[Nobodyukno]

So I, like a number of you, never really planned to spend my whole career in accounting. I have both a Finance and Accounting degree and figured I’d start in accounting and switch over to a finance position later on down the road.

I am just starting in a couple weeks at the Big 4. I was sucked into the Big 4 starting with my sophomore year of college and have been along for the ride ever since.

I felt like accounting was the safest choice early on in the career as positions are always in high demand and I really had no idea what I wanted to do in finance besides definitely not anything involved with IB.

After a few more years in college and graduating, I’ve come to realize I’m most interested in data analytics. Does anyone have any experience in this industry and could shed some light on some job opportunities? What about the transition from accounting to something involving data analytics?

Thanks.

[mystical guy]

My first job out of college was in Data Analytics for a giant company in industry. It seems to me that many companies like to outsource the hiring of Data Analysts to the IT job agencies like Radiant Systems Inc, Bartech, maybe Teksystems, etc.

There are certain key attributes that make a great data analyst. The first one is being good with databases, the second one is having at least average programming skills. Why? Because you'll mine data and then use your programming skills to build reports e.g. using SQL, SAP, or Visual Basic…and the usual Office applications like Excel. Your ability to learn any programming language or use of any platform/application in a short time will be critical.

Then you need the people skills because you'll most likely deal on a day-to-day basis with other employees and senior management. You'll attend many meetings with company directors and presidents and they might want you to mine data for them right in the board room. This is the management advisory part of the job, so your communication skills must be excellent.

Back to your Accounting/Finance background, that is very golden, actually. They want Data Analysts that are good with numbers because, at the end of the day, most decisions are financial decisions. They also know that business graduates are good at the actual analysis and investigative work (e.g. investigating why a metric increased by 0.2% over a certain time period). The downside of your Finance background is that the Audit department will try to get you to join them, and you may now have to deal in internal controls a little more than the actual analysis. However, internal audit teams will sometimes have a specialist in a particular area. You might become their “data” guy, someone like me would be their IT Audit guy.

Just to add on that, your Finance background also means that you understand the business processes, or you can learn them. In short, if you want to get into that career, all you need is start taking interest in data mining and programming.

CPA - Since 2015
CISA - Smashed 2012
CIA - Passed 2015

[Author]

Replies