Someone dear to me is finishing a Masters in Accounting, but not planning on becoming a CPA.
For those of you with experience in the Accounting world; what can this person expect with those credentials?
Thanks for your take - in advance.
From my limited experience as someone who's now finishing up his bachelor's degree for Accounting (I work in my father's CPA firm, and he has also mentioned this to me before,) I believe there are plenty of options available; from business, finance, marketing, to sales. Accounting majors are eligible for just about, if not virtually, every entry-level job most finance, business, or account majors are certified for.
I've been looking at many finance-related internships and jobs, and majority of them all have the information that states it's looking for a finance degree also asks for either accounting or says "related field." Accounting is about as close to finance as you're gonna get. It's actually a pretty wide range of what most employers in the business/finance market look for, especially in stock brokers, because those people are pretty advanced in statistical and circumstantial evidence.
You could do managerial accountant, CFA, bank examiner, internal auditor, work in marketing, sales or retail side of businesses. You could also pursue some sort of entrepreneurial venture and be the finance, books guy in a partnership.
Really, it has been my experience, limited as it is, that for the most part accounting majors are welcome to apply for a variety of jobs that are not strictly accounting. And given that even if you go on to some sort of entry level management job in any field you will eventually be confronted with a budget, balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows, etc., you may even have some kind of advantage.