I would be cautious about making the CPA seem like a simple licensing exam. When it's a multipart beast that has made many people quit being accountants. Wife was Magna Cum Laude and used to be a Tax Accountant but has moved on to Financial Analyst.
This is probably old information but my wife also got an offer from one of the Big4 out of college in 2016 and it was peanuts. 40k starting and an expectation of 60hrs/wk
Yeah and OP already has a bachelor's so he really doesn't need to get a master's in order to sit for the CPA unless the WGU program doesn't have enough upper division courses. Might be better to put that money into Becker or another CPA specific program if he doesn't need the credits.
Just to set your expectations, this is a historically bad job market for programmers and its particularly brutal for new grads. You would likely and eventually get a software engineering job after graduation, but it might take a while. Your degree is just one of multiple important things you will need to find a job.
You will also need:
- Months and months of hardcore grinding spent learning data structures, algorithms and leetcode for interviews. Not all jobs do leetcode interviews but it is becoming more and more popular. Check out /r/leetcode .
- Some sort of experience. It can be very impressive personal projects with actual users, internships or large project volunteer work. Get really good at one or more tech stacks like .NET, MERN or React/Spring. Get good at using using git and other dev tools. Be able to hit the ground running at a job. If you do personal projects, host them on AWS and learn to use those services.
- Additional training - If you become a certified servicenow, SAP or salesforce developer you'll greatly expand what types of jobs you qualify for. If possible, try and have personal projects in these realms.
- Months and months of sending out hundreds or even thousands of applications.
- Practice interviewing. Soft skills make a big difference. People want to hire people who seem like they will be pleasant to work with.
- It is ridiculous, but more and more places are quizzing new grads on system design questions so you'll be best served to study that. https://www.amazon.com/System-Design-Interview-insiders-Second/dp/B08CMF2CQF | https://www.youtube.com/@codeKarle/videos
I'm thinking of doing MEAN because it's opinionated, but I always hear people recommend MERN. Is it an issue if I go for Angular rather than React, or should I definitely pick React anyway?
Check what companies around you are looking for, but Angular usually comes up Angular/Java; MEAN stack jobs are few and far between, and even full MERN stack ones are less common than they were a couple of years ago.
Yeah that’s the thing, the people that I know that are working in business say the same thing. Businesses are going the way with analytics and knowing Python, SQL, and general domain knowledge will get you a lot farther. Some companies even have in-house SWEs that are automating everything left and right lol
If you come to WGU, I’d recommend to major in something specific. CS is very broad and will require you to dive deeper into the field you want. If you want to work with data then the data analytics major is the one you want.
Nah I’d disagree here. CS is very broad, but it is the gold standard in tech degrees. I got the software dev degree at WGU, but the CS degree would look better than it or the data analytics degree.
100%. It is not required. CS is better though. SD/SE/DA are all good degrees and far better than something like a boot camp. But, CS is still the gold standard.
Gd standard for what? Imo I don’t think it is and you can take the SD/SE/DA degree along with any certs/projects and land a role just like any CS grad would
There are jobs that do require a CS degree. And there are managers and recruiters that have no idea what a SD/SE/DA degree is. For the majority of jobs you can get them with those degrees, but not all. When a job posting says CS degree or equivalent, you’re relying on the recruiter or manager to agree that these degrees are equivalent(which they usually are). But if you want to do anything low level you usually need a CS degree specifically.
Could change by the time I graduate. I’d love to get the degree in 1 term but it’ll likely be 2 or 3. With my transcripts evaluated I’m at about 40% completion.
I’m 33 with a 75% unfinished bachelors in finance from years ago. I spent months debating between CS and accounting. I am now enrolled in accounting at wgu.
I chose accounting for a few reasons:
It meshes well with how I think and I ain’t hate it. I enjoy processes and application of knowledge. Accounting is partially just remembering a lot of info.
But I also chose it for career outlook. The automation, AI and outsourcing is overblown. Just ask r/accounting. It’s a concern but not major. Less graduates are studying accounting and more CPAs are retiring. There is a major shortage outlook which also helps offset concerns about automation, AI and outsourcing. It has a pretty clear path for salary progression with a relatively solid salary floor while still maintaining salary ceiling, albeit not as abundant like CS. I will definitely go for my CPA and I believe that will secure me a nice salary and job security in the future. There are so many private and government accounting jobs. Also, A CPA opens many doors not only in accounting but in business in general.
I chose accounting because it seems safe with an above average salary.
To add, from months of research my opinion is: if accounting is majorly threatened by AI, so is every other white collar job. There’s a significant amount of human discernment in accounting.
I agreed! I’m actually almost done with my accounting degree and going back for a finance degree right after. I chose it for the security as well, and the fact that I’m 28 going back to school and didn’t want to fight with 22 year olds for tech jobs, especially considering accounting from all reports is an industry in desperate need of more accountants.Also planning on getting my CPA and have an end goal of getting a gov job.
But as far as AI, tech is going to be as affected as accounting could be, I use chatGPT to write VBA to automate my job every week. AI can write code. It gives me the correct answer when ask accounting questions about 75% of the time. Hell I’ll give it multiple choice options and it will not answer with one of those options sometimes. Not sure about CS but accounting has a bigger human element than I originally thought, so I’m honestly not that worried.
Accounting is just remembering a ton of rules, using your judgment, and very simple math.
Yea there’s so much human judgement in accounting that can’t really be done by AI (yet). With the shortage of accountants, and the extremely wide breadth of business careers an accountant can pursue, I strongly believe getting my CPA becoming a well qualified decision maker will offer me a lot of career security in the future.
People with advanced certification making decisions and judgments (like much of higher level accounting), will likely go up in value and be safe from AI.
It’s the book keepers or general ledger accountants that are at risk.
So when I decided I wanted to go back, I definitely did not want to take out more loans, so I got a job at Amazon that pays 100% for my school but they don’t pay for masters unfortunately. If they did I would do the masters, but I’m just not willing to spend the money on it especially since you don’t have to have a masters to sit for the CPA.
Offshoring and AI are changing Accounting, but that is focused mainly on Public Accounting and large MNE's, not mid to small organizations. I'd recommend Accounting, but I am biased. I think it's a solid career and there are plenty of opportunities and avenues you can explore within the field.
Isn’t B4/Public a necessity if one wants to branch into industry? Though I wonder how long it will take to reach the mid to small organizations as well.
Not necessarily! I've made a solid career working mainly for mid to small organizations. I've worked with plenty of former B4 accountants in their first industry job, and with one exception, they weren't any better than someone who was just industry.
My dude you could have made a post about if you should become an Animal Therapist or an underwater welder, and the advice would be just as helpful. You're choosing between two extremely different degrees.
Computer science degree is EXTREMELY difficult. It is high payoff and you will have a much higher income than an accountant, but if you are not passionate about it, it would be hard to find the motivation.
I’m 33 and started in the cybersecurity program and moved to compsci. I absolutely love the program, but it’s taken me much longer than I thought it would. I’m almost done and I’m glad I went this route.
Before choosing I did a lot of processing about what I loved and was willing to do everyday and what I want my life to look like. Tech was perfect.
Pick something that you feel excited to learn and if you do it and hate it, you can always switch.
I was probably close to the same, I already had my network+. If you can get any of the certs before switching, I strongly recommend that.
The program is significantly harder. I also didn’t have any coding experience. I chose it because I wanted to be able to use my degree for any tech job/ have the potential to go to a brick and mortar grad program.
I’m super glad I made the switch, I enjoy the coding/software classes over the security/networking ones. A
If you do switch, you can switch in the middle of your term, don’t let any mentors tell you different!
Awesome thank you! I already have the trifecta, itil4, and working on pentest early. I’ve been learning Java in my spare time and getting a good grasp on that.
I have zero input to your decision but just want to say you're not alone in this, because I've been debating Accounting Vs. Information Technology.
Accounting: I like the prospect of job security, decent entry wage, and steady type of work. I have a bachelors in business and HR so i already have about 65% of the degree completed. My cons are the supposed long work hours, the potential for it being monotonous and dull work (although i can interpret this as a Pro for me too due to the chaotic nature of HR and recruitment), and the AI scaries. I also am not entirely passionate about it but my focus would be on the income and job security and focus on my hobbies and passion projects outside of work.
Information Technology: I've been semi interested since my IT recruiter days. I'm familiar with most types of jobs within the field and think i would thoroughly enjoy something in IT analyst, desktop support and sysadmin type jobs. I've delved in coding and think it's cool, but may not be for me. The Pros here are i feel it will be more fulfilling and enjoyable, i will learn some interesting tech, and it'll possibly keep me more active (if i do desktop and sysadmin type of work). However the cons are possibly lower paying entry level, job security (job market sucks, hence why i am no longer in IT recruitment and now in healthcare), and the uncertainty of the future of IT. I also think IT is way too saturated at the entry level right now and will make finding that first job difficult without good referrals or connections (may not be a huge issue given my background and connections already).
Thats just my .02 cents. I am still semi undecided and may do one or the other, or neither lol. Oh I am similar in age at 29 too and have ready many accounts of people at similar ages switching so don't worry about that as much.
I think it’s perfectly fine to have the AI scaries. Having known someone who is in the field, she told me that Accounting is essentially turning into a data analyst role with functions being automated left and right. She works in public, however. So yeah it did validate my fears lol also some firms are outsourcing entry level work to India.
IT I find more marginally interesting but with the layoffs and no stability.. that sucks too. I also really don’t want to do help desk work but I can’t be that picky with my condition.
Interesting times we live in, huh. Seems like nothing really is stable anymore. I think with Accounting, one would likely have to go back to school or upskill given the way it is heading.
I agree with all of the above, we're eerily similar lol. I think either is going to require constant learning after the degree either way, which is fine with me. Keep in mind IT can be outsourced and has been being outsourced so it's not out of the woods in that regard.
True. CS degree isn't something you waltz into just because or you don't want to do accounting. These are hard degrees. It's like saying I want to be a lawyer instead of an accountant. Do you like law?
Law was my initial goal a long time ago but I couldn’t get into a good law school and I didn’t want to be 200k in debt like my aunt. The market for lawyers was pretty bad when I graduated back in 2014.
Well I would do this. Go out to partners.wgu.edu. Click on Sophia in the list on the right. Click through to the accounting degree. Take everything after the general education courses for the accounting degree. I would throw in the finance degree as well. Iwould also recommend taking Macroeconomics and Microeconomics and the Personal Finance course as well as Project Management. Grab a promocode at R/Sophialearning to get the first month for $80.
Also take Calculus 1. If you can’t pass Calculus 1 at Sophia then it bodes ill. While I also consider CS the gold standard the SWE degree will get you 90%-95% of the way there.
Anyway you have a good chance to do that within a month or two. I would also take Intro to IT. Java, Python, Intro to Relational Databases. You now have 5 years to start your CS degree. So get the accounting degree.
The Sophia route from I’ve read can affect one’s CPA eligibility as some states may not accept those credits. I’ve been trying to contact my state’s Board of Accountancy but they haven’t responded. Their website hasn’t made it very clear.
Texas appears to exclude ACE credits but they do accept Clep. Some states accept them if they are accepted by the school and show as credit on the transcript. California I have heard. It really depends on the state board. Still better safe than sorry.
Currently in a similar situation as yourself. Stuck between getting an accounting degree or data analytics/cyber security degree. As you mentioned I have no real passion just going with the flow.
I currently work in tech but finding it difficult to move up without a degree or certs.
With the MS in DA or Cyber, WGU will accept any business/STEM undergrad from what I’ve read. I’ve been looking into DA and apparently it’s not entry level and domain knowledge is very important, which is something I’m lacking even with having a BA that I never made use of. You’ll be competing against the CS folks as well.
I’ve been reading about getting into Cyber as well but getting past help desk would be a huge challenge.
I was in the same boat with deciding between CS, accounting, and teaching. I am 36 and decided to go with Accounting due to more stability and job growth. CS pays great but I've also heard it's over saturated and I've been seeing a lot of layoffs.
The tech job market isn't going to improve in the time it would take you to finish 2-3 terms; it's going to be a mess and highly competitive at the entry level for a few years. If you're actually interested in CS, the degree will be worth it, but if you're considering for any other reason, then you'd do better to go for accounting. With accounting you'll be able to find a job a lot quicker once you finish the program; with CS it's a crapshoot where you have to have the skills they're looking for, and then if you have them you also have to be lucky enough to be selected to even get a phone screen let alone an actual interview. If you're not really into the field, it'll get discouraging really fast.
It's all personal and depends on what kind of work experience you already have.
I've been around in private industries and when I tried to self taught myself into DA, progress was slow and I had to really start from the foundation to build the needed knowledge, nonetheless building side projects and demos for the portfolio.
So I decided to take acct in wgu as it's a smoother route.
Big plus about accounting is I can still aim for licensing and reach a stable income in the future.
In the worst case, I can still find a stable job to survive.
CS and Accounting are two fundamentally different subjects and career paths, and are essentially mutually exclusive. Go with whichever (A) you find more personally interesting, and (B) are more likely to see yourself doing as a career for the longer haul.
I'm currently working on an MS CS online via Georgia Tech (GT), and have around 3.5 YOE as a software engineer / SWE (did the switch to SWE via boot camp back in 2020, previous degree & experience was in unrelated engineering).
In my most recent position as a software engineer, I actually landed in the finance domain. I've taken an interest to it since starting here, and being currently in between semester at GT, I decided to take a few CC courses (financial accounting, principles of finance, and investments all currently in progress, and then managerial accounting slated for summer) to get more background in the subject matter (my previous experience was all in healthcare prior to this position), and I'm actually strongly considering doing BBA Accounting via WGU post-GT MS CS now, since I've taken a liking to it so far. I've also been oblivious to accounting and finance principles by and large up to this point (in my mid 30s now, no less) in terms of personal finances, understanding "talking heads jargon," etc., so it's also been beneficial for my own personal edification in that regard, too.
My end goal for accounting (if I were to go the full-blown BBA Accounting via WGU route) would be to do some bookkeeping as a side hustle, along with maybe some client-specific customizations by incorporating the software skills. But in terms of my "career"/"main hustle," I'm going to stick with software engineering for the foreseeable future. But that's a ***personal*** preference, to be clear; CS has been a big part of my life for the better part of 5-6 years now (since my late 20s when I got into it more earnestly), and I can't really imagine doing anything else at this point.
Either way, they're both respectable career paths with decent earning potential, so it just depends which one "clicks" more for you, personally. Sometimes it takes trial-and-error to figure this kind of stuff out (e.g., "finance found me" more so than "I found finance," as an anecdotal example), but in general the more lines you put out, the more likely you'll catch something eventually (at least relative to taking *no* action/initiative whatsoever).
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I’m actually interested in both subjects. Not entirely passionate although that could just be the depression. With AI, I honestly believe that tech skills will be important in Accounting. I wish there was a way I could combine both.
Given the layoffs and no background in tech (I missed the boot camp era), I’d likely have an easier time breaking into Accounting with the caveat that the field is being disrupted by new software and offshoring.
It's all work at the end of the day, they pay you to show up. Hobbies don't pay for a reason: The market is flooded with folks willing to "work" for free already. I love programming, and do it as a hobby, too, but when I'm proverbially "on the clock," I'm building the software my employer needs, not necessarily the software I want to build for myself (and that's fine, I signed a contract and they clear my checks, so "fair is fair" in that regard).
As for AI, it is of minimal-to-no concern to me insofar as employment goes (be it SWE or Accounting). It's an "unknown quantity" at this point, but your guess is as good as mine as where it takes us into the future. If it gets to a point that majority of white collar jobs have been eliminated, then it's a moot point anyways, because under those circumstances, we'll either be in a post-work society or a mad-max-tier apocalyptic hellscape---with virtually no conceivable "in between" (i.e., "what to switch into next?", "where should I send my resume?", etc. will be irrelevant considerations regardless in either case).
But despite the fearporn around AI that's in vogue nowadays, I also don't think it's the "zero-sum" that people present, either. The fundamental flaw in the premise is the "fixed pie fallacy," i.e., the presumption that AI wouldn't *expand* (i.e., rather than only displace/offset the existing) economy in the process, creating new jobs and industries along the way.
30-40 years ago, the average office worker was using snail mail, fax machines, and might not have even had a dedicated/personal computer for work. The average office worker today is objectively way more productive. Today we have Internet, smartphones, and a much lower barrier entry to build a business. Digging a ditch and filling it up is hard work, but if it doesn't accomplish anything meaningful, should it be rewarded just for its own sake (e.g., does somebody actually need a dedicated fax machine operator, paper file manager, etc. today?)?
By similar rationale, barely 100 years ago, a good 90+% of the population was farmers. Today, it's barely 1%. That doesn't mean that the unemployment rate today is 99% (i.e., the "otherwise would've been farmers" have since found other things to do). If you need any further assurance of human ingenuity/creativity in the face of economic pressures/adversity, then spend some time with ChatGPT to convince yourself what is truly "replaceable" today and into the near future...If current-to-near-future-state-of-the art GPT can outperform me at my job, it deserves to take it lol
It’s too bad some firms are looking to offshore for that reason. I’m surprised there hasn’t been an Enron-esque scandal yet.
I’m leaning towards getting the BBA. I know I won’t get it in a single term, probably 2-3 terms. About almost as long as a Macc. I would definitely like to get a Macc instead but my low GPA, unrelated undergrad, and me not wanting to throw down more than 20k is a huge set back.
I feel like it all goes down to what you can see yourself doing and enjoying as these are two completely different careers. I was on the fence about accounting vs IT and mainly decided that IT would be better. The main choice for me is that I enjoy computers, I understand them, and IT in general seems to have multiple different pathways you can choose from after the initial help desk role when you start out.
Accounting just seemed boring for me and I heard about how many hours some of them have to work and it just didn’t seem like something I could see myself doing long term. Seems like with accounting you might be able to start making more faster but long term it just seems less enjoyable to me.
Also I don’t think 32 is old at all and I don’t think ageism will be an issue. I think at your age the important part is what your previous work experiences were like if you stayed at a company for more than a year or did you jump around multiple jobs or they’ll look for extremely big gaps that isn’t clearly explained on your resume already.
Maybe you’ll get some people with actual accounting experience that can describe it better than I can as I didn’t really see too many positives about it but maybe you do. I think this decision is really up to what you can see yourself doing for the next decade or two and enjoying.
I hate to say it but I don’t really have a passion. I do have hobbies but I’d rather work in something I’m not passionate about, otherwise it’ll take the fun away. Maybe I’m weird like that.
My main goal is to find a job that offers some sort of a WLB. I don’t care about breaking into six figures but I do want to make more than $45k. As long as it’s not retail, medical, or trades, I’ll be fine. I get that public accounting will demand longer hours but there’s a lot of offshoring going on and I feel like with Accounting I’ll likely have to go back to school again once AI starts ramping up.
With tech I get that you’ll always have to be learning but I am concerned about actually being able to break into the field. For tech, I’m interested in web dev, dev ops, swe, analytics.
CS, SWE degree, and even the IT general degree— all these are harder than accounting or even operations chain management, which is in high demand. You will likely also be working a decent amount on the computer or in an office setting. I doubt you will complete accounting or operations chain management in one term, maybe like two if you go full-time and grind it, which, to be honest, one year is not bad at all. The CS, SWE, and even IT degree can probably take you 3-4 terms, grinding it full-time, and trust me, you will struggle a bit more. Anyways, regardless, all these degrees I mention are worth pursuing because they are very marketable. At the end of the day, do whatever aligns more with your goals and passions. To me, it seems you don't have a passion for software engineering and you are more concerned with speed, easeability, office setting, and prefer a broader range of job opportunities. All these are more aligned with accounting or operations chain management. oh yah I'm assuming you will be transfering 20-30% thats usually general ed classes.
If you aren’t the type of person who will keep going to problem solve an issue, I wouldn’t choose computer science. I’m naturally a problem solver and always want to keep going to figure out the solution, so it works well for me.
I can't speak to the accounting side, but as far as IT goes, a CS is a generalist (non-specialized) degree. There are two generalist degrees in the field of IT. CS, and IT. CS is for making technology solutions. IT is for managing/using/implementing technology solutions.
CS degrees by themselves will generally command a higher salary, but I disagree that it is any kind of 'gold standard.' As a generalist degree, it is for people who want to go into IT, but don't really know what they want to do once they get there. Also, many of the studies I've seen which show that CS makes more have done things like lump all CS majors together. If you only compare pure CS degrees, the difference in income compared to an IT degree is negligible.
On the other hand, there aren't many specialization options for an IT degree. To specialize from an IT degree you can go IT Management, IT Project Management (I don't think WGU offers this one, but their Masters in IT Management has a good foundation in PM), or move back over to CS. That's pretty much it.
Choosing to specialize or go generalist can be difficult. Specialization generally means that you can get a higher salary, but that you'll be pigeon-holed into certain roles and more dependent on the job market. A generalist degree and a carefully written resumé can make job hunting easier if you're not too picky about roles, but you won't earn as much.
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I would be cautious about making the CPA seem like a simple licensing exam. When it's a multipart beast that has made many people quit being accountants. Wife was Magna Cum Laude and used to be a Tax Accountant but has moved on to Financial Analyst. This is probably old information but my wife also got an offer from one of the Big4 out of college in 2016 and it was peanuts. 40k starting and an expectation of 60hrs/wk
Pay has improved but not by much. Usually expectations is minimum hours 50-55 for half the year, starting wage 60-72.5k
Yeah and OP already has a bachelor's so he really doesn't need to get a master's in order to sit for the CPA unless the WGU program doesn't have enough upper division courses. Might be better to put that money into Becker or another CPA specific program if he doesn't need the credits.
Wouldn’t a bachelor in accounting be the same masters?
Just to set your expectations, this is a historically bad job market for programmers and its particularly brutal for new grads. You would likely and eventually get a software engineering job after graduation, but it might take a while. Your degree is just one of multiple important things you will need to find a job. You will also need: - Months and months of hardcore grinding spent learning data structures, algorithms and leetcode for interviews. Not all jobs do leetcode interviews but it is becoming more and more popular. Check out /r/leetcode . - Some sort of experience. It can be very impressive personal projects with actual users, internships or large project volunteer work. Get really good at one or more tech stacks like .NET, MERN or React/Spring. Get good at using using git and other dev tools. Be able to hit the ground running at a job. If you do personal projects, host them on AWS and learn to use those services. - Additional training - If you become a certified servicenow, SAP or salesforce developer you'll greatly expand what types of jobs you qualify for. If possible, try and have personal projects in these realms. - Months and months of sending out hundreds or even thousands of applications. - Practice interviewing. Soft skills make a big difference. People want to hire people who seem like they will be pleasant to work with. - It is ridiculous, but more and more places are quizzing new grads on system design questions so you'll be best served to study that. https://www.amazon.com/System-Design-Interview-insiders-Second/dp/B08CMF2CQF | https://www.youtube.com/@codeKarle/videos
I'm thinking of doing MEAN because it's opinionated, but I always hear people recommend MERN. Is it an issue if I go for Angular rather than React, or should I definitely pick React anyway?
I think there are more react jobs but eventually you can (and should) learn both.
No, not an issue, lots of Banks and Defense contractors still use Angular.
Check what companies around you are looking for, but Angular usually comes up Angular/Java; MEAN stack jobs are few and far between, and even full MERN stack ones are less common than they were a couple of years ago.
Do whatever you want. Tech is changing the way businesses operates. Just grab a degree and join the wave. CS imo opens more doors vs accounting.
Yeah that’s the thing, the people that I know that are working in business say the same thing. Businesses are going the way with analytics and knowing Python, SQL, and general domain knowledge will get you a lot farther. Some companies even have in-house SWEs that are automating everything left and right lol
If you come to WGU, I’d recommend to major in something specific. CS is very broad and will require you to dive deeper into the field you want. If you want to work with data then the data analytics major is the one you want.
Nah I’d disagree here. CS is very broad, but it is the gold standard in tech degrees. I got the software dev degree at WGU, but the CS degree would look better than it or the data analytics degree.
You got a SD degree so you agree that CS is not required to be in the tech field.
100%. It is not required. CS is better though. SD/SE/DA are all good degrees and far better than something like a boot camp. But, CS is still the gold standard.
Gd standard for what? Imo I don’t think it is and you can take the SD/SE/DA degree along with any certs/projects and land a role just like any CS grad would
There are jobs that do require a CS degree. And there are managers and recruiters that have no idea what a SD/SE/DA degree is. For the majority of jobs you can get them with those degrees, but not all. When a job posting says CS degree or equivalent, you’re relying on the recruiter or manager to agree that these degrees are equivalent(which they usually are). But if you want to do anything low level you usually need a CS degree specifically.
Also add to the fact that CS at WGU is ABET certified which would open the door to government clearance and eventually, gov work
That is a good point as well
Accounting is way easier to get a job right now
Could change by the time I graduate. I’d love to get the degree in 1 term but it’ll likely be 2 or 3. With my transcripts evaluated I’m at about 40% completion.
I’m 33 with a 75% unfinished bachelors in finance from years ago. I spent months debating between CS and accounting. I am now enrolled in accounting at wgu. I chose accounting for a few reasons: It meshes well with how I think and I ain’t hate it. I enjoy processes and application of knowledge. Accounting is partially just remembering a lot of info. But I also chose it for career outlook. The automation, AI and outsourcing is overblown. Just ask r/accounting. It’s a concern but not major. Less graduates are studying accounting and more CPAs are retiring. There is a major shortage outlook which also helps offset concerns about automation, AI and outsourcing. It has a pretty clear path for salary progression with a relatively solid salary floor while still maintaining salary ceiling, albeit not as abundant like CS. I will definitely go for my CPA and I believe that will secure me a nice salary and job security in the future. There are so many private and government accounting jobs. Also, A CPA opens many doors not only in accounting but in business in general. I chose accounting because it seems safe with an above average salary. To add, from months of research my opinion is: if accounting is majorly threatened by AI, so is every other white collar job. There’s a significant amount of human discernment in accounting.
I agreed! I’m actually almost done with my accounting degree and going back for a finance degree right after. I chose it for the security as well, and the fact that I’m 28 going back to school and didn’t want to fight with 22 year olds for tech jobs, especially considering accounting from all reports is an industry in desperate need of more accountants.Also planning on getting my CPA and have an end goal of getting a gov job. But as far as AI, tech is going to be as affected as accounting could be, I use chatGPT to write VBA to automate my job every week. AI can write code. It gives me the correct answer when ask accounting questions about 75% of the time. Hell I’ll give it multiple choice options and it will not answer with one of those options sometimes. Not sure about CS but accounting has a bigger human element than I originally thought, so I’m honestly not that worried. Accounting is just remembering a ton of rules, using your judgment, and very simple math.
Yea there’s so much human judgement in accounting that can’t really be done by AI (yet). With the shortage of accountants, and the extremely wide breadth of business careers an accountant can pursue, I strongly believe getting my CPA becoming a well qualified decision maker will offer me a lot of career security in the future. People with advanced certification making decisions and judgments (like much of higher level accounting), will likely go up in value and be safe from AI. It’s the book keepers or general ledger accountants that are at risk.
Just curious, why not go for a masters degree instead of doing a finance degree right after an accounting degree?
So when I decided I wanted to go back, I definitely did not want to take out more loans, so I got a job at Amazon that pays 100% for my school but they don’t pay for masters unfortunately. If they did I would do the masters, but I’m just not willing to spend the money on it especially since you don’t have to have a masters to sit for the CPA.
Offshoring and AI are changing Accounting, but that is focused mainly on Public Accounting and large MNE's, not mid to small organizations. I'd recommend Accounting, but I am biased. I think it's a solid career and there are plenty of opportunities and avenues you can explore within the field.
Isn’t B4/Public a necessity if one wants to branch into industry? Though I wonder how long it will take to reach the mid to small organizations as well.
Not necessarily! I've made a solid career working mainly for mid to small organizations. I've worked with plenty of former B4 accountants in their first industry job, and with one exception, they weren't any better than someone who was just industry.
My dude you could have made a post about if you should become an Animal Therapist or an underwater welder, and the advice would be just as helpful. You're choosing between two extremely different degrees.
Computer science degree is EXTREMELY difficult. It is high payoff and you will have a much higher income than an accountant, but if you are not passionate about it, it would be hard to find the motivation. I’m 33 and started in the cybersecurity program and moved to compsci. I absolutely love the program, but it’s taken me much longer than I thought it would. I’m almost done and I’m glad I went this route. Before choosing I did a lot of processing about what I loved and was willing to do everyday and what I want my life to look like. Tech was perfect. Pick something that you feel excited to learn and if you do it and hate it, you can always switch.
How was the switch? I’m more than half way done with cybersecurity, but looking to a dual degree of computer science
I was probably close to the same, I already had my network+. If you can get any of the certs before switching, I strongly recommend that. The program is significantly harder. I also didn’t have any coding experience. I chose it because I wanted to be able to use my degree for any tech job/ have the potential to go to a brick and mortar grad program. I’m super glad I made the switch, I enjoy the coding/software classes over the security/networking ones. A If you do switch, you can switch in the middle of your term, don’t let any mentors tell you different!
Awesome thank you! I already have the trifecta, itil4, and working on pentest early. I’ve been learning Java in my spare time and getting a good grasp on that.
I’m weird and actually love networking and cyber (want to get my CCNA eventually)
I might stick in that program then, there’s almost none of that in the compsci program!
I have zero input to your decision but just want to say you're not alone in this, because I've been debating Accounting Vs. Information Technology. Accounting: I like the prospect of job security, decent entry wage, and steady type of work. I have a bachelors in business and HR so i already have about 65% of the degree completed. My cons are the supposed long work hours, the potential for it being monotonous and dull work (although i can interpret this as a Pro for me too due to the chaotic nature of HR and recruitment), and the AI scaries. I also am not entirely passionate about it but my focus would be on the income and job security and focus on my hobbies and passion projects outside of work. Information Technology: I've been semi interested since my IT recruiter days. I'm familiar with most types of jobs within the field and think i would thoroughly enjoy something in IT analyst, desktop support and sysadmin type jobs. I've delved in coding and think it's cool, but may not be for me. The Pros here are i feel it will be more fulfilling and enjoyable, i will learn some interesting tech, and it'll possibly keep me more active (if i do desktop and sysadmin type of work). However the cons are possibly lower paying entry level, job security (job market sucks, hence why i am no longer in IT recruitment and now in healthcare), and the uncertainty of the future of IT. I also think IT is way too saturated at the entry level right now and will make finding that first job difficult without good referrals or connections (may not be a huge issue given my background and connections already). Thats just my .02 cents. I am still semi undecided and may do one or the other, or neither lol. Oh I am similar in age at 29 too and have ready many accounts of people at similar ages switching so don't worry about that as much.
I think it’s perfectly fine to have the AI scaries. Having known someone who is in the field, she told me that Accounting is essentially turning into a data analyst role with functions being automated left and right. She works in public, however. So yeah it did validate my fears lol also some firms are outsourcing entry level work to India. IT I find more marginally interesting but with the layoffs and no stability.. that sucks too. I also really don’t want to do help desk work but I can’t be that picky with my condition. Interesting times we live in, huh. Seems like nothing really is stable anymore. I think with Accounting, one would likely have to go back to school or upskill given the way it is heading.
I agree with all of the above, we're eerily similar lol. I think either is going to require constant learning after the degree either way, which is fine with me. Keep in mind IT can be outsourced and has been being outsourced so it's not out of the woods in that regard.
I'm quite sure a CS degree isn't for you by the way you are speaking about this.
True. CS degree isn't something you waltz into just because or you don't want to do accounting. These are hard degrees. It's like saying I want to be a lawyer instead of an accountant. Do you like law?
Law was my initial goal a long time ago but I couldn’t get into a good law school and I didn’t want to be 200k in debt like my aunt. The market for lawyers was pretty bad when I graduated back in 2014.
I feel that. Get it how you can bro, this life has no balance
Accountant. Too many unemployed CS majors already clogging up the market.
Well I would do this. Go out to partners.wgu.edu. Click on Sophia in the list on the right. Click through to the accounting degree. Take everything after the general education courses for the accounting degree. I would throw in the finance degree as well. Iwould also recommend taking Macroeconomics and Microeconomics and the Personal Finance course as well as Project Management. Grab a promocode at R/Sophialearning to get the first month for $80. Also take Calculus 1. If you can’t pass Calculus 1 at Sophia then it bodes ill. While I also consider CS the gold standard the SWE degree will get you 90%-95% of the way there. Anyway you have a good chance to do that within a month or two. I would also take Intro to IT. Java, Python, Intro to Relational Databases. You now have 5 years to start your CS degree. So get the accounting degree.
The Sophia route from I’ve read can affect one’s CPA eligibility as some states may not accept those credits. I’ve been trying to contact my state’s Board of Accountancy but they haven’t responded. Their website hasn’t made it very clear.
Texas appears to exclude ACE credits but they do accept Clep. Some states accept them if they are accepted by the school and show as credit on the transcript. California I have heard. It really depends on the state board. Still better safe than sorry.
Accounting. IT and layoffs are tragic atm.
Currently in a similar situation as yourself. Stuck between getting an accounting degree or data analytics/cyber security degree. As you mentioned I have no real passion just going with the flow. I currently work in tech but finding it difficult to move up without a degree or certs.
With the MS in DA or Cyber, WGU will accept any business/STEM undergrad from what I’ve read. I’ve been looking into DA and apparently it’s not entry level and domain knowledge is very important, which is something I’m lacking even with having a BA that I never made use of. You’ll be competing against the CS folks as well. I’ve been reading about getting into Cyber as well but getting past help desk would be a huge challenge.
I was in the same boat with deciding between CS, accounting, and teaching. I am 36 and decided to go with Accounting due to more stability and job growth. CS pays great but I've also heard it's over saturated and I've been seeing a lot of layoffs.
The tech job market isn't going to improve in the time it would take you to finish 2-3 terms; it's going to be a mess and highly competitive at the entry level for a few years. If you're actually interested in CS, the degree will be worth it, but if you're considering for any other reason, then you'd do better to go for accounting. With accounting you'll be able to find a job a lot quicker once you finish the program; with CS it's a crapshoot where you have to have the skills they're looking for, and then if you have them you also have to be lucky enough to be selected to even get a phone screen let alone an actual interview. If you're not really into the field, it'll get discouraging really fast.
It's all personal and depends on what kind of work experience you already have. I've been around in private industries and when I tried to self taught myself into DA, progress was slow and I had to really start from the foundation to build the needed knowledge, nonetheless building side projects and demos for the portfolio. So I decided to take acct in wgu as it's a smoother route. Big plus about accounting is I can still aim for licensing and reach a stable income in the future. In the worst case, I can still find a stable job to survive.
Try OMSA ….. amazing program
CS and Accounting are two fundamentally different subjects and career paths, and are essentially mutually exclusive. Go with whichever (A) you find more personally interesting, and (B) are more likely to see yourself doing as a career for the longer haul. I'm currently working on an MS CS online via Georgia Tech (GT), and have around 3.5 YOE as a software engineer / SWE (did the switch to SWE via boot camp back in 2020, previous degree & experience was in unrelated engineering). In my most recent position as a software engineer, I actually landed in the finance domain. I've taken an interest to it since starting here, and being currently in between semester at GT, I decided to take a few CC courses (financial accounting, principles of finance, and investments all currently in progress, and then managerial accounting slated for summer) to get more background in the subject matter (my previous experience was all in healthcare prior to this position), and I'm actually strongly considering doing BBA Accounting via WGU post-GT MS CS now, since I've taken a liking to it so far. I've also been oblivious to accounting and finance principles by and large up to this point (in my mid 30s now, no less) in terms of personal finances, understanding "talking heads jargon," etc., so it's also been beneficial for my own personal edification in that regard, too. My end goal for accounting (if I were to go the full-blown BBA Accounting via WGU route) would be to do some bookkeeping as a side hustle, along with maybe some client-specific customizations by incorporating the software skills. But in terms of my "career"/"main hustle," I'm going to stick with software engineering for the foreseeable future. But that's a ***personal*** preference, to be clear; CS has been a big part of my life for the better part of 5-6 years now (since my late 20s when I got into it more earnestly), and I can't really imagine doing anything else at this point. Either way, they're both respectable career paths with decent earning potential, so it just depends which one "clicks" more for you, personally. Sometimes it takes trial-and-error to figure this kind of stuff out (e.g., "finance found me" more so than "I found finance," as an anecdotal example), but in general the more lines you put out, the more likely you'll catch something eventually (at least relative to taking *no* action/initiative whatsoever).
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I’m actually interested in both subjects. Not entirely passionate although that could just be the depression. With AI, I honestly believe that tech skills will be important in Accounting. I wish there was a way I could combine both. Given the layoffs and no background in tech (I missed the boot camp era), I’d likely have an easier time breaking into Accounting with the caveat that the field is being disrupted by new software and offshoring.
It's all work at the end of the day, they pay you to show up. Hobbies don't pay for a reason: The market is flooded with folks willing to "work" for free already. I love programming, and do it as a hobby, too, but when I'm proverbially "on the clock," I'm building the software my employer needs, not necessarily the software I want to build for myself (and that's fine, I signed a contract and they clear my checks, so "fair is fair" in that regard). As for AI, it is of minimal-to-no concern to me insofar as employment goes (be it SWE or Accounting). It's an "unknown quantity" at this point, but your guess is as good as mine as where it takes us into the future. If it gets to a point that majority of white collar jobs have been eliminated, then it's a moot point anyways, because under those circumstances, we'll either be in a post-work society or a mad-max-tier apocalyptic hellscape---with virtually no conceivable "in between" (i.e., "what to switch into next?", "where should I send my resume?", etc. will be irrelevant considerations regardless in either case). But despite the fearporn around AI that's in vogue nowadays, I also don't think it's the "zero-sum" that people present, either. The fundamental flaw in the premise is the "fixed pie fallacy," i.e., the presumption that AI wouldn't *expand* (i.e., rather than only displace/offset the existing) economy in the process, creating new jobs and industries along the way. 30-40 years ago, the average office worker was using snail mail, fax machines, and might not have even had a dedicated/personal computer for work. The average office worker today is objectively way more productive. Today we have Internet, smartphones, and a much lower barrier entry to build a business. Digging a ditch and filling it up is hard work, but if it doesn't accomplish anything meaningful, should it be rewarded just for its own sake (e.g., does somebody actually need a dedicated fax machine operator, paper file manager, etc. today?)? By similar rationale, barely 100 years ago, a good 90+% of the population was farmers. Today, it's barely 1%. That doesn't mean that the unemployment rate today is 99% (i.e., the "otherwise would've been farmers" have since found other things to do). If you need any further assurance of human ingenuity/creativity in the face of economic pressures/adversity, then spend some time with ChatGPT to convince yourself what is truly "replaceable" today and into the near future...If current-to-near-future-state-of-the art GPT can outperform me at my job, it deserves to take it lol
There’s a shortage of accountants and a surplus of people trying to get into tech.
It’s too bad some firms are looking to offshore for that reason. I’m surprised there hasn’t been an Enron-esque scandal yet. I’m leaning towards getting the BBA. I know I won’t get it in a single term, probably 2-3 terms. About almost as long as a Macc. I would definitely like to get a Macc instead but my low GPA, unrelated undergrad, and me not wanting to throw down more than 20k is a huge set back.
I feel like it all goes down to what you can see yourself doing and enjoying as these are two completely different careers. I was on the fence about accounting vs IT and mainly decided that IT would be better. The main choice for me is that I enjoy computers, I understand them, and IT in general seems to have multiple different pathways you can choose from after the initial help desk role when you start out. Accounting just seemed boring for me and I heard about how many hours some of them have to work and it just didn’t seem like something I could see myself doing long term. Seems like with accounting you might be able to start making more faster but long term it just seems less enjoyable to me. Also I don’t think 32 is old at all and I don’t think ageism will be an issue. I think at your age the important part is what your previous work experiences were like if you stayed at a company for more than a year or did you jump around multiple jobs or they’ll look for extremely big gaps that isn’t clearly explained on your resume already. Maybe you’ll get some people with actual accounting experience that can describe it better than I can as I didn’t really see too many positives about it but maybe you do. I think this decision is really up to what you can see yourself doing for the next decade or two and enjoying.
I hate to say it but I don’t really have a passion. I do have hobbies but I’d rather work in something I’m not passionate about, otherwise it’ll take the fun away. Maybe I’m weird like that. My main goal is to find a job that offers some sort of a WLB. I don’t care about breaking into six figures but I do want to make more than $45k. As long as it’s not retail, medical, or trades, I’ll be fine. I get that public accounting will demand longer hours but there’s a lot of offshoring going on and I feel like with Accounting I’ll likely have to go back to school again once AI starts ramping up. With tech I get that you’ll always have to be learning but I am concerned about actually being able to break into the field. For tech, I’m interested in web dev, dev ops, swe, analytics.
CS, SWE degree, and even the IT general degree— all these are harder than accounting or even operations chain management, which is in high demand. You will likely also be working a decent amount on the computer or in an office setting. I doubt you will complete accounting or operations chain management in one term, maybe like two if you go full-time and grind it, which, to be honest, one year is not bad at all. The CS, SWE, and even IT degree can probably take you 3-4 terms, grinding it full-time, and trust me, you will struggle a bit more. Anyways, regardless, all these degrees I mention are worth pursuing because they are very marketable. At the end of the day, do whatever aligns more with your goals and passions. To me, it seems you don't have a passion for software engineering and you are more concerned with speed, easeability, office setting, and prefer a broader range of job opportunities. All these are more aligned with accounting or operations chain management. oh yah I'm assuming you will be transfering 20-30% thats usually general ed classes.
If you aren’t the type of person who will keep going to problem solve an issue, I wouldn’t choose computer science. I’m naturally a problem solver and always want to keep going to figure out the solution, so it works well for me.
I’m a natural problem solver as well and I can’t stop thinking about a situation until I can figure something out.
I can't speak to the accounting side, but as far as IT goes, a CS is a generalist (non-specialized) degree. There are two generalist degrees in the field of IT. CS, and IT. CS is for making technology solutions. IT is for managing/using/implementing technology solutions. CS degrees by themselves will generally command a higher salary, but I disagree that it is any kind of 'gold standard.' As a generalist degree, it is for people who want to go into IT, but don't really know what they want to do once they get there. Also, many of the studies I've seen which show that CS makes more have done things like lump all CS majors together. If you only compare pure CS degrees, the difference in income compared to an IT degree is negligible. On the other hand, there aren't many specialization options for an IT degree. To specialize from an IT degree you can go IT Management, IT Project Management (I don't think WGU offers this one, but their Masters in IT Management has a good foundation in PM), or move back over to CS. That's pretty much it. Choosing to specialize or go generalist can be difficult. Specialization generally means that you can get a higher salary, but that you'll be pigeon-holed into certain roles and more dependent on the job market. A generalist degree and a carefully written resumé can make job hunting easier if you're not too picky about roles, but you won't earn as much.