Academic Publication Worth Pursuing?

Hello WSO,

I'll be starting in Big 4 audit soon (couple months) as I just finished school. My long term goal will likely be to break into something that is less accounting related, more finance or strategy driven. While I'm not sure if I'd want to take on the costs (both opportunity and otherwise) of a top MBA, I recognize that it may help me reach my career goals. I would rather navigate that path on my own but if an MBA is necessary I would have an open mind..

I was planning on taking a few months off, but I have an opportunity to pursue publication for a research paper I did for school and was wondering what WSO thinks about the benefits of this for resume purposes. I know a lot of times differentiating factors are what resumes stand out (both for admissions and just applying for jobs). Would something like this qualify? Before I undergo the process I'd like to make sure it could actually help my career goals in a positive way, be it for top MBAs (maybe not top 7 but top 10-15?) or just breaking out of accounting without the MBA. My thought is that while the research topic is accounting-based, it could show I have an ability to write, communicate, critically think, etc., that is usually absent from the view of accountants who are technically proficient and nothing else.

Would love WSOs input on this. Thanks in advance!

3 Comments
 

Alumni of my school (nontarget) who got into M7 MBA said that they really liked the fact that he had published an academic paper with a professor during undergrad and it came up in his interviews. I think if you have the option its worth pursuing, but I wouldn't try to publish just to get into an MBA because I think the benefit is marginal compared to the time spent to craft a publish worthy paper.

 

Kinda what I was thinking. I'm not exactly sure the work it'll entail. My professor said he thinks my paper was really good and that if I was interesting in pursuing publication with him coauthoring that he'd be interested. Gotta check and see how much time/effort it would be especially considering I'm starting full time in a short while. But like I said my thought was considering accountants typically have a stigma of not being able to think outside the box/communicate well/etc that this could differentiate me either in admissions or breaking into non-accounting roles without the MBA.

 

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