Quote: (01-11-2015 05:06 PM)Easy_C Wrote:
Short version: Working Big 4 can be a good start if you're dedicated, as most of their employees go on to do fairly well. The downside is that it's never going to pay as well as Investment Banking roles will. It's a considerably less risky career path than other financial services jobs(CPA's can always get some job somewhere), but the tradeoff is in more repetitive work and considerably poorer exit opportunities.
Yes, but the term "poorer" is totally relative as a significant amount of senior Corporate management of larger corporations is composed of Big 4 alumni in the finance world. So the exit opportunities I would say, are tremendous. The investment banking (financial services) happens to have machinery and components that are so different that it's almost a completely separate industry in itself. So yes, from an economic standpoint, of course the exit opportunities will be poorer. It would be somewhat akin to comparing exit opportunities for a nurse to ones for a medical doctor or construction expert to engineer. Not too fair from my perspective.
Quote: (01-16-2015 11:10 AM)Rang off the Pipe Wrote:
Now I'm actually really curious about international accounting after looking into it more. I already have the business and economics background, but I've got a serious gap in accounting knowledge that I want to make up. Should I just find a school with accounting courses and go from there, or do I need to do more?
But firstly, are you looking into Finance or Accounting? It sounds like you have your heart set on Accounting but I can't tell if you know what you truly want. Remember that if your goal is to get into the mid-senior level management of a large corporation, the only way Accounting can be useful is if you start at a Big 4 firm. If not, Corporate finance at a large firm is also an option. The latter would not require an accounting degree. Doing strictly Accounting in a large Corporation can pigeonhole you unless you slowly transition into finance roles as you develop your career. This requires careful movement between the management circles within the corporations and in turn requires some social skill and diplomatic ability. So why not start with Corporate Finance first if you already have a business background instead of spending a more than marginal effort to be an accountant. Without knowing the full story, I almost want to recommend you get into a decent MBA program with a finance focus at an institution that has a strong career center and career connections (e.g. business frats).
Example: A friend of mine was a Finance major. He got into GE's management rotation program. He learned all the accounting he needed there and went into a higher level finance role there. I do see him as having the potential to become a business unit CFO there at the very least.