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SavesTheLava posted:Hey quick question. So as an undergrad I wasn't a business major, I graduated with a degree in history. As you can imagine the job prospects for history majors were less then none so I took some classes at a local community college in accounting and loved it. So now I'm currently getting my MBA in Accounting at a fairly good business school and was wondering since I don't have a real accounting degree, how would this affect me in my job search when I graduate? I want to work at a public accounting firm, but I'm nervous that because its only a MBA in Accounting I'll be at a disadvantage. So lets say I want to work at one of the big 4 firms, would I even have a chance? I am basically in this exact situation, terrible undergrad degree, taking accounting courses at community college and liking it, planning to go back for accounting degree. I was planning on returning to get an undergrad accounting degree (at the same university I got my first degree at so my original credits could carry over), however I just thought a few days ago about maybe going back to get a masters instead... how would this compare to getting the undergrad degree? Would an accounting undergrad look better than an accounting masters? I feel I would be missing out of a lot of courses and the whole recruiting/internship thing if I went for masters. abagofcheetos fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jul 27, 2011 |
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Jul 27, 2011 02:00
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I need some advice. I am already taking classes and on the path to enroll next fall for a second bachelors degree in accounting. However, every single person at the university I want to attend (Temple) treats me like I'm telling them the world is flat when I say I don't want to do their masters program, I want to do undergrad. My question is, why? They have a new MAcc program that they are trying to push me into hardcore. Basically, all you need are the undergrad accounting courses (nothing else) and the program gives you the 150 credits needed for the CPA and even has you take two of the exams during the program. However this seems incredibly insane and short sighted. First, given the CPA thread, it seems entirely ridiculous and impossible that I am going to go from zero accounting classes to two CPA exams done in like a year and a half. It also seems crazy because I would essentially be skipping all of the business undergrad courses - courses I might actually use, like econ, finance, law and etc. I'd much rather just do the undergrad, because I'll end up more well rounded and it won't really take any longer than the masters (because I am returning to my first degree school). Any opinions on masters vs bachelors? Accounting doesn't really seem like a field where you need a masters to get a job.
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Aug 6, 2011 00:03
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Thanks for the responses. Yeah, that masters program seems kind of useless, since the education requirements for PA are quote:at least 150 credit hours, with 36 semester-credits in accounting subjects. These subjects include accounting and auditing, business law, finance, and tax subjects acceptable to the Pennsylvania State Board of Accountancy (SBOA).
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Aug 6, 2011 21:00
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I was the one that asked and yes, that is helpful, thanks! I am very very early into accounting classes (completed financial and two weeks of cost) and I guess I am just having a hard time understanding how you actually manage the various books and journals and such. I suppose it will make more sense to me when I get into classes where I am doing more real world type things.
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Sep 7, 2011 04:17
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Would something like this look good on a resume? http://cwfphilly.org/ edit: I have no idea if I want to do tax in the future, so assume I am applying to a non-tax accounting position. abagofcheetos fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Nov 18, 2011 |
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Nov 18, 2011 02:50
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Would a finance minor be worth getting? I was looking through the other departments at my school and I can get a finance minor by taking essentially three extra classes. It seems like a no brainer, but maybe a minor wouldn't even mean anything (possibly for this reason haha). yeah that is pretty much where I am too. I'm fairly sure I can graduate 2013 fall just with accounting, or I can do another semester and get the minor as well. Though if there is any chance of me not being able to graduate the fall anyway I'm definitely going to squeeze it in regardless. VVVVVVV abagofcheetos fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Dec 16, 2011 |
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Dec 16, 2011 01:15
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Sorry kids, no family trip Disney this year, but don't worry! We're going to do something even more fun - the CPA exam!
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Jan 31, 2012 02:51
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It is ok that I am going to be waiting until my junior year to do the whole recruiting and internship thing, right? I am in what would probably be described as a sophomore year now, but I'm not going to be attending full time until the fall - so my options now are somewhat limited. I know I will be missing out on summer leadership programs, but other than that, internships don't really happen till the summer of junior-senior year anyway, right? This whole business school recruiting pageantry is so strange to me... my first degree was a media degree, and the idea that companies want to come find you is blowing my mind still 
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Mar 30, 2012 04:07
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For the 150 part, a recruiter for a midsize firm just told us on Friday that she didn't care how you got the extra credits, or what they were in. She told us she was totally cool with candidates just taking random courses even at community college.
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Apr 1, 2012 21:58
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I really like and appreciate all the accounting talk in here, it is really useful. Next fall I plan on getting involved with an accounting SPO. I have narrowed my choices to either Ascend or Beta Alpha Phi (which I should easily meet the academic requirements). I know BAP is nationally recognized (Ascend is national too, though I don't know the reputation), but the local chapter of Ascend seems really organized and has their poo poo together... is BAP a no brainer?
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Apr 2, 2012 05:02
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Thanks for the great advice. I was thinking of both, but I wonder if it would even be possible to participate enough in both to maintain membership. I completely agree with getting a position within the organization, my plan is next year (junior year) to do literally every single event and thing possible with the organization (I'll bake 1,000 cookies for the bake sales if I have to), and then set myself up for my senior year to have a position. I may consider doing the dual thing, devoting most of my time to one, but just enough to the other to be in good standing. I didn't realize being a member of two is something that is actually done. I definitely plan on doing VITA the next two years as well. It sounds like a really great program, and he fact that it will look good only makes it better. I've also applied for a student membership to the PICPA, even if just for the line on my resume. Thanks again!
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Apr 2, 2012 07:14
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I am so pumped. I was worried I wouldn't have a chance to do a sophomore summer program with anyone, but I just got an email back today from a recruiter at a firm that presented to us last Friday and she invited me. I think it helped that I mentioned to her that I was interested in one of their branch offices from back where I grew up. Probably had a much smaller pool of people applying.
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Apr 6, 2012 20:57
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So, everyone loves talking about the hell that is busy season with public accounting. 60-80hr weeks, working Saturdays, blah blah. But what is non busy season like? Everyone harps on those months, while never really providing any clue as to what the summer or fall is like.
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Apr 21, 2012 23:04
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ThirdPartyView posted:Yeah, so what happens is the bondholders get the full amount of cash ($4,000) because you're paying the bond rate (IE: what's listed on the bond) whereas you amortize the bond based on the market rate (which in the case of a bond priced at a premium is lower, since you are offering a higher interest rate than the market is which means there is higher demand for the bonds and therefore an increase in the bond price paid on issuance, hence the interest expense being lower with the remaining balance paid out going against the premium as bonds are 'pulled to par' with a final payment made at par during maturity, either downward if at a premium or upperward if at a discount). The one thing that always annoys me with this is that bond issues work totally different than stock issues, and it throws me off for some reason. Why aren't they just all issued for 100, and the market takes care of it afterwards, like stocks? The book and my professor would always frame the problems saying, "but the market rate for such a bond is X," which makes absolutely no sense because every single issuing entity is different and you can't possibly compare it to a "market rate" like that. It is like saying that the IPO of stock A was $10 but the market rate for such a company is actually $12.
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Jul 29, 2012 07:10
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Are these dinner dates usually one on one, or with a group? I was just invited to one for the night before my internship interview, but it listed both the audit and tax/advisory managers, plus I cant imagine they would waste time on just me for an internship.
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Sep 27, 2012 22:14
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Nifty posted:So in other words TCC poster, you chose the right industry to work in Have you ever tested goodwill for impairment... ON WEED???
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Oct 6, 2012 05:51
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In addition, you need a year in an audit position under a CPA in order to get the designation, so that might not be possible in your current job situation. I think some internal audit positions may qualify, but you would need to check into that for sure. Just passing the test isn't enough for the CPA.
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Oct 20, 2012 05:45
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ThirdPartyView posted:most books I've seen tend to focus on the POV of the public accountant (Auditor, Tax preparer, etc) rather than management Care to share? I've been dying to read some accounting books that weren't essentially textbooks.
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Oct 24, 2012 02:15
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Anyone familiar with Deloitte know about their mentor program? Apparently you meet a few times at night over the summer in formal sessions, and are reviewed and possibly given an offer at the end? I don't really know what to make of it.
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Nov 1, 2012 00:04
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Get an internship for next summer (2013). Get a job offer for the following fall (2014) from that internship. Complete your 150 that fall (2013). Work on the CPA exam full time in the spring (2014). That summer (2014) either use the time to fully complete the exam, or do another internship that summer (2014) if money is tight (you would need to plan this early so that you can participate in recruiting season in fall 2013), and possibly get even another job offer. Then start one of them that fall (2014) full time. Is what I would do. But, it is kind of late to be getting an internship for next summer, so you need to explore that immediately. You don't need an internship necessarily to get a job in public, but you would need 150 for them to even finish reading your resume. Private generally don't care about 150, and would usually even help pay for you to finish it out.
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Nov 3, 2012 05:04
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Guys I'm thinking he was joking... I will be interning winter at a Philadelphia big 4 as well, in audit. I will be sure to post here how awesome audit is and how I got all the babes and moneys and power.
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Nov 20, 2012 03:56
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At least you guys haven't had someone complain about you because you sometimes wear your coat while working. (yes, this happened to me)
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Feb 5, 2013 05:08
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Good God, this is common? 
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Feb 5, 2013 05:56
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Jota posted:A couple people I'm friends with from classes and I are interns at the same company right now and one of them got pulled aside and told to stop laughing so much because it was really starting to piss off the people he was working with. it's me i'm the guy in this post ps the box seats were awesome
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Feb 11, 2013 19:43
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Do you want to go hog wild into public accounting, or are you looking for industry positions? And what is your age, and does the school you got your BA from offer accounting/are you even near that school anymore?
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Aug 10, 2013 05:35
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TheBoyBlunder posted:Sorry for the delay in my reply, it's been a busy week. 1) I think I'm looking for an industry position, but I'm not positive yet. 2) 31 3) They do, but I'm 60-90 minutes away depending on traffic. It can be 2+ hours with bad weather. Moving back is not really an option. Edit: And they do not offer an online program. Okay. This is geared for public accounting, but I will share with you my tried and tested (sample size: 1) "How to go Back to School for Accounting and Get Hired by the Big 4" strategy. Industry would work pretty much the same way, at least industry at a large corporation (smaller ones probably would be cool with an associates, but honestly I don't even know). The fact your old school is far away is problematic, because going back there would shave off 1-1.5 years of the time to get a bachelors, if your school would allow you to use previous credits for the gen ed crap. If you can find another school that will take those credits, just as good. The key to going back is you want to position yourself to get on the recruiting track that "normal" bachelors students experience. Public accounting, and some industry accounting, all have a pretty rigid recruiting schedule, with different programs for different summers during your 4 years. Lets say you go back, and have 2.5 semesters of school to get your bachelors. This will position you for the summer of your sophomore year being your first program summer. A lot of firms have silly experience programs for this summer, where you basically visit their offices for a couple days, network, blah blah blah. They are really stupid events, BUT look fantastic on a resume for potential internships. In fact, many of them lead directly to an internship offer. Here is a link to an example of one with a smaller regional public accounting firm. A couple issues: you probably won't have many classes under your belt to have on a resume for one of these things. Accounting firms really like GPA. The other issue is that they generally do the recruiting in the early spring, if not previous fall. So it might take a little luck to get into one of these programs, especially a top tier one (I'm sure Big 4 recruits in the fall). BUT! Any program looks good on your resume. I personally ended up doing my program with a very small firm and every single recruiter the next year spent a lot of time talking to me about the experience. Try to get in on any program you can. Oh, and at the very freaking least join one of your schools accounting professional organizations. It doesn't matter which one, Ascend, BAP, whatever. Join one and participate. It looks great on your resume and is a super easy way to network with both students but recruiters. So that is summer sophomore - the experience program (or programs, if you can swing it). The fall of your junior year is when recruiting gets serious: internship recruiting. Most firms do their recruiting for the junior-senior summer in the fall, often in the very first weeks. I could probably talk at length about this alone for a returning student, but long story short your age won't be a hindrance, and will probably actually be a bonus, to any interviewer. You can easily come off as far more interested and informed than the idiot undergrads you will be interviewing against. You might have to work harder to impress Big 4 (because they are looking for robots/bodies to chew up, not necessarily great employees), but in my office there is a ~35 year old that was hired a couple years ago, so it probably won't matter. Anyway, again the key here is to get an internship, any internship. Internships, if you don't do something idiotic like sexually harass a partner, pretty much always lead to job offers. Yes, you will have a job offer before you are a senior. Yes, it is amazing. Even if they don't give you an offer for some reason, you at least have it on your resume for the following fall recruiting for jobs. Getting a masters of accounting is another possibility: if you start this fall you could possibly bang out all the required accounting courses in order to get enrolled for next fall's masters class. It will be expensive though, and the recruiting won't be quite as easy of a process (you probably won't be able to get an internship, meaning you will have to apply for a job afterwards). It is late in the year to probably have this work, but this would be the ideal schedule: Fall '13: Classes Spring '13: Find a experience program Summer '14: Participate in experience program Fall '14: Get recruited for internship Spring or summer '15: Complete internship, get job Fall '15-Spring '16: *smug* your way through senior year Summer '16: CPA exam (if you go that route) Fall '16: Start job (public accounting you usually start late in the year) Sorry for so many words.
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Aug 15, 2013 04:08
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Mush Mushi posted:Haha! I knew there had to be someone. Yeah I am in the Bay Area. Did you witness that puking incident? I was at DU this summer and it was like a freaking frat party. It was awfully embarrassing.
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Aug 17, 2013 21:58
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If you want a real Big 4 internship experience, go for the spring semester. I worked 70+ hour weeks, and I think it was 32 days straight.
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Aug 18, 2013 18:14
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Mush Mushi posted:How silly is it to negotiate salary for a first year associate offer? Is it so silly that it just might work or is it just stupid? Have you even experienced a busy season yet? If I was on the other side of the table I would laugh in the face of anyone asking for more money that hasn't even shown they can perform through one.
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Aug 22, 2013 03:11
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Tomahawk posted:The school I am looking at has a heavy recruitment presence from the Big 4. But I guess my concern would be whether they are recruiting undergrads vs graduate students. They don't care what you have, both are going to start as the same first year making the same money. If your school has a heavy recruiting presence as you say, they are probably VERY familiar with the masters program in question (I assume you are talking about a MAcc type program, where it basically gets you the 150 for the CPA exam?) and certainly will recruit people that are going to graduate from it. Actually, getting that masters is probably the only way you will be able to get a big 4 position if you don't have an internship. And depending on how the timing works out, you might still be able to get yourself an internship with them. I know someone who is starting a MAcc program today that interned big 4 this spring and has an offer. The key is that you do the interviewing/etc when they do their regular interviewing in the fall, and that you have some classes already completed so that they can see academic achievement (and make sure your resume says you have been accepted for the MAcc program and will have 150+ credits). You will probably have to take some general accounting courses before you can do the MAcc, so you can use those (hopefully great) grades to parlay into an internship, if the timing works out. Harry posted:They're not recruting undergrads unless your state doesn't have very strict education requirements. 
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Aug 26, 2013 21:41
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Well, okay, undergrads with 150+ credits. You are correct about the 150 part and that big 4 wants nothing to do with you if you don't have 150. A lot of students now are taking summer classes, etc to get their 150, since the extra credits can be whatever the gently caress. Considering the cost of most MAcc programs, even just taking another full undergrad year makes more financial sense.
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Aug 26, 2013 22:05
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nvm
abagofcheetos fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Sep 6, 2013 |
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Sep 6, 2013 22:04
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Work experience alone cannot be it. Accounting firms every year hire thousands of 21-22 year old idiots with zero accounting experience/work experience period, and often not even the CPA exam passed. The firms expect that you are going to get that required with experience with them. Have you had any interview coaching, or similar? If you are getting interviews and not going any further, something is up.
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Sep 23, 2013 03:13
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I was doing exceptionally well with recruiting with a big 4 firm, and then during one of their dinners had the bright idea to ask a financial services partner how he felt about the loosening/suspending of bank regulations/accounting in the wake of the financial crisis. I legit wanted to know... but needless to say I never heard from them again until the latest they could possibly decline me  pro tip: DO NOT TALK ABOUT TECHNICAL THINGS you're probably right, but I literally had a staff person tell me earlier that night that I have zero chance of not getting an offer either way I don't really care at this point.VVVVVV abagofcheetos fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Oct 1, 2013 |
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Oct 1, 2013 00:48
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Democratic Pirate posted:Reg is the worst thing. Ever. It is kind of daunting, because I can easily conceive there being a permutation of the exam where I could literally get a zero. There is just so much stuff to learn...
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Apr 4, 2014 21:29
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Democratic Pirate posted:Doubled salary sounds great but I always thought ibanking was one of the industries with a higher burnout rate than Big4 busy seasons. Yeah, I was going to say, isn't ibanking like the one industry with worse hours than public accounting? And were you hired specifically because of tax, or simply because you were big 4, etc? It sounds like the latter.
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Apr 24, 2014 19:54
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Took REG last Thursday (my first) and have felt like absolute poo poo since then. I did not feel confident AT ALL coming out of the test and have been like legit depressed since then, and have found it impossible to concentrate on FAR. Turns out I got an 91  I feel dumb now for worrying so much... and now I am actually a little excited to get FAR going.
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Jun 6, 2014 20:55
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SiGmA_X posted:Congrats!! Thanks! And to cmdrpinky, do not worry about being older or having a weird previous history. I went back to school at 27, and even started with community college classes, and was able to land a B4 public job. Make sure you have a solid GPA, join a profession organization (Beta Alpha Psi, Ascend, whoever is big on your campus), and work on getting an internship. Most internships will be for the summer between your junior and senior year, and are recruited at the beginning of the junior school year, so figure out what your equivalent of that is and aim for being interview ready for then.
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Jun 7, 2014 01:45
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Good Citizen posted:gently caress REG gently caress FAR
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Jun 16, 2014 18:30
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Diplomat posted:This x100 I'm just getting halfway through Becker and I feel like there is already enough information for a test I felt the same way about REG I guess, so hopefully by the end I'll have a handle on everything.
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Jun 19, 2014 20:04
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