<p>besides counting numbers, how is it?
An adviser recommended that i major in it, yet she said she can't do it; and she's a very smart lady. She told me its about formulas and statistics, and if you didn't understand algebra you wouldn't understand accounting.</p>
<p>Sounds like you are a virgin :)</p>
<p>o.O i guess?</p>
<p>Thread of the year.</p>
<p>lol help me!</p>
<p>Accounting is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get next. Actually, you do, as we’re analyzing past data (stuff we already know). Never mind. </p>
<p>But in all seriousness, intro is a lot of basics: debits/credits, how to record various transactions, basic financial ratios. The real meat of the course though is how to create various financial statements and when to use them, inventory management (i.e. weighted average, FIFO, LIFO), depreciation and things of that nature. I find that stuff pretty interesting, but most people hate it. Managerial accounting is trying to create various statements and analyze data so that managers can make heads/tails from it. I thought managerial was kind of stupid (it seemed more like watered down finance/econ and didn’t seem like a structured, consistent discipline IMO), but financial is legit.</p>
<p>ehh… o.o</p>
<p>She’s obviously not very smart then or she meant she can’t do it as a career because it is too boring.</p>
<p>yea i would think she was saying it was boring…</p>
<p>No, she’s a guidance counselor, which means there’s a 95% chance that she can’t do math. She thinks accounting involves math (as does 90% of this board), so she’s saying that it’s hard, when really she has no idea what she’s talking about. She probably thinks there’s tons of jobs in accounting, even for people with GPAs under 3.8.</p>
<p>so basically you need a gpa of 3.8 or higher to get a job? Is this your personal experience from the area you live? I live in New Jersey and theres a lot of accounting jobs here.</p>
<p>maybe not a 3.8 but something up there. yea maybe thats why @whistle</p>
<p>lol whatever the case might be, i still feel that i can do this. i just want more in depth information about it first. all the time you hear accounting is all math, but people tell me that its not true. I also hear that people use excel for the math too. so do you need to be good at algebra? i’ve already taken college algebra, i did not enjoy it but i did okay. so if accounting is anything like that, i don’t want to do it…</p>
<p>There is literally no math. Not even algebra. Anyone who tells you that there is is lying through their teeth. I cannot think of any situation where someone with profound mental math abilities would have the leg-up on someone who is good at memorizing things and does not know the times tables.</p>
<p>I will post here, pretty much a quintessential accounting question:</p>
<p>*On November 10, 1988, a Garry Corp. truck was in an accident with an auto driven by Dacey. On January 10, 1989, Garry received notice of a lawsuit seeking $800,000 in damages for personal injuries suffered by Dacey. Garry Corp.'s counsel believes it is reasonably possible that Dacey will be awarded an estimated amount in the range between $250,000 and $500,000, and that $400,000 is a better estimate of potential liability than any other amount. Garry’s accounting year ends on December 31, and the 1988 financial statements were issued on March 6, 1989. What amount of loss should Garry accrue
at December 31, 1988?</p>
<p>a. $0
b. $250,000
c. $400,000
d. $500,000*</p>
<p>Answering this question involves no math whatsoever. To the extent that answering accounting questions is entirely dependent on applying cryptic rules before doing a miniscule amount of arithmetic/algebra (or none at all, because the ‘rule’ does it for you), accounting is sort of like calc…1.</p>
<p>By the way, the answer is 0, because FAS 141 requires only footnote disclosures when the contingency is ‘reasonably possible’ as opposed to ‘probable’ (read: the lawyers can tell the accountants what they want to hear to make the f/s look good). Sound fun? Just remember that you need around a 3.8 GPA or else you will only get a job at a small firm like taxguy’s sons (and they had the best of connections).</p>
<p>So theres laws you need to know. Okay… I’m willing to learn. And as long as the job pays well enough for me to live, and then some, i don’r care… I just want to be comfortable. High expectation goal: to get that 3.8 gpa or higher, but if i can’t i wont let that bring me down for i know im getting nothing lower than a 3.0. I graduated High school with a 3.5 gpa and culinary school with a 3.6.</p>
<p>That’s nice, but LOL at thinking your high school and culinary school GPAs are relevant. There is an 80% chance you will get a C+ or worse in any accounting major class. Of course, everything you take for the first 2 years is BS.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Deloitte audit staff makes $45k after taxes, and that’s with a 3.8 GPA coupled with the ability of not being labeled ‘awkward’ (read: uncool looking) by female HR reps. That is the best case scenario. It’s far more likely that you’ll be among the 95% who don’t get legit jobs, at least in the short term. People say there is ‘demand’ for accountants because the aforementioned figure would be 100% (not getting legit jobs) for English/history majors. But there isn’t a whole lot of middle ground between big four and H&R block, it’s not like there’s some boutique firm that likes what kids with 3.4 GPAs bring to the table.</p>
<p>Wow lol…</p>
<p>What about staff acc? I looked on monster and they seem to make good money after 3 years</p>
<p>Yes, that’s them. You know, the people that they hire. What about the owners of the resumes that get thrown in the trash? Where is the data on what they make after three years?</p>
<p>I don’t understand what you mean. Why are they throwing their resume in the trash? I know if you go to certain schools like Devry they do that. I was just on Monster.com looking at the amount you made for the experience you had. Right now in New Jersey Robert half company is hiring staff accountants and the salary is 45,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD /year for expereince of 2 years or up.</p>