The days when your major had nothing to do with the job you got after graduation might be over. In fact, according to the 2010 Student Survey recently released by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), academic major was the leading indicator of which undergraduates earned a job offer before graduation.
According to the study, students who majored in accounting, business, computer science, engineering, and social sciences fared best, with more than 40 percent receiving a job offer by the time they were awarded a degree. Of these, accounting majors topped the list with 47 percent of respondents securing a job offer by graduation, followed by business majors with 45 percent.
For the up-and-coming accountants, dreams and reality seem to be getting closer to one another. Undergraduates who responded to a recent survey conducted by Universum Group about the employers for whom they’d most like to work put Google (GOOG) at No. 1 with the Big Four accounting firms – KPMG, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deloitte – rounding out the top five.
In addition to having jobs to offer undergraduates during the economic crisis, accounting firms offer undergraduates the promise of a thriving career, said Michal Kalinowski, CEO of Universum Group in Stockholm, in an interview. “The Big Four accounting firms are perceived as fantastic career launch vehicles,” he said.
Liberal arts majors have not been as successful. Less than 30 percent of those with degrees in English, foreign language, and education, according to NACE, had job offers by graduation.
-by Francesca Di Meglio
Read the full article: Accounting and Business Majors Score Jobs