<p>Was reading this thread on city data forums:
Are</a> accountants now getting low balled? - Higher education - City-Data Forum</p>
<p>Accountants must be getting low balled here. There are job offers for accountants, requiring 3-4 years experience, with a salary of $30k. Then there's the IFRS, which will probably decrease salaries even more...</p>
<p>Not to mention, EVERYONE is majoring in accounting! I feel people majoring in it right now will regret doing so down the line... thoughts?</p>
<p>There are a number of jobs for accountants that are really for bookkeepers. Yes, bookkeepers don’t earn that much as your City-Data forum notes.</p>
<p>However, those hired by public accounting firms are still geting very decent salaries.</p>
<p>I don’t know, however, what effect the IFRS will have on hiring or salaries. That is anyone’s guess. I also don’t see a lot of outsoucing for tax professionals especially for tax planning. I also don’t see it for auditing, although some audit functions can be outsourced especially anything that is perfunctory.</p>
<p>It is extremely competitive to break into the Big 4 though… and I feel a lot of people are of the delusion they will definitely make Big 4, earn a salary in the neighborhood of $50k, and move up from there, maybe go on to another firm… but it’s not that easy. Idk, I just don’t like the idea of majoring in accounting right now. Engineering and medical fields reign supreme imo.</p>
<p>Engineering is highly paid for a very good reason (look at the coursework they require) and I’m a bit hesitant to agree with you on the medical field side. If you’re referring to becoming a MD there are years of coursework/schooling and loans you must go through to achieve that doctor salary (By which you’re 35-40). Unless research is something you really do and aspire to, publishing in journals and experimenting all day can have it’s pressure / stress also. </p>
<p>@MusicJosh tell me where there is a lucrative major and where there is little to no competition. I’d sure like to be there if you know of any. The fact of life is that there always is competition and you have to just achieve more than the person next to you. Accountants will always be needed and outsourcing I feel won’t be necessarily be a viable option considering many businesses are incorporated / started up state-side. </p>
<p>Computer science / engineering is more subject to large layoffs and/or outsourcing imo. </p>
<p>Accounting offers a certain lifestyle or career path that is attractive to certain groups of people and my suggestion would be for you to give it a go if you’re interested and let it fall into place if you really do like it.</p>
<p>Lol, I know janitors that make more than 30k</p>
<p>At my school, a big tier 1 state school, getting public accounting jobs is very difficult for most students. There are loads of students who think “big 4, big 4, big 4” cause the big 4 are on campus for events all the time. Very few get actual offers. </p>
<p>Im guessing that a few lucky students get good corporate jobs, but that most end up fighting it out for 20-40 K type jobs. And of course there are gonna be students who get even worse than that. </p>
<p>In general though, hiring fluctuates with the economy. Graduating in the wrong year can make all the difference.</p>
<p>Accounting is pretty damn overrated.</p>
<p>People on this forum often perceive accounting as being the easiest way to get a job, make a decent amount of money, and have a comfortable lifestyle. Now, I’m not saying that accounting careers don’t inherit those qualities, but the expectation of having these qualities, especially in entry-level positions, will disappoint you every time. </p>
<p>Thus, accounting is overrated in that sense. Accounting, like everything else, requires some level of passion and interest in order to succeed.</p>
<p>Sounds like nursing. Haha, to me at least.</p>
<p>I can guarantee none of those jobs are at CPA firms. Big4 is very competitive and so are all jobs at CPA firms, but to say that accountants are being low-balled is silly. </p>
<p>Of course the people who have to settle for these jobs are going to make less…they didn’t have what it takes to get in with the best jobs. Why should someone who couldnt cut it in the interviews at the best place for Accounting grades be paid just as much? If you take two people in ANY major and one gets a job at the place all grads of that major want to be of course they will be paid more than the slacker who had to settle for something less prestigious. </p>
<p>Do you see finance majors who had to settle for being a teller at a bank complain that they aren’t paid as much as an associate at an IB? No. The massive number of accounting grads leads to unavoidable disappointments in career options. The world needs bookkeepers. </p>
<p>Basically…labeling the major as over-hyped because not everyone is being paid 55k (avg starting salary for Big4 associates this year) is really silly.</p>
<p>^yes in my experience, CPA firms give good offers. </p>
<p>and duh, some people are gonna get better jobs than others. its definitely not just slackers who struggling. I think thats part of the problem. People expect that getting good grades and being involved will lead to good chances of a CPA firm or other great offer. It usually doesnt. </p>
<p>the reason people are calling accounting overhyped is because students expect better job prospects than what they end up seeing. they expect, perhaps wrongly, that they will be more than bookkeepers.</p>
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<p>I disagree. Nowhere in that link or in this post do we see any examples of people with good grades and good ECs getting crappy jobs. </p>
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<p>Exactly my point. Why is this shocking? One marketing major may get a job at an agency and one might be doing sales at some ****ty company making 35k. What makes accounting immune to this? Some people will get a Big4 job making 55k and some might not do well in interviews or just slack off and have a bad resume and become a ap clerk making 35k. </p>
<p>This doesn’t make accounting over-hyped, because it gives many students a CHANCE to break into public accounting and have a shot at a good career. If the student wasn’t hungry enough to be a top student and network like crazy, than they get the crappy AP job.</p>
<p>My accounting program had 700 students in it. Our Beta Alpha Psi chapter, a huge advantage if your participate, had 15 frequent attendees. So 15/700 students were taking full advantage of the opportunity. This is just one example of the huge numbers of people ARE slackers. I can give more.</p>
<p>Not every accounting grad will make it to the big4 as the guy above me mentioned. Some people will have to settle for less, this is how the world is. A college degree in accounting is not a “free pass” into the big4. You have to work hard for it during your 4 years, you have to show them that you are the best fit</p>
<p>From what I can see in my school, we had around 130 people graduate last year from the Business Administration program, 9 of them went on to work for the big4. I knew one of them personally, his gpa was 2,8, not high by any means, but his grades in accounting related subjects were all A’s and A-'s</p>
<p>He attended a lot of relevant workshops, yeah he was a slacker when it came to studying for the exams, but he always took the chance to improve himself. He also got this certificate which demonstrated his ability in using a particular accounting software(forgot the name), the school didnt even require him to get it. The interviewers were very impressed when he mentioned it.</p>
<p>Now he’s an auditor at Ernst & Young.</p>
<p>“Nowhere in that link”</p>
<p>I was not refering to any link. </p>
<p>“Some people will get a Big4 job making 55k and some might not do well in interviews or just slack off and have a bad resume and become a ap clerk making 35k.” </p>
<p>or most might not slack off, be good interviewees(but not good enough due to the high competition), and have great resumes but still become A/P clerks. </p>
<p>“This doesn’t make accounting over-hyped, because it gives many students a CHANCE to break into public accounting and have a shot at a good career.”</p>
<p>Its overhyped because people EXPECT more than just a chance, or expect a chance and don’t get it. </p>
<p>“If the student wasn’t hungry enough to be a top student and network like crazy, than they get the crappy AP job.”</p>
<p>By this logic, only unmotivated and lazy students get poor offers. this is NOT the truth. </p>
<p>“My accounting program had 700 students in it. Our Beta Alpha Psi chapter, a huge advantage if your participate, had 15 frequent attendees. So 15/700 students were taking full advantage of the opportunity. This is just one example of the huge numbers of people ARE slackers. I can give more.”</p>
<p>I can also give you PLENTY of examples of students who attended practically every meeting to no avail.</p>
<p>I dont think you understand the meaning of “over-hyped”. Its over hyped because of what students expect compared to what they get.</p>
<p>Getting into the Big 4 is not that difficult. IB, Hedge Funds, PE, and consulting are much more difficult.</p>
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<p>I don’t think I will ever get this through your head, but EVERYTHING in life is RELATIVE. The people you think are “good interviewees” are not really good because the real good interviewees are the ones actually getting the job!</p>
<p>^I tend to agree with goose with regard to Accounting jobs at Big 4 firms. My D (Boston College '12) just finished her summer internship with a Big 4 firm in the Silicon Valley, the area of the country she wanted to intern and hopefully work upon graduation. There were many rising seniors from San Jose State and other similar schools that were not the usual prestigious, top-tier schools. Most of these kids were offered employment after they graduate next Spring and my D was one of these. The two main “traits” that they seemed to all possess was a good GPA and good social skills. The fact that the vast majority of kids were offered jobs is a great testimonial to the thorough screening that takes place before internships are given.</p>
<p>"I don’t think I will ever get this through your head, but EVERYTHING in life is RELATIVE. The people you think are “good interviewees” are not really good because the real good interviewees are the ones actually getting the job! "</p>
<p>I don’t know why you fight me on this. It’s not that hard to understand. Here is an extreme example that will hopefully allow you to understand: If someone is better than 95% of other people and then another person is better than 99% percent of people, does that mean that the first person is not good? Not in my opinion. </p>
<p>The interviewer can like the interviewee alot but still not give him/her an offer cause they have someone else who did slightly better. You can’t call the rejected student a “not good” interviewer just because there is alot of competition. You can still be good at interviewing AND not get the job.</p>
<p>Since the number of applicants is increasing each year, employers are becoming more and more selective;they choose not the best, but the best out of the best. In other words, being good/best doesn’t guarantee you a job, for you have to be the best. I agree with whatdidyou.</p>
<p>Using your example, if only enough jobs are available for the top 2% to land them, then relatively speaking, someone in the 95% is not good enough.</p>