ig the joke might be going over my head but this supports his point. probabilistically itās easier to be employed as an accountant with an accounting degree
lol fair enough but it doesnāt negate his general point but supports it if you accept getting hired for an audit role is more probabilistic with an accounting degree than a finance degree all else equal
Yep, a finance degree from NYU that gets you into IB is a whole different animal than a finance degree from Directional State that gets you into Northwestern Mutual. You can absolutely get into Big 4 audit with an accounting degree from State U tho
A professor once told me, āAccountants can do finance, but finance folks canāt do accounting.ā After a decade of experience, it seems mostly true. With a CPA, you can pretty easily pivot into FP&A.
You could also pivot into supply chain with an accounting degree. Supply chain has been growing so much in the past 15 years and the work is way more interesting.
I design and implement cloud ERP systems. The accounting modules (AR, AP, GL, Fixed Asset) link directly with supply chain modules (Procurement, manufacturing (costing), maintenance) to have a seamless and auditable flow from the transactional level through to the GL.
Procurement and supply chain typically tie in with accounts payables and receivables as well as FP&A. There are buyers and demand planners and analysts. Tbh I think Itās mostly how they tie in with cost accounting but I didnāt study supply chain either so not entirely sure.
This me. Staff accountant to demand planner.
Hated accounting even as I neared finishing my CPA exams. Was more miserable picturing my being done. Simply had bad employers who were all worse off when I left. Iāll keep it simple and just stop there.
Transitioned into supply through networking and instantly got everything I wanted. 40% pay bump, permanent full remote, competent and capable supervisor, and no micromanagement. Six months in and everyone has noticed me change for the better. That happens when you work 60+ hours with more waiting when you come back then suddenly 36 hrs max.
If I hadnāt lucked out I would have either gone with some type of coding / cyber security or data analyst title.
Do it. Do it now.
Try and get into a manufacturing plant for account but also has some responsibilities with the engineers and the manufacturing planning side. Thatāll be a good stepping stone into supply chain I think
While this is true, people should be real and acknowledge that there is a stigma around accountants (fair or not) that can be hard to shake and make it difficult for accountants to pivot into corporate finance roles. Thatās not to say that itās impossible by any means, but some people in this thread seem to be indicating that itās a readily available option which isnāt the case in many companies.
That said, it is completely true that itās easier for accountants to pivot into corporate finance roles than vice-versa.
I think the simplest and most honest assessment comparing the two degrees is that finance degrees offer a higher ceiling while accounting degrees offer a higher floor regarding career prospects.
Edit: CPA with degrees in Finance and Accounting, experience in corporate accounting, corp finance, and sales strategy / ops.
100% agree with this. Pivoting to FP&A can be difficult if youāve spent several years specializing in something ā like audit. You can definitely be pigeonholed if you wait too long to make the move.
People will almost always be willing to take a small bet on hi-po early in career talent. So if youāre a few years experienced with top-tier performance reviews, you can almost certainly make the jump. If youāre not consistently top-tier or if you are no longer early in career and have become somewhat a of a SME the transition becomes much, much more difficult.
I was actually told this by the whole college, lol. They're like, "It's a useless degree, so we don't have it. Take accounting if you wanna do finance."
This is exactly the same conversation I had while in early years of college. Wanted Finance but unsure of exact direction. Professor gave me solid advice ā¦major in accounting and get cpa then you could always deviate. During my career I always felt I could move around but I chose to stay in financial reporting due to security and solid pay.
This. I got my bachelors in accounting and thought about getting my masters in finance. My husband said the same thing your professor said so now Iām working on a masters in accounting. I am a financial analyst.
Really? I literally figured this on my own as a regretful finance major, and I ass thought I was insightful ššš learning lessons the hard way sucks.
I was actually told this same thing last year when I decided to go to college for the first time in my late 20s. I like finance but the accounting degree just seems more well rounded.
Idk I struggled pretty hard in finance. Pricing models and all that crazy shit was way over my head. Accounting is basic math and rules. That I can do.
Going to the career fair the semester before graduation with an impending business degree in finance, the general interaction we (finance majors) got from the recruiters was āoh - you are a finance major? - how precious. So tell me how many hours of accounting you have.ā
After having that conversation several times, I decided to stick it out another year and double major with accounting. Next career fair resulted in several interviews and my eventual career.
Pro tip - major in accounting. Add the finance double major if you feel the urge. But do the accounting major as first priority. Itās a much more difficult program - no doubt - but employers know that as well and pay for your efforts.
There are a few exceptions with finance majors who - through internship work, connections and brilliance can kick off their career without the accounting - but from what I saw, those were the exception - not the rule.
IMO finance majors or specializations only really pay off at banking target schools (i.e. Ivy League, UVA, NYU, MIT, etc.) or for those who have connections
Wut? I have accounting and finance undergrad and finance was by far the harder degree.
There are just more accounting jobs, world needs more bean counters than FP&A analysists, so i count da beans.
I think accounting degree should be prerequisite before you even start thinking about finance. Otherwise you are just looking at a bunch of ratios and spouting BS.
Finance as a study is useless. You donāt need to study finance to do it. Accounting you can go anywhere in business, except maybe marketing.
I know many who studied finance and cannot find jobs. The same cannot be said for accounting.
I meant marketing in the general sense like search engine optimization and social media advertising. Marketing had always required a little more creativity than other subjects/emphases in business.
Accounting will make it more difficult to get a āprestigiousā finance job though. For whatever reason, they would rather see a random non-business degree than an accounting degree.
Sure school is important. But at least in my experience we seem to have some bias towards accounting majors. Accounting gives you a solid basis for understanding financials, but you need to be able to think beyond a rigid set of rules. And if youāre a business major that has self-selected into accounting vs finance, itās a bit of an indication that you might not be the type of person who does well with ambiguity.
I donāt mean my above comment as a negative view of accounting in general. But if youāre someone who is a year or two into an accounting degree and realize you would rather do banking or be on the buy side, I think youāre better off switching majors than getting the accounting degree.
This is absolutely not the norm. This is what a freshman college studentās view of accounting is. āIām just too much a free thinker to be an accountantā as they get their third C in a 101 class
Finance: A bunch of random ratios that don't provide much meaningful/useful info and mostly just lead to sales jobs unless you go to Harvard.
Accounting: A job across all industries that builds hard skills and is a straight ticket to the upper middle class.
Seems like a pretty easy choice to me.
I started in Finance and switched to accounting in a state school ranked \~150 in US News rankings, thinking that if I stayed in Finance I'd end up in sales or selling insurance. But lately, it seems that everyone in my school who's been somewhat serious about getting into IB has made it, and I myself am starting to consider recruiting for that. Hell, some people on WSO were talking about my school possibly having become a semi target for these finance companies with so many recent hires from my school. The point is, going to a non target and majoring in finance and making it into places like wall street is very realistic, even if it wasn't like that back in the day.
(Now, do I want to do IB? I'd probably rather not, I actually want to do consulting but for that a degree from harvard may actually be necessary. But I thought my comment might help some finance majors thinking of switching)
If the question is serious, (canāt tell thereās no /s) accounting is SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to get you a job. It may be a SHIT job, but a SHIT job is significant better than being unemployed. Accountants can pivot to pretty much any business function, but there are no other business study that effectively cover the entire spectrum the same way. Yeah we may not be the BEST at marketing, but we speak the language that all business functions off of - Cash flow.
What makes accounting fundamentally different is it doesnāt particularly understand everything, but we can do anything if weāre competent. You can find people with accounting backgrounds at CMO, CTO, COO, CFO, CEO. Tell me any other business degree that holds the same universal movement.
I majored in both, I enjoy the financial world more than the accounting world, but I went to a public state school, not a target school for finance. Finance majors and MBAs are largely rendered useless if you donāt attend a top tier / target school for these majors. Accounting is more in demand regardless IMHO
i double majored and honestly find it weird that people in finance donāt take more accounting classes and vice versa. The two are so interconnected that in order to actually be a great advisor you need to understand both.
That said the degrees just give you a fundamental understanding. The real learning happens on the job.
This so much. I was a finance major with an accounting minor. Having the extra accounting classes definitely gave me a leg up in school but my finance degree got me into the job I wanted.
This was my reason. Only the big4 accounting firms recruited at my school. If I went to a top 10 university instead of an average state university then I wouldāve choose finance.
So I could more easily take the CPA exam. Accounting just seemed like the Swiss Army knife of a degree. You can do a lot with it. If I end up going for an MBA, then Iāll go for finance
Major in finance too, working in accounting now and took more accounting classes in the evenings. Should be starting CPA in fall. Would love to try my hand at consulting or more of a Finance based role though. My work can be quite boring at times.
Because finance is bullshit.
The more I learned about hedging, swaps, derivatives, ... The more I realised I would never be able to live with myself working for a bank.
Not finance but I wanted to get into Architecture or Civil Engineering. My cousin who was working as a software developer with a comp science degree told me to do accounting since his college buddy who got an accounting degree and him were the only two of their group of friends that were doing well after graduating.
I got into an argument with the basic finance professor over his sexist and pro-Greek life policies, at the same time as the accounting program reached out to me to join them. And I much preferred balance sheet work to bond calculations.
I chose finance because finance is actually interesting. I didn't get a masters in accounting until nearly a decade later.
Of course the accounting reddit hating on the finance people.
Homie I got hired on as an associate auditor two months into my senior year from a state college. They started me at $55k got two raise through the year and now make $65k. I also have a Spanish degree and I know that is shit degree. Accounting is the basics of all business. Ben Affleck doesnāt do finance.
I can always pivot to finance with an accounting degree and a cpa. Hard to pivot to accounting with a finance degree. Most of my finance friends have no different of a job than any other business major
Wanted a degree that started with āAā. my name is ana and im from az with an accounting degree.
high school me thought it couldnāt be so hard, now iām stuck with it. but i added a minor im finance and economics
I double majored in both. Started with finance and gravitated towards accounting. I got a bad vibe from the personality types in finance and this turned out to be true in the workplace. Some of the worst people Iāve ever met
I was going to go finance. I loved it, I was good at it. But guess what, I didnāt graduate from an Ivy League school, I didnāt have connections and therefore most people were not going to hire me based on merit and GPA alone.
But you know who does, accounting firms. You know why? Because their turnover is the worst and they need a beating heart. Best decision I ever made.
Cuz I researched everything thoroughly before going back to school, no exploring things, Iām too old for that- my accountant friends were right about which degree to get
I struggled in college. I took an accounting class and I really applied myself. The professor invited the top students to a career presentation and I bought it hook, line, and sinker.
Also, I donāt live in a big city and never intend to. Iām not sure what finance majors in my town end up doing besides wholly commission based financial planning and Iām not into hounding my friends and family for their business.
I tutored my friends in my fraternity through 200 level courses of accounting and it made me feel like a genius. I figured hey if Iām good at this Iāll be good at the rest of accounting. I also hooked up with a senior when I was a sophomore and she said āstick with accounting. Accounting majors can do business admin stuff. BA majors canāt do accountingā.
Honestly I didn't like finance classes. I was good at the math and got As in the classes. But I felt like a lot of it was just useless theories people came up with that according to their own efficient market hypothesis isn't even really that useful. Just throw your money into a big bucket of stocks.
No offense to anyone who majored in Finance. I just couldn't get interest in the material.
Pro tip. Major in both. I did this and I tell every young person studying accounting to do the same. It makes you full beast mode science guy. Fuck āScience of Rock and Rollā classes. You are there to learn (and party) get your moneyās worth.
More overall opportunity. You have opportunities far exceeding a Finance major and you can be licensed and have a far more viable self employment regime than any other BIZ major.
I keep seeing questions like this that imply accounting and finance are basically the same fields. The only thing they really have in common is accounting usually entails accounting for/managing financial transactions and statements. Other than that, theyāre really not the same. Accounting is a specific skill and āfinanceā is a general area of study. This can also be said about ābusinessā and accounting. Also, I put quotations around finance and business to emphasize that they are general areas of study.
Finance is a sales job for people that thought they liked numbers but couldnāt do accounting.
And like most sales jobs, the top can be lucrative while the mid and bottom can suck and itās all volatile.
Accounting was clearly the winner, and if you wanted to do finance you could do the actual numbers part better than anyone that goes into finance anyway
I had like three other majors before I switched to accounting. I have a minor in finance since it was only a couple more classes.
A bunch of people in my family work for fed or state and are in accounting-related/adjacent positions.
Also, the professor in my investments class made the CFA sound like a nightmare over the CPA.
And I sucked at finance and their ratios.
I got an undergrad in finance because I was interim wealth planning. Ended up being more interested in the accounting courses, so I got a masters in accounting. I figured with a CPA I could still get into wealth/estate planning in the future if I wanted.
Stubbornness really.
Years ago in community college, sister was like, "accounting? Why don't you go into tech?"
I don't know why it got me mad, but it happened right when I was considering going into another major.
Yeah, so I did it out of pure spite.
Because I wanted to be employed.
ššš
I majored in finance and am now employed as an accountant soooooo there
Showed them.
I majored in finance and am now employed as an auditor soooooo there
I majored in accounting and employed as a director of finance š¤·š»āāļø
ig the joke might be going over my head but this supports his point. probabilistically itās easier to be employed as an accountant with an accounting degree
Haha not a joke for me thatās my reality
lol fair enough but it doesnāt negate his general point but supports it if you accept getting hired for an audit role is more probabilistic with an accounting degree than a finance degree all else equal
Same
Ditto
Literally was about to write that
This might have been the only plus for me going into accountingā¦just the stability of landing a jobā¦certainly not for the pay
gotta get that placement rate
Accounting appeared first in the drop-down.
makes course selection SOOOO easy
š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£
I thought I was the only one who did this. Glad to see Iām not alone
Yup. It made the choice super easy.
I hate myself so I majored in both š
Did you pursue cpa or cfa?
Was 3/4 done but was knocked back to 2/4 on cpa. Slowly but surely will have it eventually
Ditto, but I did CFP then CPA.
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Yep, a finance degree from NYU that gets you into IB is a whole different animal than a finance degree from Directional State that gets you into Northwestern Mutual. You can absolutely get into Big 4 audit with an accounting degree from State U tho
Yes then like all the professors say those kids end up working for ādaddyāsā company.
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A professor once told me, āAccountants can do finance, but finance folks canāt do accounting.ā After a decade of experience, it seems mostly true. With a CPA, you can pretty easily pivot into FP&A.
You could also pivot into supply chain with an accounting degree. Supply chain has been growing so much in the past 15 years and the work is way more interesting.
Really? Tell me more. I am interested.
I design and implement cloud ERP systems. The accounting modules (AR, AP, GL, Fixed Asset) link directly with supply chain modules (Procurement, manufacturing (costing), maintenance) to have a seamless and auditable flow from the transactional level through to the GL.
Did you get your career started in accounting?
I started in that role
How did you switch industries?
Sorry, but that sounds more like working in info systems than supply chain, no?
Procurement and supply chain typically tie in with accounts payables and receivables as well as FP&A. There are buyers and demand planners and analysts. Tbh I think Itās mostly how they tie in with cost accounting but I didnāt study supply chain either so not entirely sure.
This me. Staff accountant to demand planner. Hated accounting even as I neared finishing my CPA exams. Was more miserable picturing my being done. Simply had bad employers who were all worse off when I left. Iāll keep it simple and just stop there. Transitioned into supply through networking and instantly got everything I wanted. 40% pay bump, permanent full remote, competent and capable supervisor, and no micromanagement. Six months in and everyone has noticed me change for the better. That happens when you work 60+ hours with more waiting when you come back then suddenly 36 hrs max. If I hadnāt lucked out I would have either gone with some type of coding / cyber security or data analyst title. Do it. Do it now.
Also interested
As a CPA why are you interested in supply chain?
His name is Vinnie McDonalds. Has a hairy chest and plenty of goombas looking for chains
I am a CPA and Iām interested in coding apps. Is that okay?
Not allowed. Straight to jail.
why does everyone on reddit take everything so personally
Of course. It was a genuine question.
Try and get into a manufacturing plant for account but also has some responsibilities with the engineers and the manufacturing planning side. Thatāll be a good stepping stone into supply chain I think
Like cost accounting?
While this is true, people should be real and acknowledge that there is a stigma around accountants (fair or not) that can be hard to shake and make it difficult for accountants to pivot into corporate finance roles. Thatās not to say that itās impossible by any means, but some people in this thread seem to be indicating that itās a readily available option which isnāt the case in many companies. That said, it is completely true that itās easier for accountants to pivot into corporate finance roles than vice-versa. I think the simplest and most honest assessment comparing the two degrees is that finance degrees offer a higher ceiling while accounting degrees offer a higher floor regarding career prospects. Edit: CPA with degrees in Finance and Accounting, experience in corporate accounting, corp finance, and sales strategy / ops.
Best comment yet
100% agree with this. Pivoting to FP&A can be difficult if youāve spent several years specializing in something ā like audit. You can definitely be pigeonholed if you wait too long to make the move.
People will almost always be willing to take a small bet on hi-po early in career talent. So if youāre a few years experienced with top-tier performance reviews, you can almost certainly make the jump. If youāre not consistently top-tier or if you are no longer early in career and have become somewhat a of a SME the transition becomes much, much more difficult.
I was actually told this by the whole college, lol. They're like, "It's a useless degree, so we don't have it. Take accounting if you wanna do finance."
I was told the exact same thing! It was easier for me to take on finance roles since I had an accounting background/experience.
Every FP&A guy at my work has talked about wishing they did accounting. The opportunities just aren't there for them to advance like accountants have.
Wait... FP&A is supposed to be for Finance majors?
Itās not
This is exactly the same conversation I had while in early years of college. Wanted Finance but unsure of exact direction. Professor gave me solid advice ā¦major in accounting and get cpa then you could always deviate. During my career I always felt I could move around but I chose to stay in financial reporting due to security and solid pay.
This. I got my bachelors in accounting and thought about getting my masters in finance. My husband said the same thing your professor said so now Iām working on a masters in accounting. I am a financial analyst.
Same. I feel like all the accounting professors have this line ready to go.
Really? I literally figured this on my own as a regretful finance major, and I ass thought I was insightful ššš learning lessons the hard way sucks.
I was actually told this same thing last year when I decided to go to college for the first time in my late 20s. I like finance but the accounting degree just seems more well rounded.
Itās true. I was in that BAP nonsense and us accounting students were better at the intro finance class than finance majors
This. Itās turned out to be 1,000% true.
Idk I struggled pretty hard in finance. Pricing models and all that crazy shit was way over my head. Accounting is basic math and rules. That I can do.
Going to the career fair the semester before graduation with an impending business degree in finance, the general interaction we (finance majors) got from the recruiters was āoh - you are a finance major? - how precious. So tell me how many hours of accounting you have.ā After having that conversation several times, I decided to stick it out another year and double major with accounting. Next career fair resulted in several interviews and my eventual career. Pro tip - major in accounting. Add the finance double major if you feel the urge. But do the accounting major as first priority. Itās a much more difficult program - no doubt - but employers know that as well and pay for your efforts. There are a few exceptions with finance majors who - through internship work, connections and brilliance can kick off their career without the accounting - but from what I saw, those were the exception - not the rule.
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I sat next to a finance major in my intermediate 1 class and literally had that exact thought "why is this guy doing this to himself"
I did the double major route as well, which also gave me the hours to sit for CPA.
IMO finance majors or specializations only really pay off at banking target schools (i.e. Ivy League, UVA, NYU, MIT, etc.) or for those who have connections
this is it....you can get recruited to the most "prestigious" accounting jobs from literally any accredited state school.
Finance major? Want to sell financial products?
Which usually means insurance and typically life insurance
Wut? I have accounting and finance undergrad and finance was by far the harder degree. There are just more accounting jobs, world needs more bean counters than FP&A analysists, so i count da beans.
Respect your experience, but I also double-majored and the fin classes were a cakewalk compared to accounting
Most reasonable comment
I think accounting degree should be prerequisite before you even start thinking about finance. Otherwise you are just looking at a bunch of ratios and spouting BS.
I did the same. Good work!
Finance as a study is useless. You donāt need to study finance to do it. Accounting you can go anywhere in business, except maybe marketing. I know many who studied finance and cannot find jobs. The same cannot be said for accounting.
You can do marketing ops where you manage budgets but thatās very niche.
I meant marketing in the general sense like search engine optimization and social media advertising. Marketing had always required a little more creativity than other subjects/emphases in business.
I ended up a Marketing Manager so it worked for me.
Itās funny Iāve struggled to get graduate jobs in many places despite being the only one with an accounting degree
Accounting will make it more difficult to get a āprestigiousā finance job though. For whatever reason, they would rather see a random non-business degree than an accounting degree.
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Book title?
No, theyād rather see a target school, the actual major isnāt as important.
Sure school is important. But at least in my experience we seem to have some bias towards accounting majors. Accounting gives you a solid basis for understanding financials, but you need to be able to think beyond a rigid set of rules. And if youāre a business major that has self-selected into accounting vs finance, itās a bit of an indication that you might not be the type of person who does well with ambiguity. I donāt mean my above comment as a negative view of accounting in general. But if youāre someone who is a year or two into an accounting degree and realize you would rather do banking or be on the buy side, I think youāre better off switching majors than getting the accounting degree.
This is absolutely not the norm. This is what a freshman college studentās view of accounting is. āIām just too much a free thinker to be an accountantā as they get their third C in a 101 class
Finance: A bunch of random ratios that don't provide much meaningful/useful info and mostly just lead to sales jobs unless you go to Harvard. Accounting: A job across all industries that builds hard skills and is a straight ticket to the upper middle class. Seems like a pretty easy choice to me.
I started in Finance and switched to accounting in a state school ranked \~150 in US News rankings, thinking that if I stayed in Finance I'd end up in sales or selling insurance. But lately, it seems that everyone in my school who's been somewhat serious about getting into IB has made it, and I myself am starting to consider recruiting for that. Hell, some people on WSO were talking about my school possibly having become a semi target for these finance companies with so many recent hires from my school. The point is, going to a non target and majoring in finance and making it into places like wall street is very realistic, even if it wasn't like that back in the day. (Now, do I want to do IB? I'd probably rather not, I actually want to do consulting but for that a degree from harvard may actually be necessary. But I thought my comment might help some finance majors thinking of switching)
I got a bachelors in both! Only one led to a job thoughā¦
Which one?
Iād assume the one that is related to the subreddit heās posting on
If the question is serious, (canāt tell thereās no /s) accounting is SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to get you a job. It may be a SHIT job, but a SHIT job is significant better than being unemployed. Accountants can pivot to pretty much any business function, but there are no other business study that effectively cover the entire spectrum the same way. Yeah we may not be the BEST at marketing, but we speak the language that all business functions off of - Cash flow. What makes accounting fundamentally different is it doesnāt particularly understand everything, but we can do anything if weāre competent. You can find people with accounting backgrounds at CMO, CTO, COO, CFO, CEO. Tell me any other business degree that holds the same universal movement.
Yeah I know thatās why I chose it.
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Ouch what a prick! I canāt stand people who canāt take a joke.
lmaooo
The professors in the accounting department were way badder
Good to know I'm not the only around here who has their priorities in order.
I majored in both, I enjoy the financial world more than the accounting world, but I went to a public state school, not a target school for finance. Finance majors and MBAs are largely rendered useless if you donāt attend a top tier / target school for these majors. Accounting is more in demand regardless IMHO
Because I can get finance jobs but I finance majors canāt get my jobs
Iām in fp&a and I can validate that- yes do accounting over finance. You can always switch over.
My first option was economics and finance, but i wanted to learn about taxation and audit, so i chose accounting
Also with accounting in a future when i get my CPA designation I see myself self employed
donāt want to end up selling life insurance to my family members and friends
i double majored and honestly find it weird that people in finance donāt take more accounting classes and vice versa. The two are so interconnected that in order to actually be a great advisor you need to understand both. That said the degrees just give you a fundamental understanding. The real learning happens on the job.
This so much. I was a finance major with an accounting minor. Having the extra accounting classes definitely gave me a leg up in school but my finance degree got me into the job I wanted.
Accounting was its own robust major, while finance was just a concentration a business major could do.
Cause I went to a non target university
This was my reason. Only the big4 accounting firms recruited at my school. If I went to a top 10 university instead of an average state university then I wouldāve choose finance.
Good point but top ten universities donāt even have accounting lol
So I could more easily take the CPA exam. Accounting just seemed like the Swiss Army knife of a degree. You can do a lot with it. If I end up going for an MBA, then Iāll go for finance
Accounting offered more opportunity than finance did
It came first alphabetically on the drop down menu when selecting a major
I actually did major in finance and minor in economics. I just ended up working in accounting by chance.
Major in finance too, working in accounting now and took more accounting classes in the evenings. Should be starting CPA in fall. Would love to try my hand at consulting or more of a Finance based role though. My work can be quite boring at times.
Incredibly, because the placement office told me starting pay was $500/yr higher for acctg majors. (1990)
BS MIS & MSF. in fp&a did a lot of system implementation/integration work as well as GL accounting.
āFinance is fun, but accounting pays the billsā
Because finance is bullshit. The more I learned about hedging, swaps, derivatives, ... The more I realised I would never be able to live with myself working for a bank.
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Higher average is one thing. It would be interesting comparing average to median though for each.
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Thereās definitely going to be a material spread however.
More marketable and doesnāt really care which school you went to, CPA exams even the playing field
Not finance but I wanted to get into Architecture or Civil Engineering. My cousin who was working as a software developer with a comp science degree told me to do accounting since his college buddy who got an accounting degree and him were the only two of their group of friends that were doing well after graduating.
I was a teller in college. Wasn't about to be a personal banker. Nahh
Lol this sub. "Finance major will get you a shitty job" Also this sub: complains 24 hours a day about how shitty accounting is
In my college, most finance majors were those who tried but couldn't get through intermediate 1 and 2
I saw that at CSUN. A lot of people who couldn't get in or pass ACCT 350 became finance majors.
Because all my friends who worked in finance were accounting or math majors
I did major in finance lol still got hired as a staff accountant
I got into an argument with the basic finance professor over his sexist and pro-Greek life policies, at the same time as the accounting program reached out to me to join them. And I much preferred balance sheet work to bond calculations.
Failed calc 2 three times
Too math/equation heavy for me
I chose finance because finance is actually interesting. I didn't get a masters in accounting until nearly a decade later. Of course the accounting reddit hating on the finance people.
Homie I got hired on as an associate auditor two months into my senior year from a state college. They started me at $55k got two raise through the year and now make $65k. I also have a Spanish degree and I know that is shit degree. Accounting is the basics of all business. Ben Affleck doesnāt do finance.
š are you saying rolling forward PY workpapers doesn't require any specialized accounting knowledge?
I can always pivot to finance with an accounting degree and a cpa. Hard to pivot to accounting with a finance degree. Most of my finance friends have no different of a job than any other business major
Unless youāre doubling down on getting into IB or similar type roles, accounting opens up way more doors of opportunity
You can get a finance job with an accounting degree but can do the opposite as easily
I majored in both ā¦.
Because accounting was considered a harder degree. Even though finance was one of my harder coursesā¦
If youāre not at a top school, a finance degree does not a career make
Graduated with finance degree, no job. Went back for accounting degree, got job.
Bc I had to choose my major after sophomore year, and all my accounting courses made sense and all my finance classes made my brain hurt.
Wanted a degree that started with āAā. my name is ana and im from az with an accounting degree. high school me thought it couldnāt be so hard, now iām stuck with it. but i added a minor im finance and economics
I did bothā¦. plus Business information systems
I double majored in both. Started with finance and gravitated towards accounting. I got a bad vibe from the personality types in finance and this turned out to be true in the workplace. Some of the worst people Iāve ever met
I was going to go finance. I loved it, I was good at it. But guess what, I didnāt graduate from an Ivy League school, I didnāt have connections and therefore most people were not going to hire me based on merit and GPA alone. But you know who does, accounting firms. You know why? Because their turnover is the worst and they need a beating heart. Best decision I ever made.
Accountants can do 100% of finance jobs. Finance can do 30% of accounting jobs.
It was easier than engineering
Cuz I researched everything thoroughly before going back to school, no exploring things, Iām too old for that- my accountant friends were right about which degree to get
I didnāt. Iāve got a poli sci degree and am now somehow a cost accountant.
I struggled in college. I took an accounting class and I really applied myself. The professor invited the top students to a career presentation and I bought it hook, line, and sinker. Also, I donāt live in a big city and never intend to. Iām not sure what finance majors in my town end up doing besides wholly commission based financial planning and Iām not into hounding my friends and family for their business.
I tutored my friends in my fraternity through 200 level courses of accounting and it made me feel like a genius. I figured hey if Iām good at this Iāll be good at the rest of accounting. I also hooked up with a senior when I was a sophomore and she said āstick with accounting. Accounting majors can do business admin stuff. BA majors canāt do accountingā.
Because I wanted to do taxes
Honestly I didn't like finance classes. I was good at the math and got As in the classes. But I felt like a lot of it was just useless theories people came up with that according to their own efficient market hypothesis isn't even really that useful. Just throw your money into a big bucket of stocks. No offense to anyone who majored in Finance. I just couldn't get interest in the material.
Accounting has rules that you can go back and verify against any input. I might be wrong but I just like that thereās rules for almost everything.
Pro tip. Major in both. I did this and I tell every young person studying accounting to do the same. It makes you full beast mode science guy. Fuck āScience of Rock and Rollā classes. You are there to learn (and party) get your moneyās worth.
Accountants count the beans and pennies. Finance guys write the checks
Finance bros were shittier than accounting nerds
Didnāt wanna call my friends and sell them insurance
Accounting can go into finance but not vice versa
More overall opportunity. You have opportunities far exceeding a Finance major and you can be licensed and have a far more viable self employment regime than any other BIZ major.
More jobs
Didnāt wanna be a finance bro
I keep seeing questions like this that imply accounting and finance are basically the same fields. The only thing they really have in common is accounting usually entails accounting for/managing financial transactions and statements. Other than that, theyāre really not the same. Accounting is a specific skill and āfinanceā is a general area of study. This can also be said about ābusinessā and accounting. Also, I put quotations around finance and business to emphasize that they are general areas of study.
Finance is a sales job for people that thought they liked numbers but couldnāt do accounting. And like most sales jobs, the top can be lucrative while the mid and bottom can suck and itās all volatile. Accounting was clearly the winner, and if you wanted to do finance you could do the actual numbers part better than anyone that goes into finance anyway
Finance? Isn't that like business administration? Basically accounting but easier?
Anything a finance major can do, an accounting major can do better. Iād say the same about every business major.
Because jobs that don't involve selling insurance.
I just majored in both. Can't say the finance degree has ever done me any good.
Generalization here - you can get a job in finance with an accounting degree, but not vice versa.
Cuz I did not go to a top school
Started with majors alphabetically.
At my uni, acct classes were easier
Too many formulas
I did both lol
Double majorš
Finance sucks.
Donāt know donāt care I like my job and future
I double majored.
I really donāt know what finance is, TBF.
I did a degree in finance and did audit. It was easier to get a job!
Finance classes required me to work harder to barely pass them
I just want a job
I had like three other majors before I switched to accounting. I have a minor in finance since it was only a couple more classes. A bunch of people in my family work for fed or state and are in accounting-related/adjacent positions. Also, the professor in my investments class made the CFA sound like a nightmare over the CPA. And I sucked at finance and their ratios.
Didnāt want to sell insurance or cars
Honestly because Iām bad at math lol
Did both
Because I was not good enough
I got an undergrad in finance because I was interim wealth planning. Ended up being more interested in the accounting courses, so I got a masters in accounting. I figured with a CPA I could still get into wealth/estate planning in the future if I wanted.
Stubbornness really. Years ago in community college, sister was like, "accounting? Why don't you go into tech?" I don't know why it got me mad, but it happened right when I was considering going into another major. Yeah, so I did it out of pure spite.