, you should have risen from being an accountant to being a corporate executive. On the contrary, an engineer is an engineer. The lack of upward mobility allows the engineering categories to retain the superbly smart and motivated individuals in addition to those who would be considered average.</p>

<p>I will agree that quite a number of business majors / professionals are in it for the wrong reasons, but that is precisely why using such statistics are silly.</p>

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<p>@angryengineer: the statistics only says financial planner. If you google “cpa cfp”, you can see many CPAs got CFPs too. This shows that the statistics is flawed. So what’s the total IQ for someone who passed the CPA and CFP exams?</p>

100

<p>@angryengineer you cant simply categorize people by an IQ test thats just wrong. I dont see what point your trying to make here. Accounting and engineering are entirely different fields. When you chose engineering you must’ve known it would be difficult. The same way I know it will be next year. You just sound bitter.</p>