Need degree advise BIG TIME... (1 Viewer)

[mc88]

I was originally aiming to do a Commerce/Law degree but was worried I wouldn't get the UAI.

So I got a traineeship and went with the plain commerce degree. But now that the UAI cut offs have come out, I have very much cleared the cutoff for the Commerce/Law but if I do that degree, bye bye traineeship.

So what should I do? Which career (Accounting vs. Law) would be more rewarding in the long run? I know Accounting has a stigma of being boring, but I've heard many people say the same thing about law. In terms of earning potential, job potential, employment security and general enjoyment, which is the better choice?

Thanks.

 

[kym999]

i cant help tooo much. im doing commerce myself...

my big sis and her husband are both lawyers and they originally found it EXTREMELY stressful. they are know in pretty high up positions and are able to relax a bit more.

in terms of earning potential, i think they are both pretty much the same.

in terms of job security, there is a bit of an accountant shortage at the moment. in the finance industry generally there is a huge demand for people - but if you are good, it wont matter whether your a lawyer or an accountant.

hope this helps.

 

[Newbie]

a com/law degree will let you have the option to choose

traineeship may offer great inital experience but doesnt exactly set you miles ahead of a person doing a normal degree either.

 

[msiatlsc]

do the degree cos it would lead to much more oppturnities and a higher pay check...both the careers that u mention are more or less similar in terms of job prospects. don't just g to whioch ever careers that has a shortage..maybe choose careers that best complemnts you. if u r more finacial oriented then go for accuountacy if not law..

sorry can't help u much

goood luck. hope u find a way out of ur dilemma

 

[mc88]

Anyone else got any advice?

 

[ari89]

a com/law degree will let you have the option to choose

traineeship may offer great inital experience but doesnt exactly set you miles ahead of a person doing a normal degree either.

^advice

 

[danny_tq]

mate do a Commerce/law degree, gives u so many options, simply the most powerful degree to have in the corporate world.

 

[williamc]

Yer i read commmerce/law double is the most employable degree possible.

Do the degree.

 

[Conspirocy]

I had a friend who started on a cadetship doing biz/law and basically didn't tell the firm he was doing the law components and overloaded without telling them. He managed okay, but eventually had to go in and tell them the truth. However, by that stage the firm had invested so much in him they were committed and so basically just lumped it. He was at uts however, and they had a lot of night classes which made what he did possible.

On the other hand, I guess you could approach whoever it is you have the cadetship with and ask them if you can still do it while doing the law degree.

 

[Vagabond]

If you want to pursue a career in accounting --> ca --> corporate world in general, or accounting -> finance back-office ... then com/law is a waste of time and you are far better off doing the cadetship. My justification is that the above career paths greatly value people with experience in a chartered background, so your law degree, despite being competitive, will just delay your progress.

"traineeship may offer great inital experience but doesnt exactly set you miles ahead of a person doing a normal degree either."

A trainee -> grad in big4 is advantaged. Period. Funnily enough Australia is the only country in the world, to my knowledge, in which the big4 takes on trainees. Foreigners on secondment often marvel at how a highschool grad can work alongside them, whereas in the UK, USA, South Africa getting into Big4 is a far more competitive ordeal.

...

If you want to go for a competitive front-office grad position, or obviously a law career, then the single commerce degree is the wrong pathway. (then again if we're talking about UTS and front-office here according to some your law degree is useless anyway)

If you can't decide whether or not you wish to pursue law as a career to the point that you need to resort to asking strangers on an online forum, then I'd say your choice isnt as big a concern as your lack of common sense; Law and accounting are very different things. You may as well toss up apple and oranges.

 

[Newbie]

as a high schooler who just finished, they wouldnt have a clue about what industry they would want to settle on

a comlaw degree gives you flexibility when they do come to a conclusion.
com/law isnt a waste of time because if you do become set on accounting you can just drop the law in your second year and go for it

 

[Minai]

If you want to pursue a career in accounting --> ca --> corporate world in general, or accounting -> finance back-office ... then com/law is a waste of time and you are far better off doing the cadetship. My justification is that the above career paths greatly value people with experience in a chartered background, so your law degree, despite being competitive, will just delay your progress.

"traineeship may offer great inital experience but doesnt exactly set you miles ahead of a person doing a normal degree either."

A trainee -> grad in big4 is advantaged. Period. Funnily enough Australia is the only country in the world, to my knowledge, in which the big4 takes on trainees. Foreigners on secondment often marvel at how a highschool grad can work alongside them, whereas in the UK, USA, South Africa getting into Big4 is a far more competitive ordeal.

...

If you want to go for a competitive front-office grad position, or obviously a law career, then the single commerce degree is the wrong pathway. (then again if we're talking about UTS and front-office here according to some your law degree is useless anyway)

If you can't decide whether or not you wish to pursue law as a career to the point that you need to resort to asking strangers on an online forum, then I'd say your choice isnt as big a concern as your lack of common sense; Law and accounting are very different things. You may as well toss up apple and oranges.

I agree to a certain extent, and seriously, work experience at a big firm/corporate is such an advantage over someone with none. At EY for example, trainees who do the full two year work full time/two years full time uni come back not as grad accountants but as an experienced accountant, and as such get paid much more that grads that have come in with no experience.

But I agree with Newbie that first year kids that don't have their career mapped out just yet would be better off doing Com/Law to see what they would prefer.

 

[Vagabond]

I think the problem with that suggestion though is the assumption that by going to uni people will automatically know more about what career they would want.

Most people I talk to just say "investment banking" and appear to have no idea what it even is and simply base their choice on what they've heard about salaries.

Following on from that, I definitely agree with you Newbie in saying that most people won't grad from highschool knowing that they want to be CA for their life...

But the bottom line is that they dont have to settle down. Traineeships are basically the 'free turns' of career choices. Anybody whose done a traineeship, at the absolute least, could scratch off a career path allowing them to make a far more informed decision upon graduation, over say, the person who starts fresh as a graduate in a chartered firm that has no idea what to expect and may end up hating the work/life... the latter would have wasted his grad intake offer.

If on top of that you also consider the exposure to clients, other professionals following different goals, etc. you end up learning a lot more than you ever possibly could sitting at a uni employment presentation listening to propaganda-like presentations by HR.

I personally value the insight more than the perks of returning as a grad... and I do have a mate who's quit, transferred degrees, and is now pursuing a different career path.

Imo of course. Each to their own.

 

[pete_mate]

these are tough questions.

i find that hard, factual answers can help.

if the degree you have got is comm/law at usyd or unsw upon graduating you can probably get into:

investment banking, accounting and law with that degree.

straight commerce grads rarely get into investment banking. (and obviously not law). Therefore, it gives you options.

However, if your comm/law degree is at UTS/macq/uws you'll get into an average law firm and not IB.

However, with the traineeship path you can get into IB later, but it takes longer and you don't get to enjoy uni and work long hours for crap money while your at uni.

Therefore, if degree is at unsw and above, do it, otherwise take the traineeship if its at a big 4. simple. If its not at a big 4, just go to uni.

(*this is with the assumption you're not utterly inept socially)
**people will flame me for making such generalisations, but in business it is competitive and everyone knows this is generally accepted, although there are rare exceptions, i think its a better idea to be realistic.

 

[doink]

Above is somewhat correct however a law degree @ macq and UTS doesnt mean you wont get into a high tier law firm, there is every chance you will and a survey i saw posted on these forums somewhere showed that of the 14 firms surveyed (who were all big firms) 10 hired UTS grads and 9 hired Macq grads.

Plus being a lawyer is awesome, you have so many options in your career you dont have to work 60 hour weeks or go to court if you don't want to, plus you get the advantages of a Commerce degree.

End of the day its about what you want to do for the rest of your life.

 

[MichaelJackson2]

at the end of the day it's about personal preferences my friend.. one man's meat is another's poison as the saying goes... I originally wanted to become an accountant but that was becos I was blinded by the flamboyant CA ads with dudes in surfboards...yea right. if you've actually read through an accounting textbook, you would have realised that it's pretty boring, boring enough to suck the living daylight out of you in my opinion. I did the CA achiever in 2005 and that was absolute shithouse. Law is far more interesting in my opinion, also more useful in the long run since it teaches you how to think whereas accounting was just reading a textbook, memorising stuff and regurgitating it on the exam. boring and pointless.