Originally Posted by Unregistered

because you are already coming in with your own preconceived notions about the accounting profession. a few issues you brought up:

1. More worth to xxx. Is worth of your career just based on graduating salary? Is any of your local law, computing, finance as glorified as you imagine it to be? Countless of chinatown lawyers getting overworked as well, SWE with the inherent reputation of working until bald on 997 schedules. Layoffs specifically in tech companies earlier this year. How do you then determine what is more worthwhile? If you really want the best bang for your buck skip education altogether and go be an entrepreneur. Why even do a degree? You are already making an assumption that somehow as a person who did well for As and maybe got straight As, they are 'forced' to choose this profession? Is everyone who does well in As suited to be a SWE? A lawyer? A doctor? What is worthwhile is up to the person themselves. If the person is looking for the fastest buck, obviously yes I agree with you accounting is not the way to go. But that is not representative of the bulk of people in the accounting profession. As a broad generalization, people in accounting are more interested in stability and predictability. Precisely why most of us will never consider a sales facing role or being an RM in a bank that obviously pays more. It is not just the pay that determines what is most 'worthwhile' or most suitable for you as a person. Creating this idea that it is more worthwhile to do other more 'profitable degrees' is also a shallow statement in itself. And your statements in itself is perpetuating the next generation of 'asian parents approved' career. A concept that perhaps your own generation hated to begin with.

2. Accounting is in fact that same as it ever has been. As I have already explained to you, the industry is developing. Accounting used to be truly just book keeping. AP, AR, GL, Revenue etc. Would not be crazy to call these pure data entry jobs with a touch of business understanding and hands on experience. But as I have also pointed out to you already, that is hardly the jobs/roles the bulk of people from accounting, or from big4 for the matter would ever go into. The entire finance sector has evolved from the 1980s and 1990s before all the public collapses and financial crises that we have been through. Regulation has evolved and the value add that the accounting sector has to provide has obviously also evolved.

Fresh out of grad you are already checking their work from a factual standpoint as well as a systems standpoint. And when you talk about certs like ACCA, these are public accounting certs. Accountants in companies do not even need to have a cert like that. Only those who stay in public accounting or are in higher positions in a company will require the cert. Building on this, almost none of us here will ever end up at a job title that ever says accountant. And that is where i have been trying to explain to you that finance =/= accounting. There are numerous finance functions: internal audit, fp&a, reporting, treasury, credit etc etc. Are these accounting jobs? No. But they are mostly dominated by people with big4 experience because such knowledge of the industry and subject matter is required to perform the role.

If anything, the applicability of an accounting experience is changing, and regardless of the market cycle. In the bull market people focus on fp&a, due diligence, SPAC audit, optimizations. In the bear market like now people hunker down to care about compliance, regulatory work, AML, internal controls etc. There is always a specialization you can move into. Which is why as a person like you not in the industry, presumably in uni still, giving such a broad statement that oh accounting is not the same it was based on whatever preconceived notions you already have is narrow minded af.

This is the same thing I said previously that people making these statements like accounting is dead, auditors will get replaced by AI etc etc have 0 understanding of what finance and accounting people actually do. If you have ever even tried to understand the nature/value add of the function you would realize that it is not replaceable and the value it offers only increases. And once and for all, book keeping =/= accounting.