Accounting Majors Perceptions Of Future Career Skills: An Exploratory Analysis

Abstract

Business education is often criticized for its failure to develop lifelong skills. This study examines the opinions of 205 students to determine what skills they deem to be important for their future careers. The study then compares the opinions of accounting students against other business disciplines. The results of the study are mixed for the accounting profession. Many of the skills accounting majors ranked as important for their future were not surprising. However, there was some indication that accounting majors may be suffering from a silo effect and are not able to fully grasp how skills learned in other university courses impact their professional success.