Finance or accounting degree?

[MA2]

I'm probably going to do a double major in accounting and finance too. As far as I know it would only be 6 more classes, so about 4 months or so extra to for 2 majors.

[joel66]

A business specialization is better in my opinion. We hire programmers with mis degrees all the time but it's rare to see a general business degree in the computer field. I suspect the same is true in accounting or finance.

I think the difference in programming and other IT fields is that employers are looking more on actual knowledge and experience, and the general business degree is a preferred degree to have. It is easier for someone to build a program or site that they can show to prospective employers in interviews. In regards to accounting and finance, especially when doing a career change, I noticed employers want to see what accounting courses and training you completed and if you already have the educational requirements to study or currently completed some CPA exams if interviewing for public accounting. For myself, I have a general business degree and not even hitting first base because I lack the accounting background. For a general business degree, you only need financial and managerial accounting. This does not even scratch the surface if I want to do auditing or financial analysis because I would be in competition with people who have degrees in this major. What I like about accounting is that you don't need to be a CPA with an accounting degree. You have more doors that open into finance, banking, and even management because I will have knowledge on cost/managerial accounting, and doing trend and variance analysis. An MBA in Finance would be an added bonus for leadership and dealing with liquid/current assets. One thing that I notice for the current and previous company I have worked for, is that I have seen a high percentage of executives with undergraduate degrees in accounting or economics and MBA in Finance.

Edit: I also forgot to mention that Excel is very important. I also noticed jobs with knowledge of vlookups, pivot tables, and conditional formatting. I am also trying to squeeze whatever time I have to learn additional skills in excel and access.

[joel66]

I'm probably going to do a double major in accounting and finance too. As far as I know it would only be 6 more classes, so about 4 months or so extra to for 2 majors.

For six classes that is not bad. When I was told the amount of additional classes I had to take to get an accounting degree, I talked myself out of it because it would take me another 6 to 8 months. Now, I can only look forward and move on. :willynilly:

[ryoder]

We only hire people with four years of experience in software development unfortunately so it's hard to hire someone with a bachelors or a masters with no actual experience. This is becoming more common in the computer field since there are so few people graduating with computer degrees now the talent pool is older and more seasoned.
I would recommend getting relevant work experience any way you can. Volunteer to do bookkeeping for a non profit that doesn't want to pay for the service if you have to.

[MA2]

For six classes that is not bad. When I was told the amount of additional classes I had to take to get an accounting degree, I talked myself out of it because it would take me another 6 to 8 months. Now, I can only look forward and move on. :willynilly:

Yea not a big deal since according to your sig you're going for an MS in accounting. But the business core is the same so I have all the pre-reqs... Just gotta do the accounting and finance blocks and I should be good.

[dakotaj]

i am considering getting a degree in accounting and/or finance instead of general business. What are your opinions on that? Would a bsba in accounting be much better than a bsba in general management? Would a double major in accounting and finance be better still? In my case, it would cost about $1,000 more and 3 more months to major in accounting and somewhere around $3,000 more and 6 more months to double major in accounting and finance.

Any opinions, ideas, or suggestions?

what did you decide and what advice can you give someone in your same position? I just saw this post. 9/15/15

[dakotaj]

the reason i first decided to go for a general business degree is that i want knowledge of all areas of business, in order to manage a small business. I do not want to be an accountant (at least at this point). Actually, i want to go into a completely different field and i am getting the business degree to give me knowledge to run a business in my chosen field. However, i took my first accounting course, liked it, took another, liked it... And so on. Now i have 15 accounting credits with straight a's. At this point, i am really considering changing my degree program to accounting instead of having a general business degree with many accounting credits. Especially considering that it would only require 3 more accounting courses. But if i do accounting, i would not be able to do the courses/exams that i want to do in finance, management, and marketing. Since i am more interested in doing finance than management or marketing (and finance goes well with acc.), i am now considering doing a double major in accounting and finance. I think that having a degree in accounting and/or finance would open up more doors, but i am wondering whether the extra expense and time would be worth it. Considering that the double major would cost around $3,000 more and take at least 6 more months, is it worth it?

Any suggestions, thoughts or ideas are appreciated. And sorry for the long post.

what did you decide to do and any advice to someone in your same situation?