Realistic starting salary expectation for an accountant?

<p>If I were to major in accounting @ USC and get hired by a big 4 right out of college, what would be a realistic starting salary? I'm going to guess around 50-60k?</p>

<p>I am not sure about USC, but the average Michigan (Ross) grad joining a firm as an accountant starts at $40,000-$60,000 and the average is about $50,000.</p>

<p>I'm sure it also depends upon the area in which you are working, right? For instance, Orlando(FL) vs. San Francisco</p>

<p>More like $50K plus bonus. The big firms pay people from all schools the same.</p>

<p>If you're talking about public accounting and working in audit or tax:</p>

<p>$60k is a bit too high.</p>

<p>It depends a lot on the area, but I would expect around $45k-$53k (including sign on bonus) depending on the area. Boston is around $50k, so you can adjust that number up or down depending on if your area is more or less expensive to live in. You can add $3-5k is you graduate with a MAcc (which you may or may not want to do, depending on how you plan to fulfill the 150 credit hour requirement.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that the experience you gain while working in public accounting is invaluable. You'll be in extremely high demand after putting three years in and will have the ability to move into just about any industry you choose.</p>

<p>I am in the accounting program at USC and you can expect around 47,000-50,000 for audit, 52,000 for tax and upwards of 60,000 for the computer based jobs.</p>

<p>What type of computer-accounting based jobs? Got a link to this program?</p>

<p>I think he means mgt info systems which combines accting and computers.</p>

<p>Well they have different names at each firm which is why I tried to remain general. It involves a lot of internal control work and 404 stuff if I remember correctly. I am doing tax so I am not the best source for info on those options. The major itself is called information systems at my school as barrons stated.</p>

<p>I'm thinking about doubling up at SC doing acct/finance... doesnt look like a bad idea at all.</p>

<p>If someone is interested in doing the computer side portion of the 404 stuff as someone mentioned, here's the scoop.</p>

<p>Sarbanes-Oxley, the law passed in 2002 as a result of the Enron and Worldcom scandals has two major enforcement provisions--302 and 404. One refers to quarterly attestation and the other refers to yearly internal controls testing. This testing involves everything that goes into the financial statements. Generally the test are divided into 3 groups--financial controls, IT application controls (which quite often are the finance department's responsibility), and IT general controls (the IT department's responsibility generally--with oversight from internal audit or the SOX program office). </p>

<p>To be good at testing financial controls requires a CPA and 2+ years experience, but to be good at IT application controls requires a CISA (from a group called ISACA)--and 3-5 years experience in IT audits (obviously not in SOX audits since the law just got passed). To be good at IT general controls requires knowledge of computer systems and security systems--generally a CISSP certification is best.</p>

<p>Now, someone just graduating can get work in all of these areas with the right training--but to get to the top will take the certs and putting in the time I mentioned here. But there are lots of open jobs in this area since it's fairly new and the law requires all public companies to be certified. And CPA firms are hiring people in all 3 areas to do their compliance testing for them.</p>

<p>is there a finance major at USC? sry if this sounds very stupid. Is the finance major in the college or in the business school. I thought that the business school only had accounting and business management.</p>

<p>There is a finance major at USC in the business school. Accounting students start in the business school and once you finish the two basic accounting courses you enter the accounting school. Sorry if this is too late, but I do not come on here often.</p>