<p>So I'm going to be joining the McCombs school of business at UT austin and was wondering which path i should take??</p>
<p>Accounting: Stable, in demand (Pros)
Decent Pay (Con)</p>
<p>Finance: POTENTIAL of a very high salary (Pros)
Not stable, risky, hard to get a job (Con)</p>
<p>So how difficult would it be to land a finance job coming out of McCombs in the current financial recession/situation? </p>
<p>And ive heard from a few people that accounting majors COULD land a job in the financial sector? but i dont understand why an accountant would be hired to do investments? </p>
<p>My dream job would one day to be a manager at a hedge fund.</p>
<p>There are so many more accounting majors than finance majors…Is it really that much harder getting a job with a finance major than accounting? Wouldn’t the higher number of potential workers offset the number of job openings?</p>
<p>Since you are just getting into the school, you will be there for at least 2-3 years I imagine. The economic scene will be different from today so the current situation is pretty much irrelevant</p>
<p>Since your going to UT Austin I think you would be wasting a golden opportunity to go to the #1 school for your major in the country by most standards. In my experience finance majors have a much harder time getting internships and jobs than finance majors so I disagree with Monorojo on that point. Also it’s completely possible to get into finance from accounting. A path that you could consider is Big 4–>Big 4 TAX–> Top MBA → IB then from there hedge funds, P.E., and many other careers in finance are completely possible. I’m biased because I am a accounting major but from what I have seen if your not at a target school for finance then it’s gonna be tough.</p>
<p>Also your career goals may change drastically from being a hedge fund manager. The road to that job is tough and takes many many many years of working 80-100 hour weeks. It’ll pay off but maybe you might change your mind on things. So I’d say go for accounting but obviously take some classes and try and go for what you enjoy doing. But don’t expect the economic situation to change much by the time you graduate, 8% unemployment’s gonna be around for awhile.</p>
<p>The more i read on this site the more I think I am making the wrong choice with my future. Is finance from a State U. really as worthless as most make it out to be? What if the school is in a major financial sector like LA or NY?</p>
<p>@Monorojo i’ve noticed the same thing. It seems like finance if your not from an ivy league is “useless”. I’m not going to lie, on of my main priorities when deciding between which major is the money i can make. From what i’ve see on this forum and others on the web it seems like accountants make crap compared to finance majors (esp I-banking). McCombs may not be on the top of thel ist for target schools but I think imma stick with finance…hopefully it works out for me in the long run </p>
<p>I personally know a millionaire who is a retired accountant, I mean obviously that’s not the norm but it can happen. If you get with a big firm you start at around 50k and you get basically a 5-7% raise per year which very few fields other than law, software engineering, and yes, finance, can compete with.</p>
<p>The “cons” in both professions is that in order to make the big money you need to basically work 24/7 for several years to earn any seniority whatsoever.</p>
<p>accountants break 6 figures after 15 years?!!! that is crazy when compared to finance majors especially banking. Those guys hit 6 figures after a 2 or 3 years. </p>
<p>Accountants seem to be doomed to a life of mediocrity.</p>
And most likely those “guys” already came from money and were able to pay full for an Ivy education, so that coupled with the strings mom and dad can pull for their child, will land them a job that pays someone 6 figs <24 months after undergraduate education.</p>
<p>I’m now confused why people are droving to accounting to lead a “life of mediocracy” instead of being one of the “guys” making that much money in 1/3-1/4 of the time.
/sarcasm</p>
<p>@turtlerock i didnt want to come off as being an inconsiderate brat but i mean there are still those in IB who didnt have mom and dad pull strings for them. And I would like to believe that if you put forth the effort, work hard, and sacrifice certain things you could become one of those in IB from a semi-target such as UT</p>
<p>You’re just as likely to walk straight into a $300,000 boutique investing firm salary straight out of school in finance as you are to become partner at KPMG straight out of school in accounting. Like 1 guy with a triple graduate degree at an Ivy League whose dad is a CFO with connections to the Mafia achieves that per decade.</p>
<p>If you really want to plan your career around that it’s your choice, but to me it’s equivalent to laying around doing nothing assuming you’ll win the lottery/become a rockstar/be abducted by aliens.</p>
<p>Almost every finance grad I know works as a financial analyst, which isn’t that much different from an accountant except they get yelled at more and work more.</p>
<p>I’m not saying accounting is superior to finance, actually what I’m saying is they’re pretty much the same as long as you’re realistic and drop the whole Miami Vice i-Banker 80’s Ferrari playboy image a lot of people associate with the word “finance”.</p>
<p>BTW 6 figures is merely what you can EXPECT after several years in big-firm accounting. It’s not the maximum. Few other careers nowadays have that kind of security though. Pharmacists, MDs, patrol cops in downtown NY/LA/SF, computer engineers, anyone else? Definitely not lawyers anymore.</p>
<p>@discoinferno…i dont expect to walk into finance and make $300,000. Instead as I have stated earlier, I believe you could make $300,000 alot quicker as a finance major in investment banking. As others have stated in this thread…you can EXPECT to make 6 figures in accounting after 10-15 years. While on other forums online especially Wall street oasis many investment bankers on that forum claim to make 6 figures after 4-5 years. To me, doing b*tch work and having ridiculous hours doesnt matter as long as im cashing in. I may seem shallow or seem to have no life but to me the money is more important.</p>
<p>If you click the link I posted (which is by no means scientific but the best “rule of thumb” I’ve seen), it’s more like 5-6 years to make $100,000/year in “big” accounting, which is about the same as you’re suggesting for finance. I’m not arguing with that. Although again, I think he has people making partner way too soon. At 10-15 years it starts to depend more on your connections and performance. Some guys will keep making 100k and other guys will be senior partners in a busy area banking a cool million before taxes, making way more than some ibankers while potentially working less.</p>
<p>I know a lot of finance grads and a lot of accounting grads. Their salaries over their lifetimes are not dramatically different. </p>
<p>As a generalization, finance grads seem to have a harder time finding a job initially but once they do get a job it pays a little more than accounting. That said, they don’t seem to get the “guaranteed” raises that accountants get. On the positive, they get performance bonuses more often, but they also get shafted sooner if things aren’t going well.</p>
<p>Accounting grads seem to be almost 100% employed the day they graduate but not all of them go directly into big firms and some of them wash out into a relaxed job at a small business after deciding the “big bucks” aren’t worth the stress, which is why websites like “payscale” show accounting as being mediocre income. If they only counted CPAs and big 4 employees you’d suddenly see it up with the engineering majors, with or above econ & finance.</p>
<p>A lot of the guys on WSO are 14 year olds who claim to own Porsche 911-GT1s as well. Not saying they all are but it’s pretty epidemic. You know, “Models ‘n’ bottles”.</p>
<p>Again my overall point is, there’s not much of a difference. Accounting is a little safer and more versatile and finance allows you a higher fantasy ceiling, but for 90% of graduates, they’re doing nearly the same job for the same wages.</p>
<p>@discoinferno…I agree with you on some points and disagree on others. But thanks for your input. </p>
<p>Can accounting majors REALISTICALLY go into Investment Banking out of college? I’ve read on this forum and others saying that recruiters for IB don’t really care about what major you have. It is more based on GPA, your knowledge, and how you sell yourself.</p>
<p>So say if I wanted to be safe but also test finance…would you advise that I major in accounting (so that I will always have a job) and minor in finance?</p>
<p>The only issue with this is that you will still have to explain why you majored in accounting in the first place. No one’s going to believe you were legitimately interested in accounting and saying you did it as a back up option certainly isn’t going to work in your favor.</p>
<p>So what do you recommend I do? I would really like to do finance and end up in IB. But I understand a few things as well #1) that McCombs is a semi-target school #2) the economy is still in a recession and ill be fighting for an IB job with Ivy League kids</p>
<p>essentially by idea of majoring in accounting and minoring in finance is my attempt of getting best of both worlds; the security that comes with an accounting degree and still being able to do what I really want to do (IB) through a minor in finance.</p>
<p>You can still have security with a finance degree as a financial analyst or even an accountant. Just don’t hinge everything on IB and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>It sounds like you really like finance and dread accounting so just do finance. Don’t be miserable for a 5% higher chance of employment.</p>
