Journey Map

            Choosing a major is one of the most important decisions a student makes during their college career. The major one selects will dictate what they study for four years of their life, and likely what they spend their time working on both immediately after college and well into their future career. For Alex, picking a major within McCombs presented an incredibly challenging dilemma that required months of research and intense thought in order to confidently arrive at a major decision. 

           

            Alex had been influenced by factors since before he even step foot in high school. At the young age of 13, Alex’s father gave him a book, one that he still cherishes to this day. This book, entitled “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, inspired Alex to strive for financial security from an early age. “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” taught Alex the value of money, and it also taught him that it’s important to put yourself in a position where your money works for you, rather than being in a place of working for your money. The author of this New York Times best-selling book, Robert Kiyosaki, advocates financial independence through investing, real estate, owning businesses, and increasing one's financial intelligence. Kiyosaki himself was an accountant, and he described in the book how being an accountant provided so much security throughout his lifetime because all types of businesses always needed accountants. From the moment Alex finished reading the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” book, he knew he wanted to be an accountant in order to garner financial security, career versatility, knowledge, and expertise from such a key business role.

            Throughout his years in high school, Alex held on tightly to his dream of majoring in accounting. He excelled in all quantitative subject areas, and he spent a great amount of time researching undergraduate universities that provided top-notch training for careers in business and accounting. Alex had always had an interest in the University of Texas at Austin due to a long line of family members that had graduated from the University. When he discovered the prestige of UT’s Master’s in Professional Accounting Program in McCombs, he knew he was set on attending the University upon graduation to pursue a Master’s degree through the MPA program. After receiving his letter of acceptance from McCombs during his senior year of high school, Alex’s future career path in accounting seemed incredibly clear and he felt fully confident that changes in his major were implausible. However, Alex had no way of foreseeing the rocky decisions that lay ahead of him during his sophomore year in college.

            After two years in McCombs, it came time for Alex to officially apply for the Master’s in Professional Accounting program during April of 2013.  With two years of business courses under his belt, Alex’s confidence in pursuing accounting had been shaken. As he had taken more and more business classes, Alex realized his business interests extended far beyond income statements, tax returns and corporate budgets. Alex was incredibly interested in every aspect of the business – from ideation, to product development, to marketing, supply chain management and organizational behavior. More specifically, Alex was fascinated by the prospect of analyzing entire business entities, something that is typically common of careers in management consulting. Alex was entirely confident that he wanted to pursue a career in consulting at a prestigious, yet highly competitive, management consulting firm like McKinsey & Company, Bain, Boston Consulting Group or Deloitte. While there was no clear path to attaining one of these highly sought-after jobs, Alex was no longer confident that accounting would be the best major to get him to that place. He had found himself at a major crossroads of deciding between a major in accounting, which had always been his plan, or a major in finance, which seemed more exciting and consulting-related, yet had many more risks and uncertainties.

    

            Despite his contemplations, Alex still applied to the MPA program to give him more time to decide while he waited to hear back about his acceptance. He received his acceptance into the MPA program in June 2013. He now had only a few weeks to make a crucial decision before it was time to register for his MPA classes for the impending fall semester. As Alex contemplated his decision, he was influenced most by a few main factors: level of personal interest, future career path possibilities, and job security.

• Personal Level of Interest: With regards to personal interest, Alex knew his passion and interest did not lie in the world of public accounting. On the contrary, Alex was scared that a job in public accounting would be far too mundane and monotonous for him. While he enjoyed crunching numbers and carrying out quantitative tasks, he was more fascinated by entire operations of companies, and he wanted to be involved in a much bigger picture of the corporation. He feared that a job in accounting would lock him in to one specific function of the business for the rest of his career, and he was confident that he was much more interested in the business as a whole. The factor of level of interest made him feel less confident about accounting and pushed him towards majoring in finance, as he felt he was more interested in the topics that a finance career covered.
• Career Path Possibilities: One of the most influential factors for Alex was the type of career paths one could pursue with a degree from finance or accounting. To gauge what career paths looked like from both majors, Alex looked mainly at older students he knew to see what careers their particular majors led them to. Alex noticed a common thread - those who majored in MPA were almost entirely now working as auditors at a major "Big Four" public accounting firm. This scared Alex, as he knew this was not the career path he wanted to pursue right out of college. He was certain about his desires to pursue consulting, and it lessened his confidence to see so few students come out of the MPA program and pursue a career in something other than accounting. He was beginning to think that majoring in finance would open up more doors to the careers that he wanted to pursue; however, he couldn't shake the job security and level of prestige that a Master’s in Professional Accounting degree could bring to him.
• Job Security: The prospect of job security yielded by the MPA program had drawn Alex to the degree ever since he was just a 13-year-old boy. Every business would always need an accountant, and it provided a level of business security unfound within finance. In the 2008 financial crisis, people with finance degrees with often some of the first to be laid off within major corporations. While all business employees face similar risks, Alex knew his risk would be minimized with a degree in accounting. Furthermore, he was drawn to the idea of graduating with a Master’s degree, especially from the #1 Master’s in Professional Accounting program in the nation. Alex knew this could give him an added level of experience and prestige that could make him even more of an asset to any corporation. This made him much more confident about continuing with his plan to major in accounting and accept his position in the MPA program.

            Alex was aware of the factors driving his decisions, which were his level of interest, career path possibilities, and job security. After weighing these factors for both majors, Alex was finally influenced by perhaps the most powerful source: people. In the weeks following Alex’s acceptance into the MPA program, Alex was able to secure informational interviews with established individuals in multiple corporations. He contacted and met one-on-one with recruiters from two consulting firm, the principal of a major private equity firm, a former partner of a “Big Four” accounting firm, and the owner of an international hedge fund. All of the people he met with held jobs that Alex one day hoped to obtain, so he trusted all of their advice and knowledge. All of these people hold jobs at firms heavily integrated in finance or consulting. However, much to Alex’s surprise, they all unanimously advised him to pursue the same major: accounting. This shocked Alex, as he sincerely expected them to write off accounting as a technical role with limited capability for significant career and financial advancement. Instead, each person he met with valued the differentiation that a Master’s in Professional Accounting degree could bring. They all felt that it could help Alex stand out amongst the sea of finance majors who strive for the competitive management consulting or investment finance positions. Furthermore, they advised him to pursue the major for the security that it could bring to him in the long run.

After months of contemplation, heavy research, many meetings and multiple lists of pros and cons, Alex began the fall semester of 2013 having finally arrived confidently at his decision. Primarily influenced by the wise advice of those leading well-established careers, Alex excitedly accepted his position in the MPA program. However, he kept his passions and interests in mind. When the semester began, Alex immediately began attending information sessions and networking events for the management consulting firms that he hoped to one day work for. Furthermore, he maximized the career fair events by networking with financial firms in hopes of obtaining a summer internship in finance between his junior and senior year. He hoped this finance internship would help diversify his resume even more to make him a more qualified candidate when it came time to apply for jobs at major consulting firms. While it may have been a bumpy ride to arrive at his decision to major in accounting, Alex began his first semester in the MPA program feeling more confident than ever. He knew he had exhausted his resources and had truly thought through every aspect of his decision. With that in mind, Alex felt certain that pursuing a Master’s in Professional Accounting from McCombs would inevitably lead him to career that yielded all the success and excitement that he so strongly desired.