Future Prospects With an Accounting MBA

There are a variety of Master’s degrees called by different names that equate to what might be called an “Accounting MBA.” The 21^st century has created thousands of new, more lucrative opportunities for holders of this type of graduate degree. You can even combine an additional specialty if your focus is more defined. Along with accounting graduate programs titled, “MBA in Accounting,” you could also select others like “MBA/Accounting and Finance” or “MBA/Accounting and Information Technology.” As often happens, disaster for some brings opportunities to others. The corporate scandals of the new millennium, like Enron, WorldComm and Tyco, have opened new, higher compensation doors for accounting MBAs.
The passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 further enhanced the opportunities by specifying the manner through which all public companies report the results of their operations fairly. Opportunities for accounting MBAs exist in both the public sector (external forensic auditors) and internally (many companies have their own internal auditing staff) to ensure the requirements of the act are being met and to report and investigate possible violations. People with accounting MBAs have an excellent combination of accounting and operational business knowledge to provide the expertise needed to manage the responsibilities of fair reporting. Compensation, after new graduates gain some professional experience, routinely exceeds $100,000 per year for many of these positions.