Accounting and SA

I'm a sophomore at a target hoping to land a SA position this upcoming summer. I was wondering if there would be any significant advantage in taking an accounting course 1st semester (so essentially, finishing the accounting course before interviews) vs. taking it 2nd semester (and just saying I started my accounting course in the interview). I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!

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Best Response

If you are a finance/econ major, you are probably going to get accounting questions anyways, so it would probably be good to take it first semester so you are finished, and know the accounting before your interviews. If you are not a business major, and haven't taken any real business classes, you probably wouldn't get grilled and you could say you are taking the accounting course now, showing you have a genuine interest in learning what you need to learn to be successful in banking. However, since you are only a sophomore, you are gonna have a tough time getting an i-banking gig next summer, they usually go to rising seniors, not rising juniors.

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if you are a business major, take your intro to financial accounting course ASAP - very key in any job and recruiters would wonder why you haven't taken it

if you are not a business major, I'd avoid business classes altogether - you'll go through rudimentary accounting in training at almost any firm. unless you're explicitly a business major, you are not being picked for coursework or assumed hard skills

 

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