The Surprising No. 1 College Major

[kentuck]

What is your opinion? What does this tell us about the youth of America??
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http://channels.netscape.com/new/html/live/scoop/ni/17.html?floc=isp-101

<snip>
Based on the number of college freshman who are making it their career choice, accounting is the new 'sexy' college major. Yes, accounting. It's now the most in-demand major on college campuses, according to both AccountingWeb.com and the Job Outlook 2005 survey, conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Why is it so popular? Academics say the numerous corporate accounting scandals over the last few years have piqued the interest of today's students. Add to that new regulations that are a result of those scandals, and the number of jobs, especially for auditors, has skyrocketed.

[Hissyspit]

1. Accountants can make a lot of money n/t

[B0S0X87]

2. It pays well

Kids who come out of college with huge debts can make a good starting salary as an accountant.

[Just Me]

14. Honest to Gawd,...I know not one "well-paid" accountant,...

,...not one. I know some economists who are "for hire" that make pretty good money though.

[B0S0X87]

20. I meant for recent graduates

However, I hear there is a high turnover rate. A lot of people quit and go to a different field after a few years.

[Carl Yasutomo]

23. Partners at the big accounting firms make a *LOT* of money

Well over six figures, sometimes in the $300,000 to $500,000 range at the Big 4 firms.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

38. They usually have Harvard MBAs-I worked at a "Big 5" Consultancy

You only get those bucks with a Harvard MBA. A Fortune 500 company is not going to trust a BS from Joe Blow Community College with their auditing.

[ultraist]

3. I guess that has replaced engineering due to outsourcing

[B0S0X87]

5. Actually according to my friend whose majoring in software engineering

It's the people who actually do the programming part that are getting outsourced. The idea and planning teams are still in the country.

[tcoursen]

8. yeah

Except to get the idea and planning jobs you have to have been a programmer first. Kinda hard to get the idea and planning jobs right out of college with no real experience.

[newportdadde]

21. So true...

I've been coding for almost 6 years so I'm designing now as well but kids out of college... lol no way ready to design and now honestly with the outsourcing they aren't going to get the background they need.

[Goldeneye]

10. My friend just switched from engineering to accounting.

Wierd.

[Maple]

4. Accounting is something

that can easily be outsourced.

Poor choice.

[Worst Username Ever]

13. Not auditing

Auditors of business have to be there, in the building, physically interviewing and going through file cabinets. You are right about a lot of the accounting jobs though, once electronic documents take hold, there is no reason to have my taxes done here if I can email them somewhere else for cheaper.

[girl gone mad]

18. Can and already is.

A significant percentage of tzx returns are prepared by overseas employees these days.

[booksenkatz]

6. Are these the same youth the majority of which support Bush's SS plan?

Because I kinda was getting the feeling that math wasn't this generation's strong suit.
:shrug:

[chalky]

27. LOL. Love that! n/m

[TahitiNut]

30. It's arithmetic, not math.

:shrug:

[tcoursen]

7. Are those really the most common majors?

Are those really the top ten things that people are majoring in? Electrical Engineering is the 2nd most common college major? Why do I not believe that.

I can believe something like accounting ranking that high, but I don't buy all the engineering and science things being in the top ten. I thought that the number of people going for computer science was way way way down since the dot com bust.

[Blue Wally]

34. I think

it meant that these were the most "in-demand" after college. The number of freshman going into EE is small and the number which stay with it through four years of math, science, and engineering courses (with accompanying weekly labs) is even smaller. Engineers used to call taking an afternoon nap "Liberal Arts Lab".

[wtbymark]

9. at least half of all freshmen change their major

[Ian David]

15. Outsourcing Gone Wild: Outsourcing the Drive-thru window

I never would have guessed.

Some McDonalds somewhere is actually outsourcing their drive-thru window.

You pull-up to the machine and some guy in Texas takes your order and emails it to the store. You pull to the second window, and there's your food.

How long until people in Pakistan are being forced to sell us patties of dead cows?


Want fries with outsourcing?
Michael Fitzgerald NYT
Monday, July 19, 2004


Pull off U.S. Interstate Highway 55 near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and into the drive-through lane of a McDonald's next to the highway and you'll get fast, friendly service, even though the person taking your order is not in the restaurant - or even in Missouri.

The order taker is in a call center in Colorado Springs, more than 900 miles, or 1,450 kilometers, away, connected to the customer and to the workers preparing the food by high-speed data lines. Even some restaurant jobs, it seems, are not immune to outsourcing.

The man who owns the Cape Girardeau restaurant, Shannon Davis, has linked it and three other of his 12 McDonald's franchises to the Colorado call center, which is run by another McDonald's franchisee, Steven Bigari. And he did it for the same reasons that other business owners have embraced call centers: lower costs, greater speed and fewer mistakes.

More:
http://www.galactichunter.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=TOR&Number=81009&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&vc=1

[0007]

36. And 40% of the other half drop out!

[Warpy]

11. Poor dumb bunnies are going to be suffering with the rest of us

because all those auditing jobs they're all counting on are going to India.

Tough luck, kids. Try medicine.

[ashmanonar]

12. #1 at my school

is art and design. which is as it should be. (we're not an art school either, just a liberal arts and sciences)...art/graphic design is one of the biggest fields in the world, in my opinion: everything you see, eat, buy, read, and type on message boards on is graphically designed.

but i can see how accounting is popular. it's a fairly stable career: when companies cut their guts out, the accountants are more likely to keep a job than, say, the ethics or human resources departments. and it's fairly lucrative, for a 9-5 40 hour a week job.

[Blue Wally]

32. My daughter majored in accounting

And believe me that at certain times of the quarter/fiscal year, it is anything but a 9-5, forty hour week job (though since you are salaried, the overtime is non-paid).

[ashmanonar]

37. yea, i know. i just meant that accounting is more "regular"

than, say, being a graphic designer. i don't even have a job yet, and i'm regularly up til 2 or 3 sometimes, working on a project.

[Ian David]

16. Strangest Outsourcing Job Ever? Play my OnLine game for me!

Boring Game? Outsource It
By Laila Weir

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64638,00.html
02:00 AM Aug. 24, 2004 PT

<snip>

Multiplayer online gamers have long cut corners by paying real cash for in-game goods that would take them hours of playing to earn, while others have padded their offline budgets by selling excess game goods or even their characters when they stop playing.

But now, the reality of exchange rates and international income gaps has spawned a virtual version of the real-world relationship between rich and poor countries. While players in wealthier countries casually drop hundreds of dollars to buy their way into better positions in the games -- or out of tedious parts of the games -- some workers in poorer countries are playing around the clock to produce virtual goods that earn them real money. These "currency farmers" sell their virtual goods to companies that, in turn, offer them to players who can afford to pay.

For example, entrepreneur Valery Markarov said he pays workers in Russia a base salary of about $100 per week to earn in-game money, which Markarov then sells to Internet Gaming Entertainment, or IGE, the major seller of virtual goods. Workers get paid more as they're more productive, though, and could make up to $500 a week, he said.

<snip>

Of course, some gamers in rich countries are also making cash through the sale of virtual commodities. In April, writer Julian Dibbell told Wired News he earned $3,917 in one month by buying and reselling cybergoods from Ultima Online.

More:
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,64638,00.html

[Nikia]

17. Sometimes I think that I should have majored in accounting

There are accounting jobs everywhere, at every company. Many other fields are only in demand in certain areas or at certain companies. It pays decently too. It is considered a safe field.
I didn't go into accounting though. I took it in high school and considered it rather boring. I majored in biology and am in quality assurance in the food industry, which I now consider boring. I'd like to be a real scientist, but most places hiring require advanced degrees. To be a real accountant, you don't need an advanced degree.

[sweetheart]

19. fits in with the new future

Given the complexity of the tax code and reporting and auditing
requirements, accounting is typical. Britain has become an island
of accountants since it outsourced all its significant industry.
No suprise that the US is doing this as well.

Accounting alone, however, is no panacea. Knowing Oracle financials,
the primary vehicle of financial accounting in major corps (SAP as
well) is more useful.

The funny part, is that accounting actually adds zero value to an
economy... the new bush economy maybe... the zero value future where
everyone is rewarded for avoiding risk.

[Carl Yasutomo]

24. Accounting adds zero value?

Tell that to the millions of investors who make investment decisions based on the published financial statements of corporations. Without good financial data, there would be little or no investment in equities, no stock market, no way for companies to raise money from public shareholders, little business expansion, and far less economic growth.

[sweetheart]

28. Yes, it adds zero value

I appreciate the beef of your argument, that keeping the books straight
is critical to running public companies... yet, sarbanes oxley is not
about that... rather an employment project.... so much of what we charge
accountants to do, creates no value at all. As a director in a firm
of chartered accountants, i'm pretty clear on this.

That said, its a necessary evil, as you point out. Still, were the tax
code clearer, the need to carry no-value-add baggage would free up
economic resources to create real value.

I am NOT referrring to management accounting in my slander of the
profession, only the sweeping up of receipts and bookkeeping aspect.
Forward looking accounting can serve great purposes in helping to
manage a company going forward. Not so going backwards as the
financial accounting profession has it.

[BBradley]

22. I wish their interest had been piqued in science instead. eom

[Ellen Forradalom]

25. I've taken classes in everything from chemistry to Hungarian language

and the only subject I absolutely could not stomach was accounting. Oh dear God, b-o-r-i-n-g.

[daleo]

26. It's safer than lion taming

And you don't need your own hat.

[thecorster]

29. awesome. n/t

[IdaBriggs]

31. LOL! My husband is an accountant, and he is sexy (to me)! nt

[SuffragetteSal]

33. I hear the FBI recruits accounting majors

!

[Blue Wally]

35. Forensic accounting

Is the great new field.