Hey,
I am currently in my first year in Accountancy, and loving it. I have been looking into the various options for a business Minor, and I can’t make up my mind!
A lot of the subjects sound very very interesting, but I am not sure if doing a minor in them would be a worthwhile experience.
For example:
I think the minor in Internation Business sounds fascinating. But can I really get a good general formation with just 12 credits?
I have narrowed down my possible choices to :
Financial Accountancy
Finance
International Business
Marketing
Any employers or CA’s out there? Is one of these minors more likely to benefit me in the long run?
I’m an accountant working for a large manufacturing company. A few things I’d consider in addition to what you list as possibilities would be a foreign language, Information Technology and Statistics.
I would tend to concentrate more on cost, business anlaysis and other decision support areas in your accounting classes. Reason being, companies are looking at sourcing transactional activities, auditing, etc to low cost countries like India or Eastern Europe.
I’m a Business Analyst with a large aerospace company. I have a BA in Marketing and and MBA also with an emphasis in Marketing. While I enjoyed the classes… I have found that most companies (large ones anyway) are going to train you for whatever position they hire you for.
I think that good complementary minors to Accounting would be a foreign language (as mentioned above) - plus that could be good in your personal life as well if you like to travel - or some sort of project management or supply chain emphasis.
CPA here but stopped practicing a long time ago. Too boring. I became a specialist in International Mergers and Acquisitions. Bought over 120 companies and sold 30 for my former employer. Also ran all ops outside US and Canada. Spent many years travelling through Latin/South America, Australia, Africa, Europe and Asia (principally India and China.)Then sold the whole company (to escape a hostile takeover) which by then had sales over $4 billion. Finally bought one for myself and my partner and just getting ready to sell it. You would know the name if you know anything about performance cars and racing.
My suggestion to you, if you want to go beyond accounting, would be a minor in finance/economics as that is a universal tool helpful in any country. Plus it’s a lot more fun than merely putting numbers in the right colums. Every decision has a financial impact and if you can’t analyze, you will be flying blind. I would also suggest taking a language. I had a basic understanding of Spanish which I tweaked by living in Argentina running a manufacturing plant for a year. That one language has allowed me to also become fluent in Italian and Portugese with almost no concerted effort. Chinese is also an important language for the 21st century but is very complicated with 120 or so dialects. Plus, the Chinese, at least the business types, pretty much all speak English now.
Find a niche you enjoy and success will naturally follow you. Good luck.
[quote]
My suggestion to you, if you want to go beyond accounting, would be a minor in finance/economics as that is a universal tool helpful in any country.
Find a niche you enjoy and success will naturally follow you. Good luck.[/quote]
This is how I feel exactly. Econ. is basically a universal language in the business world.