[Anonymous]

Hello everyone! I am new to this forum, and I’m hoping to hear some input on a career idea of mine. I’ve been working at KPMG since August, and like most people, I never intended on making a career in Big Four or public accounting. I’m planning on staying with KPMG for about two or three years, get a job in industry with a company that will provide some sort of financial assistance towards obtaining an MBA/masters degree. After a while in industry, I would like to leave business altogether and go into academia.

I know I would be taking a considerable pay cut to teach (especially without a PhD and only a masters degree), but teaching at a college has been a dream of mine for quite some time. In college, I did a lot of tutoring, and I fell in love with teaching and helping out other students. I know the job prospects and pay are not as good without a PhD, and even though I feel like I’m capable of getting a PhD, I don’t think it would be a good time in my life to spend another five years in school.

I went to a smaller school in Pennsylvania, and none of our accounting faculty were PhDs. All of them were full time as well. The accounting chair is a CPA/MBA, and one professor only has his bachelors with his CPA, so I know this career idea is attainable. I loved the real world and Big Four experience that my professors brought into the classroom, and I valued that much more than the research that some of the PhDs I had in other disciplines did.

Would anyone be able to provide me some feedback on this idea? Has anyone chosen this career path? If so, how difficult was it to find a job, and what is the pay like? Would an MBA or MAcc (or both) be preferable for this path? Any comments about this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I think it is an excellent career path to follow. From my college experience, in college you teach at one of two levels. At a minimum you have to have a bachelors and masters degree….at this level you become a lecturer, then senior, then whatever other levels of “lecturer” your specific university has. If you have your PhD you step up to the “professor” level. When i was in school, i remember looking up salaries of all my lecturers and professors. Top lecturers made a good living…..professors made an EXCELLENT living.

I 100% understand why they go into teaching……working in corporate america you have to put up with alot of BS. Lets face it, alot of jobs are great, but most that you make a good living come with alot stress and headaches. If you are good at teaching, it can be a very rewarding way to make a good living and not have to deal with BS day in and out. Professors have a laid back schedule, get to help students learn, and have a relatively “easy” job. I mean intermediate accounting seemed tough when i took it, but like anything, i guarantee after teaching it a couple semesters its a breeze. I realize alot of them also do other things like research too, but i know what some of the lecturers and professors made and it was a pretty damn good salary to come into class and BS with some college kids about cost accounting or whatever class.

Anyways, just my thoughts. Good luck if you decide to take that route….you will prob end up a much more stress free life.

[Mayo]

I'm pretty sure professor salaries are public info. Anyways, looking at the University of Texas Lecturer salaries, it seems that you can make a pretty penny (~90k max).

However a few things to consider:

-U of Texas is the #1 Accounting School in the US. No wonder the salaries would be higher than average.

-The guys at the bottom of the totem pole make what a Senior Associate at a big 4 makes or less (that's 3 years experience in public accounting folks). As an example, Flornce Atiase makes 57k and she won some kind of teaching award. Seriously?

-It's less of a “career” than it is a job. It's not like you can eventualy become a dean or anything. You'll always just be a lecturer.

Here's the website I'm pulling my info from. I googled the professors/lecturer's names to get their vitae.

https://www.texastribune.org/library/data/government-employee-salaries/the-university-of-texas-at-austin/departments/department-of-accounting/17779/?page=2

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[Anonymous]

I've been considering this as well.

Coeds for days.

[PhDCPA]

I think that with a CPA, MBA, and both public accounting and industry experience you would have a good shot at getting a position as an instructor. However, there are MANY people that have significant experience and good credentials that want to teach so the competition will be tough, especially at well known universities.

One thing to keep in mind is that, depending on the university, many instructors get stuck with the classes nobody else wants to teach, such as classes with 500 students (this has been my experience at 2 of the 3 universities I've attended). They also don't make nearly as much as professors. The established instructors at my school (the ones who reliably have the same classes every semester) make about $70,000 a year. The new Ph.D.s fresh out of their programs are starting at $175,000 for 9 months, with summer classes they make over $200,000. My advice is to keep an open mind about getting a Ph.D.

[Author]

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