Would Like Advice On Accounting Degree?

Q: I have a degree, but would like to get a second degree in accounting. There seems to be Masters of Accounting degrees and the general Bachelor's degrees in business concentrating on accounting. Is the Master's degree actually worth more than the Bachelor's degree? Because I was thinking of getting the Master's, but I've never seen any accouting job listings asking for the Master's degree. Do they even care or is it a fluff degree some schools offer for "professionals"?

A:*Most* Masters in accounting these days are offered as "tack-ons" to the end of the Bachelors degree, in order to meet eligibility requirements (more hours than a 4-year degree normally gets) to sit for the CPA exam. If your first degree was not business related, you will probably have to take what are called "stem classes" before enrolling in the courses which actually count towards the Masters degree, which would make the thing take almost as long as a second Bachelors, and probably cost a lot more. I just finished my BBA in Accounting (and MIS). It is my second Bachelors degree, and the first one, which I picked up in 1992, was totally unrelated. masters accounting ("MACC") is a degree given mostly to immigrants who need to get a US accounting degree to get a US job. american students usually get an MBA degree, which opens up many more doors than an MACC. MIS should have more use than just IT (which is what I was doing before I returned to college). Anyhow... by "public sector" I assume you do NOT mean governmental accounting-related jobs, but rather public accounting.... public accounting in audit requires a good deal of face time, which cannot really be done feasibly or affordably through outsourcing, so it's not likely to be shipped overseas. It's not a matter of companies not wanting their financial information sent overseas (it's publicly available if you're publicly traded) so much as the nature of the work performed. Can't do an inventory count/obvservation from China :) On the other hand, anything compliance/form related CAN be shipped overseas. That's what happened with IT, and is what bites into tax a bit now, too.

Auditing, though, I think is safe. As a side job to WHAT? There won't be time for that if you're working for a firm. Study what you want to do, because you'll be doing a LOT of it, from the git-go. An undergraduate degree will expose you to more aspects of accounting than a graduate degree of any kind. There's governmental/not-for-profit, audit, tax, managerial and forensic, to start with. It helps to have experience but it's not critical. Many CPA firms and accounting depts. hire new graduates without experience. But if you're concerned about that look into internships, part-time/temp work or something like the VITA program (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance).