Benefits of Masters in Accounting???

Superdude1234

Hi Everyone,

I am in 4th year of my business degree and I have all CAP 1 exemptions for ACA. I have 3 offers from big accounting firms in Dublin. One of them said that they will sponsor me for a masters in Cork but the other two firms maintain that its just a waste of time and money.

I am just wondering is there any real benefits from undertaking the masters programme apart the exemption from CAP 2?
Apart from the CAP 2 i dont really see any other benefits, except for the status element of holding a masters qualification.

I kinda wanted to do a masters but my head is telling me that doing CAP 2 and FAEs in a training contract makes more sense.

Also I go to college in Dublin so college in cork would be completely new to me.

I would really appreciate anyone's advice/experience!!

tomfoolery60

Quite right, only benefit is avoiding CAP2 and having a masters. And another year in college!

Superdude1234

tomfoolery60 wrote: »

Quite right, only benefit is avoiding CAP2 and having a masters. And another year in college!

Thanks for your reply!

In saying that, would you still recommend someone to do the Masters or CAP 2?

collegeme

Superdude1234 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply!

In saying that, would you still recommend someone to do the Masters or CAP 2?

Doing CAP2 will prepare you better for the FAEs rather than going from MA into FAEs.

adrianw

I'll second collegeme - only benefit of masters is another year faffing about courtesy of the bank of mum and dad. Extra year's work experience is far more beneficial.

I know a few people with masters in accounting who couldn't pass a professional level ACA/ACCA accounting exam.

ACA/ACCA do not really care if you pass or fail. A college you are paying €10k to may have a vested interested in keeping pass, 2:1, firstsa little higher than they should be.

thomlin

This is just my opinion and not everybody will agree with me on it, but I wouldn't waste my time with a masters.

If I was hiring someone to do an accounting job and it came down to two who were identical in almost every way except one had a degree and the other a masters leaving personality aside I would more than likely hire the candidate with the degree purely because they had the better experience when it came to the professional exams.

I know that sounds crazy but my logic is very simple anyone who has or is currently doing the professional exams will tell you it takes a strong person with complete dedication to do professional exams and the more you do the harder it is to stay on point but if you've qualified then you're obviously make of the right material.

I have a first class honours degree and I worked my ass off to achieve it, but there are some colleges in Dublin anyway can't speak for the rest of the country who are more interested in student scores than actually teaching accounting and I see that in my classes now as I'm completing the professional exams simple concepts are completely alien to some students or they are so shocked by the work and effort required of them they fail the exams some more than once

The other thing you need to remember is if you have a degree and qualify you're still as equally qualified as the person who did a masters and qualified from a qualification perspective, but from a knowledge, perseverance and experience perspective you are on a totally different level to someone with a masters and that's real good.

All the best whatever you decide

Tom

mydiscworld

The UCC accountancy masters used not get you exempt from CAP 2. This may have changed so I'd check it out before deciding on which route to go down.

The Smurfit/NUIG/Waterford IT Masters all did get you exempt from CAP 2, though again I'd check the latest. Personally, I'd have loved to have done the Masters first, avoided CAP 2 and gone straight to FAEs.

A small difference is that you will be in work while your peers are off studying - you might get more interesting work while they are off.