<p>Don't forget, accounting is only 5 years of schooling. Law school is 3 years plus 4 years for undergraduate! In addition, lawyers do different things than accountants and, in some ways, lawyers are more limited. You will find accountants in many different fields and in many management positions.</p>
<p>Also, I don't know how hard it is to make partner in a law firm vs. an accounting firm. I would imagine that they are both very hard. You have to work your buns off and be very competent.</p>
<p>Also, it depends on the law that you practice. Certain legal partners don't make huge amounts of money. The ones who make the most are your rainmaking partners. These are the ones that are able to bring in business. </p>
<p>Large firms also want partners to bring in business but you can make partner in a large firm if you are very competent. With small firms, they really want you to bring in business.</p>
<p>thanks taxguy. a few more q's if you don't mind.</p>
<p>what is it like working at a big 4 firm i am thinking audit, but whatever you can tell me? how are the hours? what does the work consist of? do you generally work out of the office or at a clients site? is the client generally in the same town you are in?</p>
<p>I only worked in the tax department of a big 4; thus, can't tell you much about audit. However, there is a lot of pressure to get the work done competently, quickly, and efficiently. They are given audit guides as to what to audit. Usually, beginners are pidgeonholed into certain aspects of the audit as directed by the managers. As people get more experienced, the breadth of responsibilty increases.</p>
<p>Make no mistake though: firms want people with good "people skills." Many people think that accounting is a pure numbers type of occupation. Although it is true that accountants deal with financial statements, they must have good interpersonal skills in dealing with clients and with staff. In fact, having good interpersonal skills may be the single most important skill that a person can have in business. </p>
<p>As for travel, usually, the client is in the vacinity of the office. However, I have seen auditors travel a bit. If you go into consulting, you will be traveling a lot.</p>
<p>You should intern for an accounting firm during a summer of college. It will give you some good experience and internships are available. Usually they are well paid too.</p>
<p>Starting salary for Big 4 jobs in auditing/tax are around $48,000 in Boston, $50,000 in New York. Depending on your area, they can be as low as $40,000.</p>
<p>You don't necessarily needs 5 years of schooling to go into accounting--you just need 150 credits. Depending on your school and program, you may only need to take a few extra classes over the summer (for instance, my school's degree entails about 134 credits and they offer a summer program in advanced accountancy where you can take an additional 16 credits, giving you the required 150 before you start working in September). </p>
<p>Hours vary depending on the size of the firm you work for, but Big 4 auditing usually entails working 55-90 hours a week. Most of your time is spent at the client's site, which is almost always located within the region.</p>
<p>When choosing a school, I would not cross out schools that don't offer an accounting major but rather a business major with a concentration in accounting. In fact, I would encourage the business major over the accounting major. As long as your program will provide you with the classes you need to take the exam (which it should), you'll have the benefit of being well-versed in most aspects of management and having in-depth knowledge of accounting. Odds are that you'll want to leave public accounting after a few years and go into either private accounting or something not directly related to accounting and having this backgrounds can help. Also, most of the upper level schools that I looked at were structured this way, anyway. My recomendation would be to look for a school that is particularly strong in business but that is also recruited by the Big 4.</p>
<p>I would have to say starting salaries are quite a bit higher now. Boston can go as high as 55k starting, NYC up to 60k. Bay Area and San Jose max out around 56-57k and LA/OC can range between 49-55k, Phoenix 49k-51k (same with Denver and Austin, but they can sometimes range lower due to the small supply of positions and high desirability/popularity).</p>
<p>Major in accounting, hands down. Its the most stable and flexible major out of the management emphasis'. You can become a CPA, financial analyst, ibanker, whatever. Any job you can get with a finance degree, you can get with an accounting degree. Furthermore, most people going into business take finance and the finance job market has a saturation point. Its like comparing windows xp to win95..mm sort of lol; windows xp can run much more software because it is backwards compatible while win95 is limited. </p>
<p>Oh and Brigham Young U. is ranked first or second in accounting. Definitely better than most of the schools named previously in this post.</p>
<p>I would like to find out...i am graduated from uni..with a bachelor of commerce..majored in accountin and finance...should i be an accountant or should i be a financial planner, i am thinkin of workin here for 2 years...then maybe go to Asia and work in Asia..which one would be more recognised in Asia, and will offer me a better career and more money ..haha anyone?</p>
<p>so say i graduate with a degree in accounting then work for a firm for three years head off and get my mba after that back to work does that start my quest to achieve partner all over again or does it fast track me to become partner sooner...and if so how much sooner?</p>
<p>^Well, do you necessarily need an MBA? You'll be a CPA, which takes less time to acquire than MBA.</p>
<p>Typically state schools have very good accounting programs. Even many of the top business schools do not have accounting programs, which is really surprising.</p>
<p>Seeing that you're a fellow Ohioan, OSU has a very reputable accounting program, if you don't mind 38,000 other undergrads.</p>
<p>im not thinkn cpa is for me...i was told gettin my accounting undergrad is the easier to get into the door than a finance major... how is osu grad school compaired?</p>
<p>A Ph.D. in either of those fields will only be significantly helpful if you want to teach. As far as pay, you won't see a large increase in your pay compared to working at a company for five years and moving up the ladder.</p>
<p>i want to major in accounting but also what to be skilled and have knowledge of the stock market this is why im not sure if i want to major in finance or just have to work supper hard for a double major</p>
<p>To my knowledge , it is NOT true that you need a masters in accounting in order to take the CPA. Please read the featured thread, "Everything you wanted to know or should know about accounting."</p>
<p>What you do need are certain courses that are equivilent to getting a bachelors in accounting in order to sit for the CPA exam. However, you can't get license unless you have an extra 30 credits beyond the bachelors. Howeveer, these extra 30 credits can be in almost anything business or accounting related. Thus, you can get a masters in finance, accounting, MBA etc. I think even law school counts.</p>