Hey Guys, I am graduating in May, and looking back at my university years, I have not pursued the right actions in order to break into a good Wall Street role or more specifically IB job. I was told that unlike finance roles which will be a particularly hard area to break into due to the myriad of issues we are facing, accounting jobs are still abundant. Anyways, my question is: Are accounting roles restricted solely to accounting majors? I know my school along with many others have special programs for accounting majors, so this is why I ask. I am a business admin. major with a finance concentration. Could I gain a role as an accountant with this degree or would there be a different area in a typical accounting firm that would be better suited for me? Of course, there is lot of course work that I have missed in terms of being ready for the CPA, which may present a problem! It is far from my ideal job, but I am thinking this may be one of the best choices for the situation I put myself in and perhaps it could enable me to move into an area of my interest after a few years. As always, thank you all for the help, Theo
in case you’re interested, i know that e&y has a program that allows non-accounting majors to join the firm and get yours masters in accounting at either uva or notre dame. after you finish, you’re committed to working three more years to pay it off. and that’s to do audit, by the way. but there are other roles at the big firms (or some smaller firms for that matter) that will be better experience, like business valuation or m&a advisory.
Because valution of illiquid/complex securities is such a hot topic right now, try to get a pricing role… And you don’t need an accounting background to do accounting at a non-accounting firm (i.e. Back office role at a fund, fund accounting, etc.).
Theo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anyways, my question is: Are accounting roles > restricted solely to accounting majors? I know my > school along with many others have special > programs for accounting majors, so this is why I > ask. I am a business admin. major with a finance > concentration. Could I gain a role as an > accountant with this degree or would there be a > different area in a typical accounting firm that > would be better suited for me? Of course, there > is lot of course work that I have missed in terms > of being ready for the CPA, which may present a > problem! You will probably begin in a junior role and you won’t need to be an expert in accounting. Nevertheless, you’ll have to constantly improve your accounting knowledge as long as you stay in audit. > It is far from my ideal job, but I am thinking > this may be one of the best choices for the > situation I put myself in and perhaps it could > enable me to move into an area of my interest > after a few years. What is your ideal job? In audit firms, you can also work in their transaction advisory services which can put you one foot in the door of the IB industry. Those departments are usually harder to get into in Audit firms but after 2 or 3 years inside it might be possible to change. My 2 0.00’s
Thanks for the info, guys. The advice of getting into business valuation, pricing, or transactional advisory all sound like good choices that may help me acquire good skills for an IB. CFA2009- Overall, I just don’t know anymore. I do know that I don’t want to do accounting for long and I would not make a good broker or trader because of my personality. I would like to research companies and industries, ideally. But I cannot even really think on that track right now.
So many people on this board are looking to get into IBD, when this is forum is really dedicated to investment management. anyway, most people go into valuation after their banking careers, and not the other way around. You can def look to get into some areas of valuation that are related to m&a advisory type services such as solvency opinions and fairness opinions. FAS141, 142 purchase price allocation, goodwill impairment, and also portfolio valuation groups are interesting areas… alot of business valuation at big4 or accting firms is audit review of FAS141 allocations, estate tax, and FLP valuations
Another way could be to work in rating agencies such as S&P, Moody’s or Fitch but I think that they don’t offer many jobs at that time bacause of the subprime crisis (CDO ratings etc.)