Is there a benefit to knowing what types of degrees accountants at prospective accounting service firms have?
Yes. For example, it would be helpful to know whether accounting service providers prefer to employ people who have accounting degrees, rather than finance degrees. Hiring people with accounting degrees accelerates the new employees’ learning curves, since they are already familiar with the accounting principles clients do not want to wait for them to develop. Employees with other types of business degrees may take a little while longer to acquire in-depth knowledge of those principles, which inhibits how quickly they can get up to speed with clients. Is it advisable to ask about the colleges from which the accountants earned their degrees? The information can be helpful. For instance, some colleges in the company’s area of coverage might have better, more established accounting programs than others and better track records in placing graduates with the more prestigious accounting firms. Others might focus on general business majors, rather than accounting specifically. Accounting firm