Accounting has long been considered a reliable profession, but it's recently become something else in demand. Out of 565 employers from around the world, 45 percent plan to hire master of accounting graduates this year, according to a survey from the Graduate Management Admission Council. In last year's survey, only 36 percent of employers planned to hire business school graduates with this degree. Full-time master in accountingprograms usually take one year to complete and accept students fresh out of undergrad. The job hunt for many of these students begins before they step foot on campus.
"We can connect with the students that have been accepted into the program – immediately – and start working with them and preparing them for fall recruiting," says Andy Rabitoy, director for undergraduate career services at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington, which also works with students pursuing a master of professional accounting. His office helps students with several job-related needs such as interview preparation and fine-tuning their resumes.
Incoming graduate accounting students at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University are put in touch with the career services office over the summer to sharpen their cover letters and perfect other skills that may help secure a job, says Stephen Singer, director of career management and corporate relations at Fisher. Classes begin Aug. 27 and on-campus recruiting begins the first week of September. "It's a very robust recruiting cycle," he says. Two-thirds of recruiting for students in the program takes place in the fall, he says.
Most of these students are gearing up to work within one of two career paths at a public accounting firm such as KPMG or Deloitte; a small percentage will go work in other areas that leverage an accounting background. Below, experts describe the career tracks most