Question

I am going to be graduating in the spring of 2021, with a bachelors degree in accounting. Is commercial banking a good career to get into with just a degree and no experience? Or is public accounting the way to go. Any advice or tips to get that first real job after college?

Answer 1

Public accounting is the way to go and will optimize your career prospects in future. This is because public accounting firms specializes in accounting related services and provide a whole gamut of different services like audit, tax work, consulting, mergers and acquisitions advisory etc.

You can join a public accounting firm now and gain some experience on the type of work they do and the services they provide. You can pursue and get a CPA degree side by side. Having a CPA degree will open new doors for you and you can easily land a job in a big 4 accounting firm like KPMG, E&Y, Deloitte, PwC. You can specialize in any of the fields like auditing, tax, transaction advisory etc.

In future as a CPA you can also join a company as many companies hire CPAs as financial controllers, CFOs etc. Many banks also hire CPAs in their various divisions. You can also join the investment banking industry if you have mergers and acquisitions related experience in any of the big 4 accounting firm that I had mentioned earlier.

Thus clearly public accounting is the way to go and having a CPA degree or a degree in public accounting will open many new career avenues and prospects for you.