Future in the Business world?

Question

I'm a college undergraduate going to University of Texas at Tyler, in Tyler Texas. I grew up in a small town called Kemp, off of Cedar Creek Lake. I'm currently 21 years old, Junior in my BBA in Management with a minor in finance, expect 3.79 GPA when I graduate.

I am a very social person. When I was 17 I became a Blockbuster Manager, and stayed there for 4 years. When I moved to continue my education, I started working for Chili's as a server.

If I were to tell a financial firm such as JP Morgan, or any higher classed Fortune 100 company this history, would they just laugh at me since I didn't attend and couldn't afford Ivy Leagues or MIT?

What kind of opportunities do I have with this kind of background? I planned on doing an internship this summer also.

Answer 1

They wouldn't look at you.

Because of recent changes in the way businesses are regulated, accountants are getting all the finance and management jobs.

It's not the experience, it's the skill set. You'll have hard time getting into publicly traded corporations without knowing the consequences of management strategy. Here's a list of scandals over the last 10 years that are driving this paranoid frenzy to hire accountants and auditors:

Enron
Global Crossing
Worldcom
Williams Co.
Xerox
PNC
Tyco
Arthur Anderson
Cendant
Sunbeam
Rite Aid
W. R. Grace
Adelphia
Suntrust Banks
Metropolitan Mortgage
Winstar Communications
Cisco
Krispy Kreme
Trump Hotels and Casinos

Do yourself a favor and find out how many of these executives are serving prison sentances right now.

The SEC has begun a new round of investigations in 2006 of over 130 corporations involving compensation packages for management (mostly about stock options).

The FASB has just issued new regulation on how to account for pensions in corporations. Many of the larger and older corps, like General Motors and Ford will be hit pretty hard when the public finds out just how large their pension liabilities are.

So there is an expanding demand for accountants and auditors who can handle issues like this, either acting as a shield against the scandals or as auditors who can handle the new complex regulations.

Congrats on your GPA and what you've done so far. You're going to be in demand by some companies, you'll just have a harder time getting into bigger games.