What Do Bankers Think of Accounting As A Career (fairly serious discussion)

What do bankers, consultants, and other high finance people think of people that end up pursuing accounting? Do you think:

a. Respectable career with decent salary potential
b. Boring number crunchers that couldn't make it into banking
c. other (specify)

Best Response
raidersfan88:
What do bankers, consultants, and other high finance people think of people that end up pursuing accounting? Do you think:

a. Respectable career with decent salary potential b. Boring number crunchers that couldn't make it into banking c. other (specify)

B - fucking boring ass number crunchers who couldn't make it into banking.

seriously...bro, i mean the work we do in high finance is so above number crunching. i mean we download COMPS, fill in projections from research, have indian firms put together books for us and we deliver them.

i mean really..this is the fucking life.

Seriously, accounting is just another profession. people become controllers, partners at firms, cfo's for F500 companies and millions of other. Any dickweed who thinks he's better than an "accountant" because he's a consultant, banker, PE, HF, is..well a dickweed.

Ur not a chaiwala like Dev Patel in Slumdog millionaire. And even that fucker ended up with Freida Pinto (latika), we should all be so lucky.


I'm making it up as I go along.

------------ I'm making it up as I go along.
 

Can anyone make a fucking decision around here without checking out whether it is "banker approved"?

Anyways, I think that most junior level bankers are too caught up in the Wall Street hype and look down on accountants. After all, at many target schools it is the kids that didn't get the Finance jobs that end up with the Big 4.

That being said, I see a different mindset in the upper echelons. In my group, there are many senior bankers (including two of our star MDs) that worked for the Big 4 out of college and used their MBA as a stepping stone to banking. I find it to be especially prevalent among the ones who are from decent but non-target undergrads. In general they seem to regard it as a valuable experience, especially since accounting proficiency is highly regarded. But keep in mind that this route is probably less accessible than it once was.

 

Accounting is an essential function and is definitely a complex field of study. That said, I will ignore your rationale behind asking the questions, as it is a bit weird, and simply say that bankers don't care one way or the other. Most bankers would probably say that accounting is a bit boring - I have worked back office and would agree that it seems boring...to me - just because it isn't for me doesn't mean it's bad. While many junior bankers might have a chip on their shoulder when it comes to accountants, many others and many senior bankers, frankly, won't give a sh*t. If you like accounting, pursue that, if you like banking/consulting/trading/etc, pursue that - at the end of the day, they are all essential and difficult professions in their own way - choose what you want and make it happen - stop worrying about what others might think, since, honestly, most of the "others" wouldn't care what you think (you meaning others in general, not an attack on you personally).

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