Switch from Accounting to Computer Science?

College Majors Business Major
1

<p>Hello everyone. </p>

<p>Currently, I am in my 3rd year of college pursuing Business Administration with concentration in Accounting. However, I have noted that the need for accountants is overrated. There are not too many accounting jobs out there but there are a lot of students majoring in Accounting. I know some people who will be graduating this year with Accounting concentrations and can't find jobs. Also, I am not interested in the Big 4 because I know I won't get hired by them. Bottom line: there are not enough Accounting jobs out there. </p>

<p>There are way more technology related jobs compared to Accounting.I have recently taken a programming course and I like it. Would it be wise move for me to switch from Accounting to Computer Science or Management Information systems? What are the job prospects for new grads with Computer Science or MIS degrees? </p>

<p>I live is San Francisco Bay Area (just case if anyone is wondering).</p>

2

<p>MIS is probably an easier switch.</p>

<p>CS at my university is in the engineering college.
MIS is in the business college.</p>

<p>check that out.
Here in Oklahoma where I am from, MIS demand & Accounting demand are about the same.</p>

<p>I’m an MIS/Accounting double major.</p>

<p>I have interviewed for a lot of MIS type jobs and Accounting jobs (internships).
I’d suggest looking into a double major or major/minor combo.</p>

3

<p>A common misconception is that an Accounting degree automatically means a job. Another common misconception is that since there are so many majoring in Accounting, it is hard to get a good Accounting job. The fact is, an Accounting degree will probably make you eligible/qualified for employment consideration in more entry-level college-required jobs than any other degree. Technology jobs are growing the fastest proportionately, but there are way more accounting-related jobs <em>right now</em> and Accounting is growing the most numerically (not proportionately) . However, as you said, there are way more accounting majors than there are CS/CIS/IT/MIS majors.</p>

<p>So why is Accounting still an excellent degree opportunity-wise? Because the demand for EXCELLENT accounting students is greater than the supply of EXCELLENT accounting students, even with all those accounting majors. If you have an excellent GPA and good interviewing skills, there is a very high chance you can get a Big4 job, which is much more likely to put you on the fast-track to high-prestige, high-income positions than most entry-level jobs given to EXCELLENT CS/CIS/IT/MIS majors. And on top of that, even if you don’t get a Big4 job, as an excellent Accounting student, you still have access to just as much opportunity as all those excellent CS/CIS/IT/MIS students, just in other types of fields (though likely with a lower ENTRY-LEVEL salary).</p>

<p>Now, Accounting is a tough major despite what some on these forums say, so if you’re not an excellent-GPA Accounting major, I don’t blame you. But if you do have an excellent GPA in Accounting (even after beginning/taking your Intermediate courses), you should seriously reconsider changing your major on the basis of opportunity, as you will have no shortage of it. Ask those people having difficulty finding jobs: what have you been offered and rejected? what is your GPA? how are your interviews going? how expansive (geographic areas, industries, companies, number of applications) is your search? If they are telling the truth, at least one of the answers are going to disqualify them as an example of the Accounting degree failing students.</p>

<p>Even if you do not like Accounting and plan to go into a different career (Accounting students have an advantage over Finance students for Finance jobs), if you are already going to be finished with your Intermediates and can keep a good GPA, you should still remain Accounting and just take skill-focused (not theory) CS/CIS/MIS electives on the side (maybe a double major in MIS or a minor in one of those three). All that accounting coursework will make you look very good even for an IT-related position, because the potential employer will consider you better able to understand the core business functions that you will be supporting in an IT position.</p>

<p>Of course, all that goes out the window if you are looking for highly-technical, scientific, or hardware related computer science jobs (but you said just programming, for which an entire CS degree is not necessary). In that case, you would actually need a CS degree (and abandon your Accounting degree in the interest of graduating in a reasonable time).</p>

<p>Bottom line:
No matter what your degree is, a good GPA, good interviewing skills, an expansive search, and realistic expectations are necessary to get a good job - there isn’t a magic degree (though there are a great many bad ones, Accounting not being one of them).</p>

4

<p>Serious101 - I am an Accounting/MIS double major. Junior in standing.</p>

<p>I have an internship with a fortune 500 company (top 200).
I’ll be an intern in internal audit.</p>

<p>I might be an accounting major but I am far from your ‘traditional’ accounting student.
Right now I have made a “B” in every single accounting course I have taken.
Which includes Intro to Financial Accounting/Intro to Managerial, Int I, Int II, and Accounting Info Sys.
So my “accounting gpa” is a 3.0.
My overall is a 3.31.</p>

<p>I am taking audit assurance and tax right now.</p>

<p>I currently have a C in tax, which may or may not change as the class is mostly exams.</p>

<p>Will having a C in tax or below 3.0 accounting GPA hurt me if I’m not interested in going into to tax at all?</p>

<p>I absolutely have no interest in a tax role even if that means decreasing my opportunities to jobs.</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>Hit the nail on the head. Very well said. I think your sample of examples of accounting majors who could not get jobs is really misrepresented. If you fall in the 3.9+ GPA in accounting with good interviewing skills and at least some form of an internship, then you will find employment. I can practically guarantee it. </p>

<p>Finding a job for me was not difficult; finding the right job was a bit more of a challenge. For the people in my school’s Masters in Accounting program, most (about 70%) already have jobs, with about 50% of those being in the B4. The 30% that don’t have jobs did not do well in undergrad and have not done very well in the grad program. To say the least, it is not surprising the ones who are not able to find employment.</p>

<p>The days of being an entitled college graduate are over. If you don’t work your tail off and develop yourself during your 4-5 years of school, then employment is not guaranteed. However, if you can separate yourself from the pack and make yourself an excellent candidate, then job opportunities abound. I can promise that.</p>

6

<p>chodges,</p>

<p>Your GPA is definitely going to significantly hurt, if not entirely disqualify, your chances at Big4 (if you’re even interested). I would also be worried about a sub-3.0 major GPA if you intend to go into an Accounting-related field outside the Big4. One of the reasons why GPA is so important is because the Human Resources person/computer that receives your resume is going to automatically filter out people without a certain GPA (obviously, every company has varying levels of GPA levels, but many will look specifically at your major GPA, along with your overall GPA), without even looking at anything else. So although you may be applying to a non-tax position and that is the only class where you made less than a B, your resume may be thrown out before they even discover that, or it may simply be an inflexible policy to never hire someone below this GPA. And all the companies that create GPA policies almost always have the minimum level at 3.0 or higher.</p>

<p>But I wouldn’t freak out because you have some good things going. First, you have two majors that are considered among the most difficult of business majors, among the most in-demand, and complimentary to one another. Most Accounting double majors take Finance as their second major - you picked a second major which will put you ahead of those guys, all things being equal. Second, your cumulative GPA is far from borderline and will meet a lot of corporate GPA requirements (despite being below the “safe” 3.5 level). Third, and most importantly, you not only have an internship, you have an internship at a Fortune 500 company. That will hopefully help you a lot, and make many overlook your major GPA. You might even get an offer from the company with whom you are interning. So I wouldn’t be placing bets against you. However, you should still try to do whatever you can to maintain that 3.0 major GPA (maybe make an A in one of your non-tax courses at some point).</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the reply Serious101.</p>

<p>I definitely feel I need to make an A in one of my accounting courses.</p>

<p>I was not an accounting major until after I took Intermediate I so I wasn’t very motivated to really push for an A.</p>

<p>Since I have become an accounting major, the accounting classes I have taken have been a little harder than the earlier ones.</p>

<p>Tax & Int II.
My MIS GPA is currently a 4.0</p>

<p>I’ll definitely study as much as I can to raise my Tax grade to a B.</p>

<p>Thanks for calming some of my nerves but not totally lying by saying it won’t matter at all.</p>

8

<p>GPA is very important. Through everything out in your life and focus on GPA.</p>

9

<ul>
<li>At our uni, we can’t do double major because of budget problems.</li>
<li>My GPA is 4.0. I am good at Accounting. </li>
<li>Big 4 want people are social and outgoing, but I am not. I do talk when I have to talk, but I feel like that Big 4 are looking for sales people and not technical people.</li>
<li>can some of you tell me what part of U.S. you guys live in?</li>
</ul>

10

<p>kool90, I live in Oklahoma.
I go to Oklahoma State University.
Big 4 recruit pretty heavily out of our university it seems.
Along with a lot of other big firms.</p>

<p>I agree with what you are saying.
I have received some offers for internships over some other candidates who have higher GPAs.</p>

<p>I think I just interviewed well and demonstrating you can communicate effectively is important. A good GPA will get you an interview but once you get the interview your GPA doesn’t matter as much unless they need to narrow it down from 2 candidates they like equally but 1 has a higher GPA.</p>

11

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</p>

<ol>
<li>Thats some BS that you can’t major in whatever you want. I would have transferred long ago.</li>
<li>Fantastic, GPA is the biggest hurdle.</li>
<li>Are you interested in tax? I think your perception of the Big 4 audit is skewed as well. Being able to hold a conversation is important, but do not overlook the technical importance of their responsibilities.</li>
</ol>

12

<p>It took me a long time to figure out that technology applications was what I wanted to do. Don’t go into accounting solely because of the job market, make sure you like it more than MIS because MIS does indeed have better overall job prospects and better pay.</p>

13

<p>Inmotion 12
Are you a MIS major? I heard that MIS majors are looked down upon because employers prefer Computer Science majors. Is that true?</p>

14

<p>The only time MIS majors will be at a disadvantage to CS majors is with highly technical/scientific jobs that MIS majors cannot even do at all (such as a developer or researcher for Intel) and probably any external software development jobs (by external, I mean development of software products being sold to business clients or consumers). With any kind of internal IT or external consulting, you would have just as much opportunity. For example, I went to a computer science career presentation at my school once. Multiple professionals from the IT field were invited as guest speakers, including a couple of consultants (not big-name firms though) and one Director from HP. It was very surprising, and probably a little disheartening for the computer science faculty, that the speakers essentially described the MIS degree (even though they did not mention a major) when they were talking about what they would look for in a student’s academic coursework when hiring. On many occasions they emphasized that Computer Science students often did not have an adequate business perspective/view of what they were doing in their jobs. Therefore, they were always very interested in students who had taken a variety of business courses in addition to their technical courses.</p>

<p>So the bottom line is: In some cases a CS major will be at a disadvantage, and in other cases an MIS major will be at a disadvantage. They are pretty much equal and your decision should depend on your interests, career goals, and possibly the quality of your business school/MIS department.</p>

15

<p>Like Serious101 said, it depends on what type of jobs you are applying for. In my opinion an MIS major sets you up well for more long-term success because the tech industry sort of does have an up-and-out mentality to it. </p>

<p>With MIS you are on the leadership path the moment you get hired. With computer science you are expected to be more of a techie, programming type, which is cool when you’re young, but long-term you better have some personality to go with those tech skills or you’ll end up on the dice forums trying to figure out who/what to blame for your failures. </p>

<p>I am not an MIS major, but I do have a firm goal of creating innovations in the fields of science and technology and I plan on doing that in private industry. I am studying econ/stats with a CS minor in undergrad and will go from there.</p>

16

<p>“With MIS you are on the leadership path the moment you get hired.”</p>

<p>?</p>

17

<p>As a management of information systems the company that hires you is going to expect you to manage their information systems. I know managing and leadership is not exactly the same thing but they are related.</p>

18

<p>

</p>

<p>You won’t truly be ‘managing’ anything until later in your career…</p>

19

<p>Goose - MIS grads usually work in the “IT” area within a company. So yes the do ‘manage’ the companies information systems.</p>

<p>However, managing an information system is much different than managing people.</p>

<p>Later on in your career you could be managing people who are managing an IS.</p>

20

<p>The same could be said for someone who graduates in finance and ‘manages’ his FP&A project.</p>