Accounting Career Question CPA? Actuary?

I am about to finish my bachelor's degree in Accounting and I have no idea where to go from here. I am in my early-thirties and all I have done is worked in the casino industry in many different areas since I was 18. My question is, after I finish my degree, what's next? I know I could study up for the CPA exam or the Actuary exam but I really don't know what either of those would be like without any real world Accounting experience. Anyone have advice for where to go from here?

BD:

I don't know what you were doing in the casino industry, but I will assume you were not in the accounting function, since you state you are "without real world Accounting experience".

In order to actually sit for the CPA exam, you have to have a Masters Degree, or, at least 150 college credit hours. I don't know about the actuary biz, but your ability to socialize with others goes down in direct proportion to your continued employment in that area.

The old path was to get hired by one of the "final four" and get worked to death for 4-6 years, get lots of experience, access your real chances of making partner, and then either kick out to your own firm, or, become a controller or other accounting manager at one of the that firms clients.

This path still exists, but the kick out starts earlier. There was a crushing need for CPA's after the Enron accounting scandel, and SOX regulations. The recession cut into this, but there are alot of retirements in the next ten years, and many smaller firms have no firm succession plans. So there is opportunity if you have ambition and the ability to work with clients.

If your only interested in doing the "work" and not dealing with clients, then your options are more limited. The back office is getting outsourced to India.

SFB

It sounds like you already have a gaming career going. 12+ years of gaming experience is much more valuable than a 4-year degree in accounting unless you want to get out of the gaming business altogether. That's the first question: do you want to get out of gaming? I'd think the natural fit would be in a financial function within casino management, either at the property level or at a corporate level. But if you don't want to do that, then you have to figure out what you *do* want to do.

Well, my original thought was that adding to my gaming experience with some sort of financial degree would help me that much more in progressing through the ranks and getting into upper management. Unfortunately, it is really a vagabond sort of career where people don't just stay at a casino and move up, rather they get experience in the small places and move around to bigger jobs. I considered moving into the Accounting department at my casino because I believe they treat their employees well and the top jobs in that department do pay well..but to start I'd end up taking a solid 50% pay cut. Ouch.

Quote: iambabyd

I considered moving into the Accounting department at my casino because I believe they treat their employees well and the top jobs in that department do pay well..but to start I'd end up taking a solid 50% pay cut. Ouch.

Ouch indeed.

Perhaps you can look for a job in another field first to gain experience in accounting, then return to gaming. Assuming you find one with either a smaller pay cut or a better salary. Accouting is pretty much the same in every industry, except as regards inventories.

The Wizard is an actuary. Many surveys will tell you it is one of the best fields to go in, as the demand will remain high as far into the future as they can predict. Pay is good, and flexibility to move around the country or the world is very high.

50% is obviously not practical for any length of time, but how long would that be? Well-run companies understand the need for internal lateral moves. Maybe you could work with HR to set up a 6-month plan where you transition from one job to the other, rather than just switch cold-turkey at the lower salary. Then, 6 months later, you'd move to full-time in finance at a reasonable salary. It'd be silly for them to expect you to work for half your current pay.

I don't know where you live, or where you want to live, but companies like Caesars and MGM have whole corporate finance divisions that handle cross-property matters. If you want to be in Las Vegas, check out Caesars or MGM corporate.
https://caesars.hodesiq.com/careers/Link_nav/careers/finance.asp.
https://www.hrapply.com/mgmmirage/AppJobSearch.jsp

I'm always one to advocate the actuarial profession for college students and recent graduates who have hope of passing the exams. In your case, I would say you are past a point of no return, and I would build your career upon the casino experience you already have. Hopefully you can make use of the accounting degree. A 50% pay cut is too much, but maybe a better opportunity will bubble up in the future that will make use of it.

I stumbled into my career in accounting. I started out in health care as a payables and budget clerk and then worked my way up the ladder to a general accounting clerk and took accounting courses on the side. Since I was computer savvy, I learned the software that I was using and became an expert in the software. Now I work for the software company doing installs of the software and consulting with companies on best practices. I love what I do.

I see alot of young type auditors and accountants and they just burn you out in the first years. Accounting is still in demand at many companies and it's a decent, stable, career with opportunties to grow in a white collar profession.