My Career Decision, Corporate Finance Vs Marketing (asking for opinions).

[Fishy Taco 30]

Hey guys, it´s been while.

 

Just wanted to present to you my dilemma: 

I never had a "clear passion" or any idea of what to do with my life but I´ve always had an interest in bussiness, im in my Second Semester of a Marketing degree, which I like, but im thinking of switching to Finance because it seems more adequate for me, for example I do best in my Accounting and Finance mathematics classes while in Marketing related courses not so much, so I have more interest in Marketing but seem to be better at Finance and numbers in general, most of my class mates in marketing are extroverts with tons of friends while me,well... So it seems that I would develop better in a Finance career but I dont know if I would like it. 

 

Another aspect is that Finance seems like a more secure career (steadier employment chances,easier to climb up the ladder,etc.) while Marketing looks like a good choice for the future since diferentiation of products becomes more relevant as time passes.

 

So what do you guys think? should I go with what I´m better at but not very interested in and hope I learn to love it (finance)?  or go with what I like but im not good at? 

 

(Sorry if I make spelling mistakes or bad redaction, im not a native speaker )

[Ian 325]

One of my best friends from high school got a marketing degree from OU and now she's a flight attendant. Finance is better than marketing IMO. Maybe be a CPA?

[Rayne 4478]

I've worked in both of these industry's and I can tell you that marketing would be a much more rewarding job. Different product launches, different strategies, meeting lots of people etc...

 

Finance will be more secure, higher pay and as you quite rightly stated, offers quite a straight forward career ladder. However, you will be stuck in the same dreary office, doing the same reports, counting other peoples money (essentially). For the rest of your life.

Now I'm not saying this is a bad career choice, my mother was a financial director for almost 20 years, but she HATED it. To a point where she would come home upset every evening etc.

 

It all boils down to what you want out of life, which I guess at the minute, you don't really know.

 

You've also got to think, with finance and all of the 'robots in the workplace' coming into play... how long is it going to be, before finance is controlled by computer systems to eliminate any and all human error when it comes to company financials?

 

Marketing... needs human ideas, and is always going to have a place in every industry.

 

These are both sustainable jobs, but I know which way I'd lean. I hope I've given you something to think about

[trav 6834]

Personally I'd go for what I like to do and learn how to be better at it.

 

Rather than doing something I know, and learning to like it more.

[Battlemech7 87]

What can you wake up every morning to go and do, and not hate yourself?

 

Its best not to choose a career due to how much money you will make, or its because of what you know. For example, I went to college and University for Justice and Forensics. But in reality I blow shit up in tanks as a officer in the Canadian military. Why? Because I fucking love it. It helps that the pay is decent for officer level (university degree) and I get most of it tax free tho.

 

Go with what you love or are passionate about. If you don't know...get an internship or volunteer.

[ChosenOne2000 4440]

@Faceschool this kid. 

[York 387]

I graduated from college with a Business degree and think @Rayne's advice is on point. I'd give my own peace on the subject but he really nailed it

 

If you take anyone's advice, I would go with him

[Face 1910]

@Faceschool this kid. 

I'll make a post on marketing vs finance vs accounting if this is still here when I get home tonight

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[Dr. NarwhalsNumbNuts IV 2291]

I started in pharmacy, thinking I wanted to do it. I convinced myself that I had a passion for it, but I realized that I was never happy or excited about much in my first couple years of college.

It wasn't until I took a hard look at myself and said that it wasn't for me. It was always gonna be medicine or computers for me, so I went with my true passion, computers. I'm now an IT major, minoring in Business Management and hopefully going for my Masters in Computer Science or MBA after my undergrad. Do something that makes you happy. Don't do something for the money or the prestige. I could have saved myself a lot of time and money by doing that, but I let my ego and the people around me (family) influence and force myself into doing something I hated. 

[skitt 1307]

11 hours ago, Rayne said:

I've worked in both of these industry's and I can tell you that marketing would be a much more rewarding job. Different product launches, different strategies, meeting lots of people etc...

 

Finance will be more secure, higher pay and as you quite rightly stated, offers quite a straight forward career ladder. However, you will be stuck in the same dreary office, doing the same reports, counting other peoples money (essentially). For the rest of your life.

Now I'm not saying this is a bad career choice, my mother was a financial director for almost 20 years, but she HATED it. To a point where she would come home upset every evening etc.

 

It all boils down to what you want out of life, which I guess at the minute, you don't really know.

 

You've also got to think, with finance and all of the 'robots in the workplace' coming into play... how long is it going to be, before finance is controlled by computer systems to eliminate any and all human error when it comes to company financials?

 

Marketing... needs human ideas, and is always going to have a place in every industry.

 

These are both sustainable jobs, but I know which way I'd lean. I hope I've given you something to think about

Nothing against your opinions and insights as you've worked both industries, but this sounds extraordinarily biased. I cannot speak to these topics because I've never worked in either of these industries. However, @Fishy Taco, I do want to say that these posts should be read cautiously knowing that not everyone knows every aspect of a career 'path'. 

[Face 1910]

Okay @Fishy Taco @ChosenOne2000, here we go.

 

For starters, I'm a licensed CPA. I've only had 1 finance and 1 marketing course. Obviously lots of my accounting education bleeds over into finance, but they weren't strictly finance courses.

 

Everyone in business is slightly biased towards their own area. Accountants joke that Finance majors are dumber because they always struggle in accounting courses (while accounting students typically do fine in finance courses). Accounting and Finance both joke about Marketing because it is more like liberal arts than business. While marketing is very business oriented, there's a lot more room for creativity and it isn't as cut and dry as *most* accounting and finance jobs.

 

In order of easiness to get jobs:

Accounting, with a CPA license I feel like you can go to any remotely large town/city and get a good paying job without effort.

Finance, more difficult. To my knowledge there are much less positions (e.g. there's 90k CPA firms but how many "finance" firms are there?). Most finance majors go to big banks (regions, merrill lynch, jp morgan chase).

Marketing. This one in my mind requires a lot more personality, effort, luck, and possibly a portfolio of your work.

 

In order of EASINESS of getting obscenely high pay:

Accounting, stick around with a CPA firm for 12-15 years and you will be a partner. Be a partner and build a client base and you can easily make  200k+ at a small firm, 500k+ at a large firm. High end is around $2-4m but those are much more rare, "fore-fathers" of firms.

Finance, similar to being a CPA but it isn't like working for a CPA firm where there is a "partner-track". Will be more ambiguous when you get promotions. If you are good at stock market portfolio analytics, the sky would be the limit. The geniuses build trading algorithms and with a stats guy and a programmer by your side, you can bring in hundreds of thousands or millions.

Marketing. You are going to have to really shine and stick around for a long time to get a director/CMO type position. Even then, your pay will likely be lower than a CFO (which will be a CPA).

 

Hours: Accounting and finance are by far the worst. As a CPA, you will have a "busy season" no matter what you do. If it's taxes, it's this time of year. You will be expected to work 55 hours a week (at the NICE firms) or as much as 80-90 hours a week at the bigger, burn-and-churn firms. I say burn-and-churn because that's how people view the treatment of young staff.

Finance is rough and can be rougher. I know a very important investment banker. He told me his portfolio analysts when they get busy can work 90-120 hours a week. He said he's seen guys work until 3am and sleep under there desk, to start back at 7am the next day. You won't do that in a modern public accounting office.

In most marketing jobs, you aren't going to work a ton of over time (if any). Like any business, I'm sure there will be busier times (e.g. if there are mergers or acquisitions, marketers will probably work very hard to "consolidate" the company image in as smooth a transition as possible).

 

In the last 4 days I've worked around 50 hours. I will work ~9-10 hours tomorrow and ~4 hours on Saturday. I'd consider this a "light" tax season week for me. The hours don't bother me because the way I view it, the benefits outweigh the costs. If you want to start a family, it's hard. But in my mind, I work an extra 25%-33% in a year more than everyone who doesn't do a "busy season" does. As such, my raises should be higher (which they are higher than market average) and my learning is exponentially faster than if I didn't do it. Tax season is brutal, but I learn more in 3 months than I do the rest of the year. I'm already amazed at how much I've picked up on this year, and there is still a month left for me. This to me makes me more valuable than others, and I like being more valuable.

 

Going into accounting without getting a CPA license to me is a waste of a degree. If you don't get a CPA license, you are doomed to be an AP (accounts payable) or AR (accounts receivable) clerk or something to that effect. You will likely never be a CFO/Controller and if you never broke $100k in your life (starting today) I wouldn't be even remotely surprised. I regularly work with AP and AR clerks at clients who make $15-$20/hr and have 10+ years of experience. I make way more than that (Salaried) with 2-3 years of xp and a CPA license. Also, the jobs of non-CPA accountants are INCREDIBLY boring and monotonous. These are the people you see in movies. It's not uncommon for these people to do something like reconcile the same 10 accounts every month, maybe pay some bills, and maintain their fixed assets. That's all they do. Every Day. Forever.

Don't be an accountant without getting your CPA license, basically. Being a CPA requires 150 hrs, so plan on getting a master's if you do that.

 

As a CPA though, your job can vary wildly. I do different things on a regular basis. Even preparing tax returns, when you are working on businesses, lots of them are wildly different and it isn't remotely repetitive to me to do tax returns all day every day. Outside of tax season I do tons of other stuff.

The alternative to being a tax CPA is an audit CPA. From my 2 years in the business, I don't recommend it. Burnout is much higher, the job is much more monotonous than doing tax or consulting work, and I regularly hear people say they feel like their work is meaningless as an auditor.

Consulting as a CPA is harder to get into. You typically need lots of experience, another skill set (e.g. engineering), or you have to be a super-star out of school.

 

As an accountant, there can be a lot of creativity at the higher level. With taxes, there's tons of opportunity to get creative to save clients money. As a CFO/Controller, there's lots of opportunities in your businesses accounting in how you structure transactions to benefit the company. Creative accounting is a well-known business term for a reason.

 

Outside of being an AR or AP clerk or a CPA, accounting has the BEST opportunity of doing something else entirely in my mind. For example, my dad got an accounting degree and instead of getting his CPA license or being an accounting clerk, he started his own business. People say "Accounting is the language of business" for a reason. My dad always said, "if you understand accounting, you understand business". It's a very true statement. Being an accountant doesn't limit you to just accounting and could aid you in other business pursuits.

 

I can't speak as much on marketing or finance day to day.

 

Hope this helps some. I've typed well beyond my limit for tonight.

 

 

[York 387]

I'm just going to chime-in anyways lol

 

As far as more "rewarding" goes, that will be up to you to decide and your preferences.

 

Graduating with a Finance degree will net you job security no doubt, and more than likely a well-paying job instantly out of college. The job prospects themselves aren't super varied but aren't always super duper linear, you will have choices to make albeit not a plethora of it. My sister graduated with a degree in Finance and had several offers on the table before she even graduated. She accepted a Financial Analyst position at a massively highly ranked Fortune 500 company maybe 4? Years ago and now brings home close to $100k. You won't have to worry about robots taking over your job or anything lol

 

Marketing is different. You'll have more variety, way more *potential* pathes to take, but less job security right out of college. A lot of advertised intro-level marketing positions are actually just sales jobs so you really have to dig for actual marketing positions. You can definitely be successful and make bank as a marketing major, but it's not as straightforward all the time. I would argue Marketing positions would lean towards being less redundant as Rayne said, but again it's subjective.

 

Accounting and Finance degrees are very niche, they give you skills that make you desirable and easily employable. Marketing is still pretty generalist and doesn't necessarily grant you a *specific* set of skills that any regular joe-blow couldn't do if they knew a thing or two.

 

TLDR:

 

* Finance will provide job security and strong salaries, may be considered more "boring" to the general person. Up to you to decide.

* Marketing will have less job security out of college but a variety of different potential avenues to take.

* Less likely to find a job in Marketing that would be generally considered "monotonous", but again that's subjective. 

[Rayne 4478]

9 hours ago, skitt said:

Nothing against your opinions and insights as you've worked both industries, but this sounds extraordinarily biased. I cannot speak to these topics because I've never worked in either of these industries. However, @Fishy Taco, I do want to say that these posts should be read cautiously knowing that not everyone knows every aspect of a career 'path'. 

 

Of course they're biased, I've been in both and therefore I would naturally lean towards one. By no means am I forcing an option down his throat, just giving him points to think about.

 

[Fishy Taco 30]

Thank you all for your opinions they´ve all been helpful to some degree.

Specially  @FaceYour post really gave me some insight into the job of an accountant which is something I am interested in, so thanks for that.

@Dr. NarwhalsNumbNuts IV What you mentioned is true, part of why im considering finance is because I feel a bit dumb in marketing since my parents are Chemical Engineers and my Cousins are either Medics or Engineers, I feel a bit like the black sheep, and part of my reasoning is: If im already a nerd why am I studying something "Cool" and "Mediocre" people lean to... 

I´ve decided to take some finance and capital markets classes at my school help me make a decision, It´s hard to make this types of choices when you don't even know yourself and don't even know how to get to know yourself better (if that made sense).

 

Thanks fellas. 

[Face 1910]

Don't study anything because someone else wants you to. Just remember, in 10 years you might only see them 10 days a year, but you have to be happy alone the other 355. Do something feasible but do what makes you happy.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk