Introduction and Career Advice

Hello everyone,

I am currently a third-year undergraduate accounting student at a state university in California. My school's accounting program is highly regarded in my area, and while our finance program does not receive as much attention from employers as the accounting program, it is still very good.

I have had a change of heart recently and would like to gather advice from workers in the finance industry. My original goal was to graduate with an accounting degree, earn a CPA license, and work at a Big Four or mid-sized accounting firm. However, I have become more interested in the coursework in my finance classes and Equity Research industry. I have always been very passionate about the stock market and would love to work in a career wherein I could provide investing recommendations.

Because Equity Research is difficult to get into, and I will be graduating from a school not seen as a "target school" by the finance industry, I want to ask if it is necessary to change my major from accounting to finance to become an Equity Research Associate. I hope that an accounting degree will suffice, so if I cannot get a job in that industry, I can still pursue a job at an accounting firm. I still want to increase my chances as much as possible, so if a finance degree will more likely land me a job in Equity Research, I will change my major. I should note that my school's business program offers a finance minor, but not an accounting minor. By the time I graduate, I expect to have a GPA around 3.5 and one summer's worth of internship experience.

I look forward to hearing your advice. Thank you very much.

3 Comments
 
Best Response

Welcome! I don't think it will make a huge difference whether you major in finance or accounting if you want to do ER as long as you get some stuff on your resume that shows that you are really interested in the field. How does the internships-situation look? For ER I get the impression that CFA might be the way to go, but I'm not that familiar with it. Best of luck!

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