However, the survey results also reveal that students feel an accounting career requires longer hours and that the day-to-day tasks are less interesting than other business careers. In addition, an accounting degree is perceived to be harder to earn than degrees for some other business majors. Understanding these hurdles makes it easier to address the supply chain problem.
NONACCOUNTING MAJORS VIEW ACCOUNTING MORE NEGATIVELY
To better understand why business students chose to pursue or, more importantly, not to pursue an accounting degree, we performed statistical analyses on the responses of accounting and nonaccounting students. The discussion below highlights the startling differences between how these groups of students perceive the accounting profession.
Nonaccounting majors were much less likely to believe accounting has higher starting salaries or leads to higher career earning potential (questions 5 and 3, respectively). They also perceived that being an accountant requires working longer hours than other careers and provides fewer career opportunities than other majors (questions 7 and 1, respectively).
Perhaps even more concerning than the perceptions related to money is the fact that nonaccounting majors perceived an accounting career as being monotonous and less fulfilling (question 8), less interesting (question 10), and less intellectually challenging (question 2). Interestingly, accounting majors are more likely than nonaccounting majors to view an accounting major as more difficult than other majors (question 6).
Nonaccounting majors were also more likely than accounting majors to say the CPA Exam requirement made them not want to pursue an accounting degree (question 9).
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE PROFESSION
We also asked students when they chose their major. Fifty-two percent said they selected their major prior to entering college, while another 21% chose their major during their first year. Only 27% of students had yet to choose their…
