ACCT 326 Paper 1: Career Exploration
Learning Objectives:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Familiarize students with different accounting careers
Allow students the opportunity to discuss their first career
Encourage students to prepare for accounting career long before graduation
Explore alternative accounting career options
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Assignment- Upon completion of an accounting degree, the goal is to obtain professional
employment as an accountant. For accounting majors, there are two primary career paths: public
(primarily tax or audit) and private accounting (government/industry- primarily management
accounting). The purpose of this assignment is for accounting students to explore alternative
accounting careers, and discuss five elements of career choice.
Go indeed.com or the website of a company/firm that you would like to work for and select a
posting for an accounting position in a location where you would like to work that you will
qualify for when you complete your degree at TAMUC. DO NOT pick a position that is in a
location where you would not like to work. For example, you want to work for Cargill, but the
only positions you feel you qualify for is in Minneapolis, but you have an aversion to cold and
would never live there. Do not pick that position.
In a three page paper including the table below, please evaluate the job you selected based on
the attributes below. Please note a fourth page will include a copy of the posting you selected
and a fifth page with the rubric for you assignment. Name your paper
LASTNAMEexploration1.doc. For example, for me it would be RANKINexploration1. Your
paper is required to have five subheadings: overall, location, compensation, opportunity for
advancement, culture and challenge.
Overall- Why did you pick the posting- discuss public or private accounting and why you
selected the position. You might want to detail the classes that you took that lead you to
pursuing a specific accounting career or the industry of the company among others. Feel free to
add
Attributes
The attribute descriptions are only a suggestions. Feel free to add other elements or key points
that are important to you. Please include your evaluation and weight the importance of each
attribute (must total 100%) in your decision-making copying the following table at the end of
your discussion. Also include your anticipated first year compensation (e.g. $22,000) and
percent travel (e.g. 10%) in the table.
Location- When evaluating location, discuss topics such as climate, distance from family/loved
ones, cultural and sporting events, the arts etc. followed by why you picked this specific location.
Compensation- It is highly unlikely the position description will have an associated
compensation. As such, I want you to discuss how important compensation is relative to other
attributes in your first career. For example, you may be willing to take less compensation for a
preferred location such as your home town or for the opportunity for advancement.
Opportunity for Advancement- You might also read this as potential for growth within the
company. When evaluating opportunity consider the size and location of the company relative to
your other criteria. Ask yourself how important growing with the current company or future
company is for you. You might evaluate training opportunities for the current company.
Culture- Culture is the internal environment of the company encompassing how they treat their
employees, ethical practices, and work life balance among others. To understand a little about
company culture, you might read ratings from the job posting from other current and past
employees. You are trying to determine if the company culture is a fit for you. For example,
Innovation First in Greenville serves beer to their employees after 4PM. For some that may be
important, for others it may not be.
Challenge- Professions can run the gamut of exceedingly challenging to incredibly boring.
Evaluate your selected posting relative to challenge. How important is a challenging position to
you?
Attributes
Location
Compensation
Opportunity for Advancement
Culture
Challenge
Total
Weighting%
100%*
Expected first year annual compensation
Expected per travel first year
*total must sum to 100
Appendices- On the fourth page of your paper after the table above, copy your selected job
posting. On the fifth page, include a copy of the assignment rubric available in D2L.

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