Engineer to Accounting Career Transition Advice
Hey Everyone,
My first post - hope you're all doing good. I need some advice on transitioning my career from engineering into accounting. I received my BS in Mechanical Engineering back in 2011, and I have been working for an aircraft manufacturer for 3 years. I decided that while I enjoyed the undergraduate portion of it, working as an actual engineer just is not for me. I can't see myself becoming one of the greatest engineers of all time or whatever, and also because I don't want to have a boss my entire life. With accounting I figured I'd have more of a shot to maybe open up my own gig sometime down the line. So I recently left my job as an engineer to go to grad school full-time to receive my MBA in Accounting at Baruch College in NYC starting this upcoming fall. I feel that this is a unique situation I'm in, and I would love some input on the matter. I have a decent engineering undergrad GPA (3.4/4.0) and I am curious to know what kind of leverage I can use when I talk to recruiters at OCR & networking events. I have already planned to get my CPA license either after graduating or during the last year of school. I would like to get into a Big 4 firm either thru an internship or full-time position, and I was leaning more towards the audit/advisory role. I have spoken to multiple people already, and many have told me that advisory would be a good fit for an engineer.I also know a couple people working at KPMG, Deloitte, and E&Y currently. My questions:
1. What is your opinion on advisory being a good fit?
2. Do you know anyone that made a similar transition, if so, would you be able to share it?
3. Is there anything specifically I should be doing right away during the 1st semester so that I have a competitive edge over others?
4. What exactly should I tell recruiters & others when I try to network? I want to leverage the problem solving and technical skills I gained from my undergrad.
5. I'm 26 now - does this put me at a disadvantage?
I probably have to take a pay cut after grad school.
Any advice you all will be able to provide is useful. Thank you!
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