I’ve read some articles and talked to some people about this but I wanted to get some additional opinions. I’m trying to figure out worst case scenario, what should I expect after graduating?
Bachelors in Accounting from a no-named state school
3.2 GPA
No relevant work experience
QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor
No internship
No relevant extra-curriculars
I still have time to get an internship and relevant work experience but I’m worried I won’t be able to. So I’m assuming if all the above statements happen, what do y’all think would be a typical expectation of job outlook after graduating?
Note: I do plan to afterwards go to get my Masters in Accounting and CPA but I just want to know my chance of job outlook without them.
Additionally, I had a history teacher (not very reliable) discuss how many jobs such as accounting would be outsourced more and more. Furthermore, I’ve also considered how the current accounting work I’ve done in school could be easily done through computer automation (minus auditing), would y’all think that’s a legitimate concern (computers replacing accountants in the near future) or outsourcing a concern?
I believe when people talk about computer automation replacing accounting they are talking more about the process of automated bookkeeping and things like TurboTax. Based on what I’ve seen though, this threat isn’t as imminent for those of us working in public accounting. You mention auditing, which is a big part of public accounting, but it’s not bad for tax people either. Tax planning is the real bread and butter for those people, not tax return preparation; most people can already do their own tax returns on their own anyway and there are many specialists such as enrolled agents who work on tax returns or represent before the IRS without being CPAs. With work like that, human judgment is such a big part of it that I don’t see automation actually replacing human beings to a large extent. This might happen in the future but I don’t see it as an imminent threat.
As far as outsourcing, that’s always been with us. I know a lot of people who took jobs at firms where the bulk of their practice is outsourcing – they basically work for other companies as controllers, CFOs, finance officers, or internal audit on a contract basis. I don’t really see that as a threat though; if you don’t want to get involved in outsourcing it’s pretty easy with research to avoid the firms that specialize in that.
Will you be eligible (in terms of credit hours) to sit for the exam in your state by the time you graduate?
When you say you dont see it as an imminent threat, do you mean not for a long time or not foreseeable in the next few years. I mean I know its impossible to predict exactly where technology will be in the future but I’m worried mid-way through my career I won’t have the credentials to be a CFO or financial managerial position so my accounting background will become useless. I think most of my worry is that most posts I see on here are from people worrying about not getting a job with a good gpa from a good name school. And i’m just like well i have a subpar gpa and a no-name school so I should probably be even more worried.
Not sure if i phrased it wrong or if I myself just don’t understand it fully but what I meant or thought was that of outsourcing to countries like India. I know this would never happen to like Big 4 firms but could this oppose a threat to a small/medium size firm? My friend showed me an article how a company like Church’s Chicken (somewhat large, 1700 locations) moved all their accounting work done through a firm in India.
No, my state (georgia) require 150 and between AP credits and my degree it would only be like 129 which means I’d have to take 2 more semesters which ultimately I feel i’d be better off just doing a 1 year Masters in Accounting program.
I think we might be talking about different things though; when I mention “firm” (either a small/medium firm or a Big 4 firm) I am thinking of a public accounting or a professional services firm. Church’s Chicken isn’t an accounting firm; they are a restaurant chain that needs an accounting function to do some of their work but don’t need it to be a part of their business. If that’s what you’re asking about, then yes – the job market in industry is always going to be vulnerable to outsourcing, not just in the future but right now. Not every company needs their accounting function to be done in-house – just like how they don’t necessarily need to employ in-house janitors, in-house IT, in-house customer service, in-house payroll, etc; it’s just cheaper and easier to hire someone to handle that for you. They can outsource these functions to accounting firms either in the U.S. or in other countries and many currently do so now. I don’t envision this being a problem for most accounting firms though; for them, public accounting is their core business. I think it’s more of an issue for accountants who want to work directly for companies like Church’s Chicken – they may end up having to take jobs with outsourcing companies instead.
I’m not sure what your professional goals are but one thing about accounting is that you’re under a lot of pressure to constantly keep growing and reinventing yourself. After you get your first job your college name and GPA aren’t really important any more; what will be important are your professional certifications (starting with CPA license and moving on) as well as your industry knowledge and experiences (which is what you will be developing on the job and which is what you will use to land a CFO or financial managerial position). Those are things that are less vulnerable to automation in my opinion.
The example I’ll use is a professor I had when I was getting my master’s program; he started out working in auditing with a regional firm, and over the years he started specializing in financial forensics and investigations. He eventually picked up his CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) credential. Even after he became a professor, he still spent summers working as a fraud examiner, conducting investigations for clients and acting as a consulting expert for the local prosecutor’s office and state police. He didn’t prepare for this in college; this wasn’t even something that really existed when he was in college. But when he got a taste of the work he decided that he enjoyed it and saw that it was a growth opportunity. That isn’t something that can be computerized; technology is definitely part of the job but a computer can’t have an opinion or testify in court. There’s always going to be that human element.
I suppose history could be taught by having Siri read a text book to the class.
Accounting isn’t going anywhere. Take your career a step at time. Along the road you’ll discover what you like and don’t like doing. As previously stated, start with your CPA license and go from there.