I’m leaving my job at the end of the month to go back to school for MBA. Full time at top-20. Been working for two years as a cost accountant for a large corporation and can honestly say there is not one redeeming element of the profession that would ever draw me back. It is the most boring work imaginable and I cannot fathom how others enjoy it. That’s why I got into CFA, so I could make the switch into investments. Undergrad was in economics and finance. Lured into this job by a good salary and it was my only offer. However, i will major in accounting and finance during MBA. Despite my hatred of accounting, you need it to for FSA and analyzing investments is all about knowing the balance sheet. F**K. The whole point of this post, i hate accounting. For the small minority of CFA candidates that are in accounting and hate it, feel free to vent.
What do you hate more, accouting or war?
okay…its not as bad as being in Iraq or Afghanistan, but who says I can’t whine a little.
Did you get your CA or CPA ?
No…didn’t have the 150hrs and didn’t major in accounting.
Honestly I think there is NO WAY person could LOVE ACCOUNTING. Someone on this forum prove me otherwise !
^^^I’m an auditor at big 4 of the big banks, and accounting and reporting as well as compliance can be very challenging and thus rewarding for some people. Deciding what’s fair value in accounting is not that much different from deciding what it is as an analyst. Having said that, I would never go into accounting function even at a bank, it does get boring after while. But you do get paid nicely for 9-5 job. They still get bonuses even this year. To OP, I think CFA and MBA are the best ways to make the next step. My plan is very similar, CFA while getting experience and then off to top-20 MBA program.
Accounting is like the language of love–which is Spanish, by the way–but for business. We have to strive to learn the language of business so we can make better investment decisions that are objective and not clouded by psychological biases. Finding poor earnings quality in a company that states otherwise in the MD&A is a rewarding experience. You get to feel the Dick Tracy, but with numbers… so it’s a little nerdier. Also, what’s with the top 20 MBAs? Let’s strive for top 1 MBA, whatever that is. We can do it! We’re AFers 
@Finance and CFA: How much experience did you get/are wanting to get before you head back to get your MBA? I am considering myself which route to take as I am 24 and just finished my first year as portfolio manager. The only difference for me is that I already have to MS degrees from a decent school and have taught most of the MBA finance classes, so for me the MBA would be a purely cosmetic element to add to the resume plus an excellent chance to meet and network with the future leaders of American business. I have also thought about holding out abit longer than the typical MBA student does (i.e. 4-5 years after undergrad) and pursuing an Executive MBA at a top 10. What are your thoughts? I am really curious the process and planning you guys have or are going through as you contemplate these decisions!
I’ll have 2 years of experience when i start classes this fall. Some say its too early, get your 3-7 years experience before you start. Your experiences at MBA will be more enriching if you have more experience since you have more to contribute blah blah blah. In my opinion, all this does is prolong my period of depressed earnings. F**K the consensus. An MBA from a top school pays big bucks, pure and simple. Its a purely financial move. I’m well aware that the things I’m learning will be a slightly advanced version of undergrad and a rehash of the first 2 CFA levels. So what. As long as I’m making 100K+ 2 yrs from now, it doesn’t matter. By the way, I was looking at Harvard MBA class of 2011 statistics. Around 400+ students of the 900ish students have 3 years or less experience. This trend is going to trickle down to the top 20-30. You guys wait and see, young people are going to rule the world!!!
I did some cost accounting at a large corporation for awhile, and I agree that it is scratch-your-eyes-out boring most of the time. However, a job like that is in no way representative of “accounting” as a whole. W/a top 20 MBA and CFA, you won’t be relegated to corporate finance, and I think you’ll find that an accounting background is extremely helpful, and can actually be interesting when you’re looking at a company as a whole, not just one budget. I’m in M&A, and the FSA portions of the CFA have been by far the most helpful in my day to day work.
Love Financial Statement Analysis but hate Accounting. I like to look at completed financial statements and decipher what is going on but would have hated to put them together in any capacity.
Dude, If you got the job without an accounting major, and worked in a junior cost accountant type position, I’m not sure you can really say you had a true accounting job, or have a clue as to what the profession is about.
I used to HATE accounting, but John Harris’ class have made me like (not love!) it. Once I gained a deeper understanding of the logic and reasoning behind it, a certain elegance of the discipline became apparent. As Jensen says, the analysis part is much more interesting than putting them together, but you can’t analyze if you don’t know how they are constructed.
SuperI, I work for a CPA and my colleagues are full accounting majors. A finance major includes some accounting don’t forget. And my job isn’t junior accountant. I’m a divison level analyst. I think I have a pretty good idea what an accountant does and doesn’t do. An accountant assists in the record keeping function of a business, the recording of transactions to provide an accurate indication of company performance. An accountant says, “this is what the numbers are.” An accountant isn’t involved and doesn’t provide insight into projecting company performance, analyzing strategy, identifying new areas to enhance profitability etc. The interesting parts of business. I recognize accounting is the language of business (I’m going to study it at MBA), but functionally there is nothing inherently interesting about it in my opinion. Its mechanical work. It doesn’t require the same level of qualitative and quantitative thinking that analyzing an investment does.
FinanceMBA, I think the best analogy would be to compare it to an attorney doing corporate law saying its all boring. What about litigation, criminal law, first amendment law…etc. Cost accounting is still likely the least popular area of accounting to go into. Top accounting grads generally will want to go work for top accounting firms, or in the corporate environement work in the controller/CFO track. Much of the analysis with M&A deals is driven by accounting treatment and pro-forma analysis. What you identify above as the “interesting part of the business” can often be found in groups with as many CPA’s as MBAs. Forecasting, projecting, what if scenarios, etc. in many companies is done in a controller’s division. At any rate, irrespective of what you think of accounting, you are right that an MBA degree will help you target the sexier areas of analytical work that you’re interested in, and I wish you good luck.
Hey FinanceMBA, do you mind sharing what school you did your undergrad at and what MBA programs you were able to get in with 2 years of cost accounting experience.
Certainly, I did my undergrad at IU-Bloomington Kelley. I applied and got accepted to Olin Wash U St. Louis (they waived application fee), and Kelley where i’ll be attending this fall, they gave me a full grad. assitantship plus its in state. Also got accepted to an MSF program at Univ. of Tulsa which included full assitantship. I didn’t apply anywhere else but was considering Notre Dame, Chicago and Northwestern also. Their application fees alone were $200+ and going to those schools would entail about 120K all in for the 2 years. I just couldn’t justify it and frankly couldn’t afford it. I’m already too heavily indebted from undergrad as it is. My GMAT was 720 95% Q 89% V 88% , 3.1 UGPA, but i graduated in 3 years with 2 majors finance, business econ. I had decent but I would not say outstanding essays. The main thing I did was tell my story and confidently express why i would excel at school and career. I applied during round 2 and was accepted within days after my phone interviews at both schools.
Thanks for sharing. That’s really good GMAT score. Can’t believe application fee and tuition stopped you from applying to Chicago and Northwestern. But GPA and lack of experience might have made it tough to get in. Good luck with MBA and hopefully economy will be back in couple of years.
tryagain Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Honestly I think there is NO WAY person could LOVE > ACCOUNTING. Someone on this forum prove me > otherwise ! I love accounting.