If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
A BusinessWeek cover story The Best Places to Launch a Career proclaimed that this was the “year accountants became sexy.” Does that add up for you?
In a study promoting the best places for college grads to work, accounting firms nab the top three spots: Deloitte & Touche; PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young. In a bit of an upset, nerds claim the next three spots: IBM, Google and Microsoft. (For a complete ranking of the top firms, click here.)
Before you faint from disbelief consider these fun facts:
- Bean counters are much in demand. Chalk it up to increased spending by corporations seeking to meet the conditions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other forms of government regulation. The Wall Street Journal cites anecdotal information that job postings for accounting majors have doubled since 2004 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- There’s an “epic talent shortage” of accountants
- Recruiters are getting a bit wiser (the Journal said ‘hipper’ but let’s call that a stretch) about recruiting for talent, using Facebook, Second Life, offering extended vacations and even holding contests to impress recruits
- The pay is decent. First year salaries among the 95 companies BusinessWeek surveyed average a healthy $60,000 - $65,000 a year.
According to the Journal, hiring is rising and hasn’t peaked yet. “Ernst & Young hired 3,200 students in 2002 and 5,400 students this past year. KPMG hired about 3,000 employees this year and expects to hire between 3,200 and 3,300 next year. PricewaterhouseCoopers said hiring has doubled from fiscal 2002.”
Interestingly, an earlier study this year also fielded by Universum Communications said that MBAs would choose to work for Google, McKinsey or Goldman Sachs - and none of the Big Four accounting firms even made the top 10 list. Makes you wonder which group of grads is savvier about knowing where to launch their careers.
Assume for a moment that you’re starting out with your career. Where would you choose to work? Would you become an accountant if you could?
[...] It’s no joke: there really are too many lawyers. And there are too few nurses and accountants. At least, that’s the employment outlook this year. [...]