Accounting or Finance? accounting, question, library, opinion, finance

ishfaque

I’m just gonna throw this out there.  Sound off if you have an opinion.  If you agree, say so.  And if you don’t agree, that’s cool too.
Not too long ago, I was talking to a student at the library where I study.  She was impressed by the fact that I had an MBA, CPA, and working on the CFA.  She was a finance student, but was considering a double-major in accounting.  She asked me two questions:
1.  Which is the harder exam?  CFA or CPA?  (This was the easy question.) I told her that there was absolutely no question–CFA is harder.  CFA is much harder.  Each level of CFA is about as hard as all parts of the CPA exam combined.  Anybody who says something different has not taken both exams.
2.  Which is better?  Finance or Accounting?   (This was the difficult question.)
I think that all finance students have dreams of being the next Jim Cramer, or Warren Buffett, or George Soros, or John Meriwether, etc.  We all have dreams of working on the NYSE screaming “Buy!  and Sell!”  We think we’ll eventually get a corner office on the 50th floor of some building in lower Manhattan, riding in our limousine to our private jet, which will take us from vacation home to vacation home in our Armani suits and Patek Philippe watches and Mont Blanc pens.  Life for finance majors is meant to be exciting.
Accountants, on the other hand, lead a very boring life.  The life of an accountant is general ledgers, adding machines, journal entries, and reconciling balance sheet accounts.  We wear glasses and pocket protectors.  Our dream job is one where you get to create schedules, then make journal entries, then reconcile the accounts.  (Rinse and repeat on a monthly basis.)  If you’re a tax accountant, then you get to create a working trial balance, then put the numbers into a software package that will create a tax return for you.  The life of an accountant is meant to be very boring.
This being said, I told her that I think accounting is a better career choice for 95% of all graduates.  In my (very limited) experience, accountants will make more money and have better job security than their finance counterparts.  Sure, this is not true at the upper levels, or for those who actually do work in a major financial center.  But unless you graduated from a top-50 school and had a 3.5+ GPA, then your resume will probably find the working end of the shredder very quickly if you apply at Goldman Sachs in New York.
I’m not trying to discourage those who want to pursue the CFA charter.  But I can tell you this from personal experience–the CFA charter is just as likely to collect dust as it is to earn you six figures.  The CPA license will certainly open doors for you.  CPA firms like CPA’s, and they’re always hiring–no experience necessary.  You don’t see many jobs at JP Morgan for ”US Equity Analyst” that say ”Will hire somebody straight out of the local state school.”
And the CPA exam will probably take about 250 hours over the course of a year to study for.  The CFA will take about a thousand hours over the course of three years–if you’re lucky.
In my (very limited) experience, those who didn’t go to Harvard and get a 4.0 GPA will more than likely get a job as Credit and Collections Manager at the local manufacturing firm.  You might also get a job in a regional bank as a “Collateral Analyst Cash Accelerator”, whatever that is.  But I think the average accountant is a far more lucrative profession than these.  The pay is better, and the potential exit opportunities are better.
Just some thoughts on the passing scene.  For those of you who are on the bubble about whether to go the Accounting or Finance route, take from this what you will.

NakedPuts2011

People used to ask me about CPA vs CFA.  Although I haven’t taken the CPA exams, I often pointed out that accountants have good job security and decent pay; many seem to find it boring work, but they’re ok with that.  Finance has less job security and is usually quite interesting, and there’s a small chance of really hitting it big.  In good times, people are more attracted to finance and the potential big win, in bad times, many people like the job security of accounting.
There’s also an observation I made about financial statements - which accountans might object to - I am happy to be better informed if any accountants want to correct me.  My impression is that accounting is about ensuring that financial statements correctly record what has happened with a company (and perhaps record in a way that - hopefully legally - reduces things like tax burdens).  It’s backward looking in the sense that it’s focused on what happened and how to record it.  Financial analysis looks at accounting statments in order to determine what is happening with the company and where it’s going, so it’s more forward looking.  If you are into imagining the future, I would think that finance is more appealing than accounting on a purely intellectual level.

bcp901

You made it TDL

RepoToronto

Coming from a major office of one of the Big 4 after 3 years, I agree that it is a better initial choice out of a non-Ivy league school; if only to use accounting as a foundation and/or back up career. Working audit at the Big 4 DOES suck. I didn’t even work that many weekends and I still despised it; there’ s just no drive to push yourself. Just a motivation to finish the audit and get shit signed off.  But if you’re smart, the exit opportunities out of the Big 4 are so mind boogling you’d be an idiot not to start there vs. a typical entry level finacial analyst job. Your base salary isn’t that great but you should average 8% increase every year if you’re just pretty decent- aka just do your freaking work and don’t blow anything up. The entire game in accounting is to build your base salary- you’re paid a lot for your responsibility after you’ve been in the field for a few years (salary) but your bonuses (performance) will be pitiful until you’re a manager or above. Overall, accountants are WAY more realistic than people in finance. I’ve met so many people who love to say they’re in finance and an analyst like it actually means something. 80% of these people are full of shit and are in a position of limited growth. Accounting places you in a position of virtually UNlimited growth in terms of advancement in the field you’re assigned to in audit and (mostly) if you chose to branch off into something else. A little more than a year out of college I had an MSA (FYI- this degree means basically nothing if you did acct undergrad) and my CPA. My salary increased by just over 40% in 3 years FLAT and I made a move to a small consulting firm that is probably 70% what you would call “accounting” (which is a wildly broad term) and 30% biz processes, modeling, etc.
Cliff Notes: Public Acct does blow; but if you went to an Ivy league school you don’t have that problem. If you didn’t, get a dose of reality and suck it up. You are not special so prove you can do some good, professional work, get a certification and get on with your life. If your undergrad doesn’t scream “I’m awesome” and / or you’re not connected  up the wazz- start busting your chops. And seriously, there are worse things than waiting until you’re 26 or 27 to make six figures. Just don’t get caught on the public accounting carousel- tuck ‘n roll off of that merry-go-round after a few years.

cfa10yrplan

L1 is a piece of cake if you have an undergrad in finance.  L2 and L3 are graduate level.

BC_MBA_student

I am an accountant (very close to the C level) but working as an expat for a major US MNC. I can not complain about pay and my job doesn’t suck.

sabre

1.  I say this having only taken CFA L1 (and only partially through the L2 material), so take it with a grain of salt, but based on my experience, I would disagree that any one portion of the CFA is more difficult than the entire CPA exam.  From a pure breadth of information standpoint that covers a broad range of topics, there’s absolutely no doubt that the CFA an entirely different animal than the CPA, but that’s also the main source of it’s difficulty level.  Conceptually, there’s nothing mind-bending (at least nothing I’ve encountered).  I found several topics to be difficult (mostly in macroeconomics and derivatives), though most of the material is very logical.  
The CPA on the otherhand - and accounting in general - is like learning a new language.  You have to will yourself into understand concepts that are not easily relatable to some logical, everyday conclusion.  That makes the CPA and studying for the CPA extremely mind-numbing.  On top of that, there are concepts in the FAR and REG sections of the CPA that are vastly more advanced than any one topic on the CFA.  I am sure anybody with their CPA license finds the concepts addressed in the FRA portions of the CFA to be borderline elementary accounting, and yet a majority of candidates struggle with this section specifically.
It’s very difficult to compare the 2 exams.  The CPA is broken into 4 sections, each of which contains the amount information that can be found in one standard CFA book.  In that sense the entire CPA exam encompasses the amount of material in any one level of the CFA.   As it stands, individuals (or “candidates” if you will) that take the CPA, sit for each exam independently.  They devote all of their time leading up to an exam preparing for one topic - yet the pass rates are still between 45% - 50% (even the NYS Bar Exam has a 70% pass rate).  What’s  more, everybody sitting for the CPA exam has the equivalent to a master’s degree in accounting, as the exam is prohibitively cut off to anybody else.  
With all of that said, I admittedly found studying for CFA L1 a lot more exhausting and grueling.  Additionally, the exam itself was an entirely different (and more difficult) experience than any one portion of the CPA (FAR included).  When I passed L1, I was much more satified by my accomplishment than I was after passing the first 3 portions of the CPA (nothing compares to passing that last part of the CPA).  I imagine though if the CPA was one exam, offered once a year, covering the entire range of topics it currently does, there would be no contest - the CPA (in my pre-L2 eyes) would be more difficult.
2.  I agree.  Accounting is a better career decision as it’s in demand and it provides you with a transferrable skill to just about any industry and geographic region.  Finance is so much more interesting though.  Plus, in order to avoid the random accounting equivalent to the “Collateral Analyst Cash Accelerator” position, you’ll be told by a lot of people (including your professors) that you must go to the Big 4, and once you do that - well that’s a different topic…

Palantir

Well OP, it seems Most people agree: accounting work sux.
It’s funny, we all agree more finance people should do accounting.  But who wants to willingly do a job that the consensus says “the work sucks, and you will likely hate your job”

sabaruch

I like how this popped up on the front page as today is my last day as an accountant. This afternoon (Friday) I will walk out of my sweat shop of a big 4 firm a happy man. I’ve been at work till at least 10 pm for the past 3 weeks and worked every Saturday since Jan. 1. No thanks…
I’ll tell anybody, Big 4 is a great place to begin a career, but that’s about it. Do 1-2 years, get your CPA, and get out. The hours you are required to put in are completely insane relative to the pay until you are at least a manager. Bonuses are virtually non existent. Unless you deep down enjoy the work, or have your heart set on being partner, there are very few reasons to stay at it for more then 5 years.
Pros of accounting: one of professions with the best job security. Very good pay relative to hours once you have 5-10 yrs of experience and work in industry.
Cons: to me, the work is really boring. For the most part, its going to be the same stuff every month, quarter, year, unless you happen to find a really dynamic company.
I’ve been at this for just over a year, passed all my CPA exams, passed CFA L2, and am on my out taking a 20+% pay bump. Some people like it, I don’t. I hate doing things for the sake of doing them, which is what public accounting really is.
Oh CFA or CPA? CPA is way easier. Not only is the material easier to begin with, its mostly just memorizing a ton of stuff, but its way more predictable than the CFA about what will be on it. Its also 4 bite sized pieces where as the CFA is like taking all 4 CPA exams in the same sitting.

jcole21

I was in an Undergrad business program and specialized in Accounting for 3 years and then jumped ship in 4th year and took all finance courses. I had good reasons to be in accounting at first, the Big4 hired our graduates in abundance but not many of the major finance firms were lining up at our door step.
In the end, my choice was simple, I went with the discipline I loved. Accounting was the bane of my existence, and I couldnt stand the thought of audit.
And while I still don’t have my dream job and chances of success arent great, I would prefer to chase the dream rather than be in relatively well paying job that ate away ate my soul every day. I knew very well that the finance industry was contacting, but that didn’t hold me back.
But I would agree with Greenman72, for MOST graduates, accounting would be the better option