Introduction

During the past two decades, a series of studies investigating students interest in accounting as a major
and career were in part motivated by declining accounting enrollments (Doran and Brown, 2001;
McCrary, 2001; Francisco et al., 2003).
Din (2008) utilized factor analysis and determined the following seven main factors in deciding career
choice: high earnings expectations, career expectations, job experience, knowledge and ability, family
environment, social status, and education environment.
After a severe reduction in accounting graduates early in the century, the declining trend reversed in
2006-2007 and has since had a gradual upward movement (The AICPA, 2013).
Accounting majors, due to the 150-hour requirement, have to either delay graduation or take 18 hours
overload per semester to complete their education (Bernardi and Kelting, 1997).
There has been a decline of interest in accounting career choice in recent time. With the implementation
of the 150-hour education requirement to become a licensed CPA and the requirements for recruiting
qualified accountant are some reason for this.
Literature Review
Geiger and Ogilby (2000) emphasize the importance of the introductory accounting course, saying it is a
student's first and potentially only, exposure to accounting. Then the said that the quality of the
instructors' assignments during the course is important, in part, because it can impact the supply of
accounting majors to both an accounting program and the accounting profession.
There has been a decreasing trend in students while choosing accounting as their major of study. Smith
(2005) found that the 150-hour education requirement, relatively low starting salaries and negative image
of the accounting profession is some of the reason in the early 2000s.
Students choose accounting depending few factors like their success in the introductory courses, their
math skills and accounting study load. With a student of 287 from accounting major and other major
including marketing, economics, finance and general management Cohen and Hanno (1993) conducted a
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survey. According to the survey result it is found that non accounting major believe accounting as boring
and number-oriented.
Mauldin (2000) conducted a survey to investigate the factors that affect the students choice of choosing
accounting major. He found that about 41 percent of students chose accounting in college at the time of
their first accounting course while only 34 percent select at their high school level. He also found few
factors that affect that influence students choice while deciding. These includes career opportunities,
interest in the subject, instructor, money, parents, enjoyment, previous experience, life style offered
because of the career, challenge, prestige, usefulness in operating a business, and other students.
Yayla and Cengiz, (2005) found that respondents own choice, family and close environment effect,
interesting profession, earnings expectations, and job opportunities are the key factors that
influence a student to choose accounting as a course to study and later on as a career.
McDowall, & Jackling, (2010), and Rkein, (2012) determined that the skill or ability has a significant
negative impact on choosing accounting as a career. Students always associate accounting with good
numerical ability.
From the above findings it can be said that there are various factors that may have impact on students
choice. These factors can either be internal factors also can be external factors. Internal factors like
personal abilities, mathematical competencies, interest while the external factors can be like job
availability, earnings etc.
My Theory
My strong interest in understanding business and creative world started to grow when I first choose
Business studies over Science in my high school level. Then I completed my Bachelor of Business
Administration in Marketing major, which provided me the basics of business knowledge. Professional
skills are needed in all kind of profession and perusing a professional degree like Masters in Professional
Accounting is a best choice for me. My country Bangladesh has a trade-oriented economy that is
progressively focused on exporting to markets of EU and USA. To be the part of this progression and for
the development of my career, I understood the urge of having Accounting knowledge and professional
expertise along with my marketing knowledge that I gathered from my Bachelor degree. I have completed
my Bachelor of Business Administration. I never considered accounting as my ultimate career. I was
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never attracted to mathematics related courses. That is the reason I selected Marketing as major due to my
persuasion about the vastness of its scope in academic and professional development. I was offered
comprehensive learning in versatile courses such as Principles of Accounting, Statistics, Mathematics,
International Marketing, and Marketing Research. But after exploring my countries job market and their
requirements I understood that having only marketing knowledge is not enough to get my expected
career. So I decided to do my masters in Accounting. In Australia, accounting has a great prospective as a
career. I have come through different people here who are now doing their masters in accounting while
their bachelors is form different background like economics, engineering, environmental science etc.
When asked about the reason to choose accounting as the area of study, their response includes many
factors. Few said that they selected accounting for their higher education as a requirement of their existing
job while some choose it because of the expected high income prospect from accounting profession.
Some believe that accountant gets more social recognition than some other profession. Few discovered
their self-competency in accounting while doing elementary accounting units in bachelors. During their
bachelor degree most of my friends including me believed that accounting will be a boring subject to
study that is the reason I studied marketing. But after analyzing current job market and future prospect I
decided accounting as my future career path and doing my masters in Accounting.

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Conclusion
The main objective of this study is to understand the factors that impact the students choice of deciding
their accounting career. This study indicates that the behavioral intention is one of the key factor for
deciding accounting as a career. Accounting program curriculum also has an impact on student choice.
There are various variables and factors that greatly impact students choice. Students success in
accounting courses have a positive relation with the career choice in accounting career. Factors like
interest in accounting, perceived job opportunities, and suitability of abilities influencing students
decision. Interest produce high motivation. If the student have interest in the respective subject in this
case accounting, they will succeed. There can be opposite also. Students sometimes have perceptions
regarding the job opportunities which may also affect their decision. If they think their opportunity is
better in accounting field then they will select accounting as their area of study. Geographical area has
also impact on the decision. In some country there are less opportunity for accounting graduate while
some countries like Australia, there is a great prospect of accounting career. The wider the job opportunity
the more student will chose accounting. Students ability to do well in numerical courses also have
influence on the decision. Precisely, Amer et al. (2010) suggested utilizing accounting career panels as a
curricular student activity to increase students awareness of the accounting profession and accounting
major. Smith (2005) prompted revamping introductory managerial and financial accounting courses
which have significant impact on students decision to major in accounting. Accounting career now
having upward trend.

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