Poteat 1 Wood Poteat Dr. Rand UWRT 1103 10 Nov. 2014 The Future Life of an Accounting Major Yes, Accounting majors deal with a lot of math, but that’s more to the job than what most people see. That’s what I used to think about it too. To really grasp the whole picture that is accounting, you really have to go deep into the basis of the classes that accounting major’s take during college. You also have gain a knowledge of the job fields that are open for people with degrees in accounting. For me, I really found a strong interest in the banking fields, such Bank Examiner, and as a Tax Accountant. The whole reason for me looking into accounting was because I came into college with a mindset of becoming an engineer, but I decided that it wasn’t for me. Now that I have some information on accounting, I’ve decided that accounting is what I want to do. I started my search with looking into the curriculum of UNCC for an accounting major. It seemed like a pretty easy schedule. Freshman year I would be taking mostly general education classes, the basic math classes, freshman writing, a natural science and some liberal studies classes. There are only two pre-accounting classes, like Intro to Business and Professional Development and Intro to Business Computing (UNC Charlotte, 2014). After freshman year Poteat 2 though, the work load gets to be a little bit tougher. Being that I didn’t start freshman year with the business classes needed, it will be a set-back for me. I don’t think that it will affect me too much though, because I will only be starting one semester behind. I feel like I can come back from this and get back on track to getting a degree in Business Accounting. Instead of it being more general education based classes, sophomore year moves into a lot of business classes. Sophomore year, there is one math class, one writing class, one science class, and two liberal studies courses. Intermingled with those are four Pre-Accounting classes: Principles of Accounting I, Principles of Macro Economics, Principles of Accounting II, and Principles of Micro Economics (UNC Charlotte, 2014). Now the focus more on the business and accounting side of the trade. After getting through all of the courses required for freshman year and sophomore year, which I feel will be the hardest two years to get through, I would be considered pre-accounting. This midpoint is where the most prominent information from the previous pre-accounting classes will begin to all come together. Entering junior year, the journey to becoming a business major begins. I had a goal before coming to college that I would obtain as much information from freshman and sophomore year as I could for engineering. Now that I’m not following the engineering path, I still think my goal can be put in place for accounting. I still want to, and need to retain as much from my first two years of college as possible. Poteat 3 Junior year is where everything begins to come together and focus mainly on accounting. There is only one class in this year’s curriculum that isn’t focused on business. All of the other classes are either involved with general business, accounting, or law. Intermediate Financial Accounting I, Accounting Information systems, Intermediate Financial Accounting II, and Managerial Cost Accounting all focus on the accounting part. Financial Management, Management and Organization Behavior, Marketing Concepts, and Management Information Systems cover the general business management part. Then finally, Business Law I covers basic law practices that all accountants need to know (UNC Charlotte, 2014). Most of those courses are just basic information courses, which will just cover practices that are involved in all business professions. I feel like they will be fairly easy classes since I will be covering some of it in previous accounting classes. It will be a lot of hard work though and it will require a lot of time to keep good grades, but I have faith that I will be able to do it. I also think that I am going to try and get an internship with a bank near school to try to get some experience with what kind of work I will be doing. I think that this will also help me keep information from my classes fresh in my head, which will help me in senior year. Senior year, which could be one of the hardest or one of the easiest years of my college career. The first semester I will have to take Introduction to Auditing, Income Poteat 4 Tax, Business Communications, and Operations Management (UNC Charlotte, 2014). There is also a non-business elective class that I have to have. Second semester, I take one business class, which is Strategic Management. The rest of the classes are general electives (UNC Charlotte, 2014). My second semester of senior year should be very easy if I can get my classes completed on time and keep up with the academic plan. With having completing all of these courses, I will graduate with a degree in Business Accounting. I also hope to have a little work experience that I can gain from an internship with a business firm of some sort. With that experience, I think that looking for a job will be a little easier, depending on what I decide to apply for. I have two of my top job choices picked out that I would like to pursue as of right now. I know that things can change in the next couple years, so I am going to keep an open mind. For now though, I have picked out Bank Examiner and Tax Accountant. Bank examiners ensure that a bank’s activities are legal and guarantee financial stability (Education Portal, 2013). The job description is pretty straight-forward, as a bank examiner, I would look into the banks past and present business accounts and check to make sure that all transactions abide by the legal standards. I would also be checking to make sure that banks transactions are not causing them to go into a bankruptcy, by either allowing more money to be withdrawn than they are having deposited, or by just not having enough money deposited into it. Examiners complete their assignments by Poteat 5 conducting audits and checking official bank records (Education Portal, 2013). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is to be a 6% increase in jobs from 2012 to 2022. The bureau also reports a median annual salary for a financial examiner was $75,800, as of May of 2012 (Education Portal, 2013). Bank Examiners have a set requirements before they can get their jobs. They have to have a 4-year bachelor degree in finance, a few years of field experience, either in a bank or another business firm, and they must take a test that is designed to assess professional competency (Education Portal, 2013). The years of field experience allow a person who is trying to become a bank examiner the ability to see how a bank is supposed to run, which will allow them to have a better understanding of how to do their job as an examiner better. Being a Tax Accountant was my other option. I feel like I would do very well in this field because I do very well with numbers, and that’s a lot of a tax accountant’s job. As an accountant, I would provide financial information to management and other decision-makers by analyzing financial data and preparing reports based on my findings (Udemy, 2014). Tax accountants may also advise clients on how to minimize tax liability and ensure compliance with taxing agency requirements. Jobs for accountants and auditors were expected to increase by 13% from 2012 to 2022. The median annual salary was also projected as $65,080 for accountants and Poteat 6 auditors. The education requirements for becoming a Tax Accountant is, at minimum, a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Individuals who are considering master’s programs in accountancy may look for programs that include a tax concentration (Edu Portal, 2014). I feel like the job I would be most interested in would be a job as a Bank Examiner. Their median annual salary is greater than that of a tax accountant, and I feel like I would be involving more of the legal side of accounting in examining that I would be getting as a tax accountant. Both would be great jobs for me to have, but I really think that I will pursue the Bank Examiner job for now. Things can change in a couple years though, so I will try to keep my mind open for now. The life of an accounting major isn’t what most people see it as. Sure there is a lot of math involved, but there is also a lot of business management and law involved as well. The courses that are required to receive a degree in accounting seem to strongly correlate with the jobs that I am wanting to pursue, which I feel is a great thing. I hope that my choice to change majors to accounting works out for me in my future endeavors. I feel like I need to keep looking into this some more though, and become completely sure that this is the path I want to follow. Poteat 7 Works Cited Edu Portal. (2014). Tax Accountant: Job Description & Requirements. Retrieved from http://educationportal.com/articles/Tax_Accountant_Job_Description_and_Requirements_for_Becoming _a_Tax_Accountant.html Education Portal. (2013). Bank Examiner: Job Description & Career Requirements. Retrieved from http://educationportal.com/articles/Bank_Examiner_Job_Description_and_Requirements_for_Becoming _a_Bank_Examiner.html Udemy. (2014). Accountant Job Description & Required Skills. Retrieved from https://www.udemy.com/blog/accountant-job-description/ UNC Charlotte. (2014). Belk College of Business. Retrieved from http://belkcollege.uncc.edu/sites/belkcollege.uncc.edu/files/media/C%20Guide%20%20PACCPBUSPECO%2C%202014-2015.pdf