Career Exploration Paper

ACCT 412 Paper 2: Career Exploration

Learning Objectives:

1. Familiarize students with different accounting careers

2. Allow students the opportunity to discuss their first career

3. Encourage students to prepare for accounting career long before graduation

4. Explore alternative accounting career options

____________________________________________________________________________

Assignment- Upon completion of an accounting degree, the goal is to obtain professional employment as an accountant. For accounting majors, there are two primary career paths: public (primarily tax or audit) and private accounting (government/industry- primarily management accounting). The purpose of this assignment is for accounting students to explore alternative accounting careers, and discuss five elements of career choice. 

Goto indeed.com or the website of a company/firm that you would like to work for and select a posting for an accounting position in a location where you would like to work that you will qualify for when you complete your degree at TAMUC. DO NOT pick a position that is in a location where you would not like to work. For example, you want to work for Cargill, but the only positions you feel you qualify for is in Minneapolis, but you have an aversion to cold and would never live there. Do not pick that position. 

In a three page paper, please evaluate the job you selected based on the attributes below. Please note a fourth page will include a copy of the posting you selected and a fifth page with the rubric for you assignment and the table listed below. Name your paper LASTNAMEexploration1.doc. For example, for me it would be RANKINexploration1. Your paper is required to have five subheadings: overall, location, compensation, opportunity for advancement, culture and challenge. 

Overall- Why did you pick the posting? Discuss why you chose public or private accounting and the position you selected. You might want to detail the classes that you took that lead you to pursuing a specific accounting career or the industry of the company among others. Feel free to add as points such as company reputation, social responsibility, ethics etc. 

Attributes 

The attribute descriptions are only suggestions. Feel free to add other elements or key points that are important to you. Please include your evaluation and weight the importance of each attribute (must total 100%) in your decision-making copying the following table at the end of your discussion. Also include your anticipated first year compensation (e.g. $22,000) and percent travel (e.g. 10%) in the table. 

Location- When evaluating location, discuss topics such as climate, distance from family/loved ones, cultural and sporting events, the arts etc., followed by why you picked this specific location. 

Compensation- It is highly unlikely the position description will have an associated compensation. As such, I want you to discuss how important compensation is relative to other attributes in your first career. For example, you may be willing to take less compensation for a preferred location such as your home town or for the opportunity for advancement. 

Opportunity for Advancement- You might also read this as potential for growth within the company. When evaluating opportunity consider the size and location of the company relative to your other criteria. Ask yourself how important growing with the current company or future company is for you. You might evaluate training opportunities for the current company. 

Culture- Culture is the internal environment of the company encompassing how they treat their employees, ethical practices, and work life balance among others. To understand a little about company culture, you might read ratings from the job posting from other current and past employees. You are trying to determine if the company culture is a fit for you. For example, Innovation First in Greenville serves beer to their employees after 4PM. For some that may be important, for others it may not be. 

Challenge- Professions can run the gamut of exceedingly challenging to incredibly boring. Evaluate your selected posting relative to challenge. How important is a challenging position to you? 

Attributes

Weighting%

Location

Compensation

Opportunity for   Advancement

Culture

Challenge

Total

100%*

Expected first   year annual compensation

Expected per   travel first year

Certification   (CPA, CMA, CIA, other or none)

Furthest   distance from home for first job in miles

Age

Gender

*total must sum to 100%

Appendices- On the fourth page of your paper after the table above, copy your selected job posting.  On the fifth page, include a copy of the assignment rubric available in D2L.