Career Exploration

The concentration I am interested in is Accounting.

One job a person with an accounting degree can have is an auditor. An auditor keeps track of their companies financial information. This can include; keeping track of public records, making sure payments are made on time and offering services to clients. These services can include; budget analysis, investment advice and information technology consulting. The education needed for an auditing position is a 4 year bachelors degree in accounting. The majority of the training for auditing is usually done on the job. The most prestigious certification an auditor can get is called a CPA (Certified Public Accountant). Many firms value a CPA as much or more than an MBA. There are many other certifications; CMA (Certified Managerial Accountant),CIA (Certified Internal Auditor), just to name a few. According to the source, the employment outlook for the next 5-10 years is good. The demand for auditors is very high and it is predicted the that the total auditing jobs will increase by 18%, making almost 226,000 new jobs. The world will always need auditors, but the major factor that will determine jobs available is the amount of accounting regulations that are put in place. Sarbanes Oxley drastically changed the accounting industry and the more regualtions that are put in place, the more accountants will be need to carry out the new laws. The starting salary for an auditor can be anywhere between $31,500 and $48,250 a year. The three things that concern me about this job are; the fact it may get repetitive, uncertainty in passing the CPA exam and the major gap in starting salaries.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos001.htm


Another job a student with a accounting degree can have is a financial analyst.
A financial analyst usually work hand in hand with financial advisers. Analysts look at companies financial information and decide if the company would be a good investment. Sometimes analysts are given bonuses if the stocks the pick increase in value. The education required for this job is a four year bachelors degree in finance, business administration, accounting, statistics, or economics. Unlike auditors there is not a specif certification needed to advance through the ranks of a company. There is certification that can make you more marketable to potential clients. The most common certification for financial analysts is a CFA (Certified Financial Analyst). According to the source, with the way the economy is progressing the outlook for financial analysts is strong. The amount of jobs for financial analysts, with an increase of 34%. The only problem is these knew jobs will be harder to get, this is because of the large amount of people that want these jobs. The major factor impacting financial analysts jobs is without question the state of the stock market. In a "Bull Market" brokerage firms will be hiring as many analysts as possible, because they feel with more analysts the brokers can get more information about the stocks they are selling. In a "Bear Market" however; firms will not be hiring as many new applicants and will only be keeping the analysts that have provided the firm with good stock picks. The average starting salary for a financial analyst is between $36,446 and $58,989 a year, plus bonuses for good stock picks. There are three things that worry me about this job as a possible career choice. The first is the competitions of the job market. The competition means my grades and interpersonal skills will have to be much better than the average applicant to obtain a job. The second reason I am questioning this as a career would be the risk in this job. With the amount of money I make depending on stocks, I would never be certain of the amount of money I would be making. The final reason is, I would be investing other people's money. I do not know if I could deal with being the reason a person loses money.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos259.htm#training

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A third career I am considering is a financial manager. A financial manager oversees all of the operations of their company. Some of the tasks financial mangers deal with are, the preparation of financial reports, setting long term goals and implement cash management strategies. The minimum requirement to be considered for a financial manger position is a bachelors degree in finance or accounting. With the consistently increasing competition for these positions many applicants are going back to school to get their MBA degree. Since each company runs their financial operations differently most of the experience for this job is learned progressing through the companies ranks. There is no required certifications to become a financial manager, but two certification that will put your ahead of other applicants are a CPA and CMA (Certified Manger Accountant). The employment for financial managers is expected to grow at the current rate it is growing, with a 13% increase in jobs available. The competition level for these jobs is high, considering the high paying salary, there will always be more applicants than positions available. With this job, the amount of jobs available will strongly depend on the economy. During a strong economy companies will be more likely to promote more people to financial manager status. Similar to what our accounting guest speaker said, "in a down economy, the Big 4 will rarely promote people to partner." The average starting salary for a financial manager is anywhere between $237,364 and $397,215. Even though this is a position I would love to achieve there are a few things that worry me about this job. The first would be the high level competition. Even more so than a financial analyst position, the competition for this kind of job is so high I do not know if I would be able to beat out all of the applicants. The second would be the high level of stress that comes with this job. Having a lot of control of the company, could make me second guess a lot of my choices, resulting in a lot of stress. The third is the amount of time it would take to achieve this position. I understand that in the business world you have to work your way up the ladder, but I would like to achieve this status of financial manager soon rather than later.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos010.htm#training

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