Difference between finance and Accounting Major? (1 Viewer)

[issloo]

I sometimes hear that with an accounting major you can get jobs needed finance majors but not the other way around, is this true?

Also what are the major differences in terms of the jobs that you can get?

Thx!

 

[Rorix]

Sure. But if you want to work in finance you should really be doing a finance major. Otherwise you'd have to catch up on a lot of concepts (and waste a lot of time doing accounting @ uni).

 

[Vagabond]

One is accounting.. the other is finance?

:S

You tried looking up what the subject areas actually are?

 

[Rorix]

I think the question is why should I do finance if I can get every finance job with an accounting major. Which is a fair question, but like I said in my post..

 

[issloo]

It makes little sense to me why you can get finance jobs with an accounting degree. Isn't accounting like narrow and finance is broad? I guess if you don't want to do accouting there is no point in doing an acc major just to be safe.

 

[roadcone]

you are aware they are different things altogether.. like completely.

although they do both have some numbers involved i guess.

 

[Rorix]

Your actual knowledge of finance from university is obviously of little importance when you start working for IB etc as they have training programs. So it doesn't really matter what you studied at Uni. However, for accounting CA/CPA accreditation as I understand it requires you to have done certain subjects. Hence accounting lets you do finance whereas finance doesn't let you do accounting.

But like I said, if you want to work in finance I wouldn't do the accounting major.

 

[jpr333]

Everyone does accounting and finance, it's the way to go so do both. Finance is entrenched in accounting methodology to an extent, so a fairly fundamental undrstanding of accounting would definitely be looked at favourably by employers (is the general consensus I think). They check for accounting/finance on the CV im told..

 

[jpr333]

Well on a practical level, most of the figures used in analysing companies etc uses accounting figures (in some form usually), a fundamental understanding or at least partial understanding would definitely be complementary imo... Perhaps since you've done accounting you have taken this for granted somewhat... Doing finance would have been a fair bit more difficult without some accounting background knowledge I reckon.. But yeh finance is not contingent upon accounting.

 

[Rorix]

Well on a practical level, most of the figures used in analysing companies etc uses accounting figures (in some form usually), a fundamental understanding or at least partial understanding would definitely be complementary imo... Perhaps since you've done accounting you have taken this for granted somewhat... Doing finance would have been a fair bit more difficult without some accounting background knowledge I reckon.. But yeh finance is not contingent upon accounting.

You get the understanding you need from 1st year accounting. No need for an accounting major to be able to value/analyse companies. I speak from experience.

 

[Sarah168]

I havent worked in accounting yet but at vac interviews, I've been told that if you know your debits from your credits, can construct a T account and know what a trial balance looks like, you're set to go...

 

[seremify007]

I havent worked in accounting yet but at vac interviews, I've been told that if you know your debits from your credits, can construct a T account and know what a trial balance looks like, you're set to go...

I've never had to create a T account in 99% of my work... the other 1% is when I've gone that extra step to try and deconstruct something to figure out implications of incorrect accounting treatment.

 

[Sarah168]

Well, you've done the work so you would know but when I was told that, it sounded good to me cos I barely remember anything in accounting unless I've just studied for an exam haha

 

[jpr333]

You get the understanding you need from 1st year accounting. No need for an accounting major to be able to value/analyse companies. I speak from experience.

Yeh guess you could argue that for accounting jobs as well, where the vast majority of stuff relevant to your individual role is learnt on the job etc etc

 

[Newbie]

lol debits and credits
fucking nightmare
barely passed consolidation

 

[seremify007]

That being said, understanding how debits and credits flow through to the IS/BS is always helpful even if you aren't doing the book keeping because sometimes you need to see the bigger picture to figure out the impacts/risks (at least in an audit perspective).

As for finance, beyond being able to understand how companies actually work and the 'truth' behind financial statements, I don't think you'd actually need the core accounting knowledge for everyday work. But then I don't actually work in finance so it's anyones' guess.

 

[Conspirocy]

Accounting and Finance major combo is spacked. (admittedly...I have one now ^__^)

Bullshit they're complimentary majors. If you want to do Honours in say Finance, your fucking Accounting subjects are worth fuck all...you'd be better off doing Metrics.

And if you're doing an Accounting major, you'd be better off doing Commerical Law or Information Systems or some shit to compliment it.

smartest thing ive seen you say

 

[Conspirocy]

I havent worked in accounting yet but at vac interviews, I've been told that if you know your debits from your credits, can construct a T account and know what a trial balance looks like, you're set to go...

hahahah for the cream of the crop its more more like...do you know what an invoice looks like...yes...do you know what a spreadsheet looks like...yes...welcome to accountig

for most people its...do you know where the filing is?? do you know how to unjam the photocopier

 

[christinahk]

i was in finance major & did a couple of accouting courses. i can tell you they are very different & can barely substitute each other. in case you are doing accounting, you wouldnt know anything abt international finance, dervatives, asset pricing unless you take up exams like CFA yourself.

and another question is, why dont you go straight for a finance degree if you want to work in that field? i dare say finance is 100X more interesting & exciting than accouting.

 

[sunjet]

Finance > Accounting.