<p>Syoung, I wasn’t berating you. Notice the qualifier of “pompous,” which is defined as “irritatingly self-important.” There are quite a number in the finance field that view accountants as people who perform the base jobs of preparing their taxes and serving them the financial statements to analyze. These types, sadly enough, even reside in the Big 4, which are commonly recognized as strictly accounting firms. I got interviewed by one. Please do note, however, that I’m talking in relative terms and am not trying to make a generalization.</p>
<p>I have yet to really see anyone explain how finance jobs are any more dynamic than accounting jobs. First, look at finance in the commercial/consumer banking segment. Most banks have departments in areas such as credit, commercial loans, etc. At the branch level, banks have managers that oversee branch operations and also people who specialize in investment or loan services. These jobs change fairly little except for the fact that these people have to juggle different clients. Now, look at true financiers, who analyze and manage M&A valuations and high wealth investment entities. Once again, the work differs largely based on the client with the general work remaining the same. Additionally, this type of work does exist in the Big 4 firms, so its not even exclusive work for finance majors. Additionally, just take a look at the liberal arts overachievers at Harvard who get picked up at Goldman Sachs. In a nutshell, I argue that both discipline’s dynamics revolve around clients and not necessarily around the work being done.</p>
<p>Basically, my point is that accounting keeps you open to the same general opportunities as a finance major does PLUS opens up work that a finance major would never be able to do like CPA audit/tax. I don’t think that majoring in something that claims to set you up to do work that a liberal arts degree also has the chance of doing is a good use of a major especially in the business realm. This is why I feel that finance is mistakenly overused as a sole major rather than a complementary major.</p>