<p>An economics degree from University of Michigan, a finance degree from Indiana University or an accounting degree from University of Illinois?</p>
<p>Assuming that said student has a 3.5 GPA and all other things equal. I want a straightfoward answer on what degree you believe on average would make the most and why?</p>
<p>in my personal opinion, the accounting degree from UIUC is slightly ahead in terms of employablity as being an accountant is usually about having a stable job. But, personally, I would rather have an UMichigan degree. :)</p>
<p>If you could get into Ross, that would be best. The next best would probably be Indiana because those two would give you the best shots at landing a fancy banking or consulting job. Then again, you might need more than a 3.5 GPA to do so. UIUC would probably be the best for accounting of those three, but I wouldn’t go there unless I wanted to do accounting and had in-state tuition.</p>
<p>Best is a subjective term. Do you mean what is most employable? Do you mean what you will like the most or get the best gpa in?</p>
<p>Accounting , overall, is the best major noted for jobs. Once you understand this, the school you attend is irrelevant for jobs. Some schools, however, might be a better fit,which is a subjective test.</p>
<p>I hope taxguy is right, I will see in the end.</p>
<p>whoops, I meant to say that accounting is the best major for jobs among the three as long as you like it and do well in it.</p>
<p>I know at Indiana that you can major in accounting and add the double major in finance with just two more classes than is required for the accounting major alone.</p>
<p>“whoops, I meant to say that accounting is the best major for jobs among the three as long as you like it and do well in it.”</p>
<p>That bears repeating. Accounting is not for everybody. If your personality isn’t suited for accounting the work will drive you stark raving mad. Many graduates who take Big 4 offers will wind up in sales or finance or something other than accounting. For some of them it is a big plus on their resume to have put in a couple of years with a national accounting firm, but if they wash out after just a few months it isn’t a plus.</p>
<p>Before you commit to an accounting degree try to figure out if you can handle this kind of work for at least a couple of years so that if you do make a move you will look like a mover instead of a loser.</p>
<p>StephenR,</p>
<p>-How much is a couple of years? Is it 2 years, 5 years, 10 years?
-After Big 4/national accounting firm, what? Where do you go from there?</p>
<p>Also, what is a national accounting firm? Is it just the Big 4, or does it encompass something larger?</p>
<p>After working for a big CPA firm for two to four years most will leave because they can’t stand it anymore or will be asked to leave because the managers they have worked for don’t think they have what it takes to be a manager. Being a manager usually involves supervisory responsibility for several concurrent client engagements. While a manager is managing several concurrent client engagements he or she must also learn to socialize and schmooze well enough to bring in a client or two. Eventual promotion to partnership will depend on whether other partners think a prospective partner can get new business and keep existing business.</p>
<p>When people leave they become controllers at small companies or assistant controllers at medium sized companies or internal audit managers at large companies. They also become seniors or managers at smaller accounting firms and they frequently become partners in these firms within just a few years. Some go back to school to get an MBA or a Masters in Taxation. Some take over the family business running a chain of carpet stores or managing a platoon of plumbing and heating techs.</p>
<p>People do all kinds of things after they leave a big firm and hopefully they do something that they enjoy or at least don’t hate so much.</p>
<p>There are CPA firms with a nationwide presence other than the Big 4, But the Big 4 are international and are much, much larger. If you want a name on your resume with universal recognition, that would be one of the Big 4 firms. If you want to stay in public accounting it won’t hurt to start at a non-Big 4 firm, but if you want to move from accounting to a non-accounting career the name recognition factor will carry a lot of weight with folks who don’t really understand what it is that accountants and auditors do.</p>
<p>Two to four years of experience is what gets headhunters excited. This is because you represent an easy sale. It’s also because you will be coming off an incredibly steep learning curve which is both a stress-creator when you are on the curve and a confidence booster when you get off. Ideally you will be running a series of small to medium-sized client engagements by the time you have two to four years and you will probably think of yourself as a stud by that time. There is always a lot of demand for people leaving a big firm with this range of experience. If you can last for two years it means you probably are not a flake, can be counted on to show up for work, and have not disgraced yourself socially. Manager promotions usually come after four or five years and these guys are mostly very organized, very hard workers with adequate people skills.</p>
<p>If you are at the manager or heavy senior level and you are so brilliant and hard-working that partners and client executives take notice of you, you may get fast-track offers directly from clients.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the detailed information.</p>
<p>StephenR, I’ve heard that bringing in clients is less of an issue for the Big Four(essentially because the revenue created by auditing a single big company like GE or whatever would support many partners at a Big Four firm, whereas a partner at a smaller firm would have to grab lots of clients to justify his existence). Is that more or less reasonable?</p>
<p>Jona, what you heard is true. You don’t ordinarily have to bring in clients to become a partner in a big 4 firm. However, you have to really impress the partners there with your work ethic and competence in order to make partner.</p>
<p>Smaller firms probably will require their prospective manager to bring in business or they won’t be promoted to partner. Thus, at the smaller firms, you not only must be competent but must also develop some marketing savvy in order to make partner.</p>
<p>“I’ve heard that bringing in clients is less of an issue for the Big Four(essentially because the revenue created by auditing a single big company like GE or whatever would support many partners at a Big Four firm, whereas a partner at a smaller firm would have to grab lots of clients to justify his existence). Is that more or less reasonable?”</p>
<p>Very reasonable. But there are big clients and not so big clients and big offices and smaller offices. When I worked in the Los Angeles office of a then Big 8 firm many years ago there was a surprising preponderance of medium and smaller sized audit clients in that office. The biggest client was a now-defunct aircraft manufacturer and many staffers lived in fear of being being pressed into that engagement team. I think that job probably had thirty or more staffers working year round, but most of the engagements in that office had teams of two to six people working a couple of months each year.</p>
<p>Most people, given a choice, will choose some diversity in their work assignments.</p>