This One Chart Shows Just How Boned the Accounting Profession Is
Perusing The CPA Journal as one does when one is tasked with the onerous burden of reporting on happenings in a profession in which so few things happen, I saw this discussion on CPA Evolution by Nina Terranova Dorata, PhD, CPA and Vincent J. Shea. In it, questions are tossed out about how accounting education […]
Switching Careers? Building the One You Have? Why Accounting is the Answer
Maybe you’ve decided it’s time to switch to a new career. Or maybe you just need to upgrade within your current company or industry. Either way, you’re looking to make a move that will provide you with opportunities to advance and enough potential to keep you satisfied. >> Download our guide “The Career Switcher’s Checklist” […]
How a Graduate Degree in Accounting Really Pays Off
You’ve decided that graduate school is the best way to bolster your resume, expand your career options, and, perhaps, move up the corporate ladder. Now what? The list of potential graduate degrees can seem intimidating – MAC, MBA, JD, MS, and more. How do you find the degree that makes sense to you financially and […]
AICPA’s Concern Over a Building Gap in CPA Exam Candidates Totally Immaterial
Yesterday, Colin stuck the following story in ANR. We're going to go ahead and give it its own spot because this is something worth discussing: The number of New Yorkers obtaining their Certified Public Accounting license from the state remained relatively flat in 2014, according to statistics compiled by the New York State Education Department. […]
Just What the Accounting Industry Needs, Another Article About How Great the Job Market Is
Not sure if you guys heard but the economy kind of sucks. In fact, it's kind of sucked for going on a few years now but many of you would have no idea just how bad it is because the unemployment rate in accounting is so low that all you really need to get a […]
Accounting Degree Holder Scott Thompson May Not Be in a Rush to Find a New Job
Last week we learned that Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson, who had given the impression that he was a holder of not one, but two degrees (CompSci and Accounting) only managed to, in reality, be the holder of said accounting degree. This misrepresentation has upset a few people, most notably, Third Point founder Dan Loeb whose […]
Perhaps Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson Should Start Sending His Résumé* to Accounting Firms
Yesterday we learned that Third Point boss Dan Loeb wasn't all that impressed with Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson's credentials. It wasn't that he was all "meh" about Thompson's accounting degree, but rather that Scottie's computer science degree was not what one would consider "real." This has a lot of people pointing, laughing, judging, and Yahoo's […]
Sometimes an Accounting Degree Just Isn’t Enough
Like when you've been telling people that you also have a computer science degree, when in fact, you don't have a computer science degree (at least in the traditional sense) and then someone – in this case, Third Point founder Dan Loeb – sorta notices: May 3, 2012 Board of Directors Yahoo! Inc. 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale, […]
Yahoo! Exaggerates Accounting Degree’s Hotness
Check out Yahoo! on in-demand degrees, some of you might recognize #3:
Degree #3 – Bachelor’s in Accounting
The curriculum in this hot degree could prepare grads to pursue number-crunching accountant career opportunities. Courses generally cover basic accounting concepts, preparing financial statements, and research of real-life cases, according to the College Board.
Hot Factor: The numbers don’t lie. The Department of Labor projects 22 percent growth in accounting careers between 2008 and 2018. Career opportunities can include everything from working for companies or individual clients, according to the Department, which notes that the average ccountants was $68,960 in May 2010.
Click to Find the Right Accounting Program
If you follow the link to “the right accounting program,” it will take you to an email form so you can be mailed great educational matches for you, apparently.
It appears Yahoo! ran almost the same accounting advertisement before, calling accounting the #2 career built to last, with an average salary earning potential of $67,430.
The BLS says this of accounting’s unusual makeup in its report (keep in mind it was published in May of 2009):
Although accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services employed a relatively small percentage of all bookkeeping clerks, this was the second largest occupation in the accounting services industry, representing about 11.4 percent of industry employment. (See table 6.) Accountants and auditors was by far the largest occupation in the industry, with 286,110 jobs making up about one-third of industry employment. Tax preparers was the third largest occupation in accounting services, with employment of 61,160. Most of the other large occupations in this industry were office and administrative support occupations.
In that same report, the median salary for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks was $33,800. Maybe I am reading the statistics wrong but knowing a career has “an average salary earning potential of $67,430” is not the same as hearing that the national average for that career is $33,800. Yes, where you live matters. Yes, your lifetime earning potential is influenced by lots of factors that make you notably non-average, like how hard you try, what skills you pick up along the way, how good you are at playing the game…
Anyway, here’s a snip from the report to see how it all pans out:
I still don’t see how those numbers work out to this being a reason those who are desperate to work should pile into this career option.
Yes, if you are a money-hungry, elite accounting program prick (I’m not berating you, in fact I’m in love with a lot of you, your ruthlessness is hot), you will probably come out of the gate making those $33,800 losers fetch your coffee but average is just that, average.
I find it sort of reckless on the part of Yahoo! to post numbers like this without the context of actual prospects in accounting and the caliber of individual needed to thrive in the sort of environment accounting provides. I say “caliber” with the most seriousness I can muster, I assure you.