I’m looking to better my life and want to get my degree. The military is going to help so might as well. Is there a specific degree that helps? I’d like to get into marketing. And what’s accounting like?

OP, go for accounting, not marketing, srs

Accounting degree > audit firm (preferably big 4) > stay there for 2-3 years> your choice afterwards, for example a more relaxed industry job

Not a bad path but Marketing is more interesting and fresh.

Marketing -> Marketing industry -> up the ranks until you try to be a Chief Marketing Officer

You can go into marketing/business consulting in big 4 or big 3 too.

Yeah I feel like marketing is more interesting. Why is accounting always mentioned?

Accounting is very boring and borderline autistic.

Do not study accountancy.

Example of accounting as a concept:

Debbie recently purchased a box of nails for the job site as the admin in the trailer with the job site purchase card. She gave the box of nails to Joe the foreman. Joe the foreman in order to document the nails needed a copy of the receipt from Debbie. As the box of nails is going to be used to fasten wood to the dirt wall to retain it Joe had to speak to the Engineer John. John told Joe to code the cost of the nails to a phase relating to the retaining walls. Joe told Debbie this code so that when Debbie received her purchase card statement she knows to write the cost code on the receipt. As this purchase is a consumable good it is classified as a category type. This will typically fall under small tools and consumables. The category code is derived by the cost accounting team. This category code is linked to a general ledger. The general ledger code exposes the category code as a direct expense on the job as part of small tools and consumables. In order to properly reflect this expense this need to be part of the income statement. The income statement is part of the financial statements but the offsetting entry relating to this expense would fall to an accrual code being accounts payable as a purchase order. Debbie would need to record an interim purchase order to allocate the accrual of the liability for the credit card initially. Debbie's purchase order will be offset once accounts payable pays off the credit card and relieves the liability record and subsequently reduces the cash in the bank account thus denoting the booking effect against the now releived liability.

Rewrite the above paragraph using T-accounts and apply general ledger debits and credits to associate the entries to the proper accounts.

If this doesn't sound like fun - don't go into accounting.

^this is highly ignorant lmao.

I did this. Make sure to get the CPA credential too. Left after 5 years because it's a bitch but in accounting it only takes 4-5 years in a medium cost of living city to join the 6 fig club.

Go ahead and tell me why.

CPA is one of the most secure jobs.

Ok. Accounting is an extremely broad subject to study. What you posted up there is an excerpt from an accounting exam or something, but nothing like real life.

Examples of some career paths that come from an accounting degree:
Auditor
Tax Analyst
Open CPA firm (after gaining experience and specializing)
Consulting
Financial Reporting
SEC reporting
Governmental accounting
Management accounting (Cost accounting, etc)
Financial analyst
CFO
CAO
and on and on...

Personally I was an auditor for 5 years and now I work in SEC reporting and I don't even touch journal entries or do mundane bullchit like that. I essentially perform research and advise my CAO and CFO on the impact of big ass transactions and then tell people how to account for them. Now, all that said, if you end up in an AP or AR position then yeah it'll be boring as ****, but if you follow the path where you start at a big 4 you will learn the do's and don't to not pigeonhole yourself into a deadend career. I exited college with an offer and making $55k a year and am well above 6 figures now after only 6 years.

Uh-huh, and what you described is explicitly an internal or external auditor role (just as limited) with the narrow view of becoming a CFO or controller after leaving an audit firm. This is less than 1% of all CPAs.

As far as deriding the concept of "my big 4 experience" as if it means anything other than how you denote your work-papersis not really applicable if you don't understand the ERP system, financial engineering, and general fluid dynamics of the business you enter. That is the problem with a lot of young CFO's and controllers who come from 'the big 4.'

If you really want to make money as a CPA you go into banking and M&A activities under large investment banking firms like Goldman. This is just as small a % of CPAs in regard to the likelihood of success or even given the opportunity.

99% of the time accountants in corporate structures spend their time looking at irregular bookings and figuring out what people did wrong as 99% of accountants are working in book-keeper/analyst roles with general GAAP applications of revenue and NCI entries with an emphasis on analysis of the financials.

Most accounting work is very dull and monotonousness. The rare exciting accounting events are limited to a very small group of people.

Explain to me how SEC reporting is an internal or external audit role pls.

The Misc gives accountants a bad wrap but what many fail to realize is yeah the person with an accounting degree that limits themselves to an Accounts Payable job isn't going to make $100k+ like a CPA that has drive to be successful. A CPA only making $70k per year didn't do it right.

I do agree here for sure

I would fix your grammar first OP before you try to go to college LOL

I have a business degree and while I don't do accounting or marketing I'll recommend it because a business degree is useful anywhere. Hell I even got an MBA because why not, again useful anywhere. I work in IT so there's really no limit to what you can do with one.

What I do know about accounting from some people I graduated with is that its apparently kinda boring and you really only make the good money if you work 90 hours a week at one of the big firms until you burnout and become a raging alcoholic at 35. Just a heads up. If you're happy with a decent paying and not very demanding job it can also be a good way to go though.

I think you're an idiot but I'll go ahead and state their purposes even though you clearly don't know what you are talking about.

SEC regulations require publicly owned companies to disclose certain types of business and financial data on a regular basis to the SEC and to the company's stockholders. As far as controls as a theory if you have improper policies in place you would allow management to override these controls. Inherent limitations of internal control over financial reporting, including the possibility of collusion or improper management override of controls, material misstatements due to error or fraud may not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Also, projections of any evaluation of the effectiveness of the internal control over financial reporting to future periods are subject to the risk that the controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. The goal of an internal audit is to make sure proper policies are enforced and recommendations are made to align adequately so that reporting is sound. These audits ensure compliance with laws and regulations and help to maintain accurate and timely financial reporting and data collection. External audit is different as it should verify that the annual accounts provide a true and fair picture of the corporations finances.

I have an undergrad degree in Business with an emphasis in Finance, I ended up learning accounting kind of on the job and at times wish I had taken more accounting classes. Reason being as noted above, you have more options with an accounting degree. I have since gotten my MBA as well and also a Treasury certification.

Overall I would steer clear of Marketing and Management degrees.

I could really go for this these days.

do finance

fuk acc, it's boring af.

Finance, accounting, statistics, and information systems are the only business degrees that are worthwhile as they are quantitative degrees. And accounting is only worth it if you get your CPA.


Finance degree crew

No sense in talking to you lol. I literally do this for a living. You're acting like I don't know all of this ****...

I have a bachelors and masters in accounting, am a CPA, nad have almost 6 years experience in the fields that we are talking about, yet I am a dumbass. clown world

Operations Management as well.