Education and Training needed to become an Accountant It depends on the job you take and at what level you work. Before I didn't mention that with a BA you can usually get a pretty good job with any number of companies and work your way up. Expect grunt jobs for experience. If your GPA is high, you may be able to go to work for a CPA firm. They will teach you as you go along . . .some. . .and they will expect you to study and pass your CPA test. It's a good way to get experience but getting jobs at good firms are not easy and it is a man's world. Most places all you need is your BA. . .a Master's is better but let me amend that. Here the degree plan is a 5 year plan and gives you the 150 hours you need to sit for the CPA exam. And then you need two years experience and $ to pay your dues and do the continuing education. When I came out of college I still didn't have the everyday touch but knew the rules. I worked at a small day school and another lady helped me learn the day to day stuff. . .like actually doing payroll and payroll taxes. All of that is pretty easy. . .it's just more stuff to learn. About math. . .your life becomes math. Here you need Business Calculus and it was tough. I started college later in life because my math skills were so bad in high school. I'm not stupid and didn't study and math and accounting require much more study than normal subjects. You must learn the rules. I had to take remedial algebra before I started college credit courses and needed it. I was lucky and got a great algebra teacher that made the class not only easy but fun. He was quite the teacher and he made us all realize that you can do it and it isn't that hard. With remedial algebra I started by reading the chapters, doing the homework and then writing all the rules down in the back of my note book. That made it easy to constantly review and get it all straight. By the time I got out of remedial algebra I had all the rules down pat and the next classes were just fine. With Accounting be sure to go to a school that has an accounting lab because you get good help there. I went from a terrible math student to a very good one because I applied myself and that's what you will have to do. You learn that math is actually everything and the further I got in it, the more interesting it became. The trick to math is you must do the homework. Accounting is the same. If you don't apply yourself, you will not like it and you will fail. They both build on what you have learned. If there is something you didn't learn, you have a hole in your learning you can't get around. Take some remedial courses and apply yourself. You will get good. And always do the last two problems in each chapter. . assigned or not. If you can do them, you're usually ok. If not, find out why not. Take the time to learn and train your mind and you will be ever so glad you did. With accounting be prepared to do major homework. Good luck and hope this helps. And $ wise, it depends on what type of job you land. There is good money in accounting. Count on doing grunt jobs to start and understand as you learn, you might have to move on to better jobs. I ended up working for a CPA doing grunt work and going to different clients offices to help with problems. I learned QuickBooks and set up offices and their books and did help out with their daily problems. At one point the CPA decided to go into IRS resolution and didn't want the clients anymore and GAVE them to me. Now I had my own clients and my own company. My business grew and I so enjoyed making the bigger $. I still kept myself within what I knew and always let them take their year end stuff to a CPA and they did the taxes (CPAs so get sued). After years of that and a lot of time at the beach I have one major client and I do his beck and call. That's usually one day a week. He pays excellently and that's all I need these days and I like working one day a week and off six. Parlay your earnings so that you don't work just for someone else for the rest of your life and have other income. But you need to get started. If you have ambition and are willing to work for it, go for that accounting degree but catch up on your math before you do. And you can do that yourself. . .get a book and go back over it until you understand it. And don't rely on a calculator and do learn Excel and Quickbooks.