Careers in Accounting & Other Things I Wish I’d Known By Dave Vance, MBA, CPA JD

1. Careers in Accounting & Other Things I Wish I’d Known By Dave Vance, MBA, CPA JD

2. Objectives Help you understand the possibilities available to someone who studies accounting. Provide a framework for assessing the types of companies one should work for

3. What is accounting? Is it just counting the beans? Is it like eating sawdust without butter? Actually, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes described studying the law as like eating sawdust without butter. Accounting is about measuring things: Sales, Costs, Profits, Productivity, Growth

4. Accounting is also about: Making forecasts, Managing resources, Helping companies find resources, Being an honest broker of information and Being a trusted advisor Accountants are trained to see things others can’t The man or woman who can help a company prosper will be well rewarded.

5. Typical Career in Accounting Get an accounting degree Take extra courses as needed to reach 150 credits Get a job with a Public Accounting Firm Take a CPA review course Take & pass the CPA exam ~ After getting a CPA a person’s career could branch in many directions

6. A partner in a mid-sized CPA firm can make $400,000 per year. A partner in a large CPA firm can make much more. OR An accountant could work in private industry.

7. What about starting salaries? Rutgers class of 2006: Range: $32,000 to $50,000 Average: $41,250 Median: $42,000 Compared to class of 2005 average: $39,253 A 5.1% increase from 2005 to 2006 Class of 2007 will be much higher

8. What about career averages? Overall Average: $60,125 Average CPA: $75,638 Average Controller: $80,364 (from 2005 Careerbank.com salary survey) Median CFO: $100,000 to $140,000 (Payscale, Inc. range depends on state) http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Chief_Financial_Officer_(CFO)/Salary

9. An accounting degreeprovides an entrée into many fields Controller/CFO Company Management Accounting Public Accounting Partner Investment Banking Private Equity Banking Consulting

10. What about finance? Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is the most widely cited example of a highly compensated finance position. However, the route to a career as a CFO is usually through accounting and not finance. Finance can lead to positions in banking or stock brokerage firms.

11. What about selecting an industryto work in or a company to work for? Companies / Industries that do well can afford to pay well. Companies / Industries that do not do well cannot afford to pay well, …And are more likely to have periodic layoffs

12. Look at the profitability of companies. Financial statements for all publicly traded companies are on the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) website: www.sec.gov Click on companies and other filers and search for company and for form 10-K which contains financial statements. A higher level approach is to compute revenue per employee (RPE) = revenue / # employees For most companies revenue and sales are the same thing.

13. Revenue per employee for several industries: Restaurants $35,000 Telemarketing $45,000 What can they afford to pay employees?

14. What about the revenue per employee in public accounting? Largest CPA firm (Deloitte) $327,754 99th largest CPA firm (Seiler) $262,069 What can they afford to pay to attract talent?

15. What about other industries, for example Private Equity? Hicks Muse bought Vlasic out of bankruptcy for $135M and after restructuring it sold Vlasic 30 months later for $435M. How much can it afford to pay its employees?

16. Rutgers University School of Business  Camden Careers in Accounting THE END Questions?