Torn between Computer Programming degree vs Accounting degree


Recommended Posts

Hello all. Like the title suggests I am torn.

I am passionate about technology don't get me wrong. It's just hard to keep up with technology rapidly changing. I do like the changes though. I am just wondering about layoffs when I am 50. I'm thinking they will replace me with a younger person that is cheaper for the company or even outsourcing my job which is worse. Also who knows what new programming languages will be like in ten years from now?

I am intrigued by Accounting. I can see myself retiring from a company that I have been at for a very long time. There are also many different fields of Accounting I can apply it to. Also every company needs an Accountant. It's more stable than the I.T. field.

I don't want to be "rich" just comfortable. If someone here is an Accountant or a I.T. guy please give me some advice. Thank you.

I do IT... and I say... don't do IT

My father is an accountant... he would say... Don't do Accounting.

But out of the two, I would say that Accounting would make you more 'comfortable'. Nobody needs a qualification to work in IT and therefore it generally pays less than Accounting. Accountants are near the top of the chain of the company (because the management generally only care about money) and IT is at the bottom (The grunt workers).

For me, I work with computers as a hobby and a job. If I didn't work with computers as a job that would probably give me more time to put towards my hobby because I wouldn't be so sick of using them all day long. Computers are probably better as a hobby, and a little bit of IT knowledge in the workplace when you are not the IT person is always a little dangerous ;) .

My advice is do what you enjoy.

I'm a programmer, and in my opinion to have an enjoyable programming career and not end up writing "Business Logic" for reporting systems in corporations all your life, you need to have a passion, a spark, for programming. If you do, keeping up with the trends in languages and whatnot will be a fun experience and you won't have to worry about it. When I come home from work, I often code in my spare time, making all sorts of stupid stuff - my current project is putting an Arduino and a pile of sensors into an RC monster truck and programming to Arduino to make the truck autonomous.

I'd much rather do something that excites and engages me for a living than make a career choice based on which will earn me slightly more money. Or, to put it another way, I'd rather be happy than $5,000 per year better off.

  • Like 2

I work in I.T.

If you enjoy challenges, I find that it's a good environment. There can be some real head-scratchers when a client has a problem, which keeps me interested. However, don't consider it to be easy. You will constantly be taking courses in various I.T. positions in order to stay current, otherwise like you said you will get replaced for someone who has that information.

I can't imagine going in to accounting myself, but I guess someone has got to do it.

I'm in my first year of computer programming, and I quite like it. But I'm one of the few people as far as I can see. At school we're only doing Java for now, but I'm already trying to build Windows Phone apps in C#, and redoing homework assignments in Python instead of Java.

And, nothing stops you from doing both. I can imagine an accountant with a programming background would be amazing since you would (theoretically) be epic at creating software really built for accounting.

Basically, go with what your gut feeling tells you. Two years ago when I was thinking about what I wanted to go do I had a look at programming, got scared and started looking into other things. I didn't find anything I liked really, got depressed, failed at college (which set me back a year), and after some struggle I realized that I excluded programming for no reason at all and now I'm really enjoying it.

  On 15/11/2011 at 12:12, jc0481 said:

Hello all. Like the title suggests I am torn.

I am passionate about technology don't get me wrong. It's just hard to keep up with technology rapidly changing. I do like the changes though. I am just wondering about layoffs when I am 50. I'm thinking they will replace me with a younger person that is cheaper for the company or even outsourcing my job which is worse. Also who knows what new programming languages will be like in ten years from now?

I am intrigued by Accounting. I can see myself retiring from a company that I have been at for a very long time. There are also many different fields of Accounting I can apply it to. Also every company needs an Accountant. It's more stable than the I.T. field.

I don't want to be "rich" just comfortable. If someone here is an Accountant or a I.T. guy please give me some advice. Thank you.

If you're 50 and you're still screwing around doing rote programming, yeah, they'll hire someone younger. If you've developed any skills over those 30 years of work, you won't be some grunt I.T. guy any more.

Also, are we talking I.T vs. Accounting, or Computer Science vs. Accounting?

  On 15/11/2011 at 14:19, threetonesun said:

Also, are we talking I.T vs. Accounting, or Computer Science vs. Accounting?

Agreed. If you have a CS degree, you'd be pretty dumb to go in the I.T. industry.

If you go into accounting, you'll want to get your CPA which I believe isn't cheap to get and is pretty tough. Though, I'd do it just for the challenge. :)

Personally, and keep in mind I'm saying personally here, not implying everyone before someone with a CS degree hops on here and gets upset with me, but for me, I've never met anyone with a computer science degree that was worth a crap when it came to programming anything. And I've met a lot of them. Just saying. So I'd do accounting, you probably would make more money.

I am self-taught and got lucky to get some good jobs without that degree (high school diploma is all I have) of course now, I'm a self-employed developer, so none of that matters now.

When I was studying programming, large portions of the curriculum was accounting classes, so you might be able to pull off a dual major by taking all of the classes for both, assuming that they overlap some at your college.

  On 15/11/2011 at 14:24, rev23dev said:

I've never met anyone with a computer science degree that was worth a crap when it came to programming anything.

Raw computer science hasn't got much to do with programming, per se. A lot of Universities and colleges do a bastardisation of the two and end up with a course that is pretty poor at both. I learned that the hard way when I joined Spotify - their interview process is very Computer Science heavy due to the nature of the service and I didn't know squat. Thankfully, I'd had enough experience and was a good enough programmer to get the job anyway, and now I'm learning proper Computer Science by hanging around the people who maintain the Spotify backend.

On a different note, is "Accountant + Lawyer" a real thing? How do the two professions intersect?

Here is my input and I was in a very similar position.

There is a big shortage of people who understand Accounting and Systems, meaning, if you can understand how accounting works but also under stand how IT systems link to the accounting processes, you will be in massive demand.

I got my undergrad in Accounting, working on my MBA but also fully understand how to talk to IT folks. Accountants are not good communicators, IT is typically not good at communication, I fill that gap and have more work that I can deal with ( I am a consultant).

My advice would be this, get an Accounting degree, if you can do it, get an IT as well, you will be an essential employee and easily marketable...hell, if you had both, I would hire you to help out at my firm.

IT can be more creative, I'm a programmer and I must say that it's nice but I can't stand projects that last longer than 4 months, I just get tired of the same project. Accounting must be very boring and repetitive, in my personal case, I hate accounting so I'm not the best person to give an advice about which one is better

Nothing wrong with IT.. Thing is depending where you work/on what you work it can becoming kind of boring. It's only so much fun loading an inventory program you are working on 100x while you write it.

However, with IT when it's a new project, or you code something that's really cool / has a big impact on what you are working on, there is a big drive to work on it.

For example, I am currently starting a code base that all of the company's distributed software (software we sell) will be based on. It uses a module system with 1 base program that loads programs stored in DLLs to make it seem like everything is just one big program when in fact it's a whole bunch of small programs.

It's fun making little leaps of progress, like when you can have two DLL's talk to each other/pass data along when they have no reference of each other or anything.

For me I hate math and I would find accounting very boring.. but at the same time, I am on a computer minimum 9 hours a day so when I go home.. the last thing I want to do is sit at a computer.

Thank you all for the advice. I have decided to go with the Accounting degree. I will tell you why in my own humble opinion. I did not put any order to this list.

1. There is less constant change than with a I.T. degree. With a I.T. degree I would have had to take continuing education classes just to keep up with the constant pace of technology.

2. Accounting degree is a degree I can retire from. Then when I am retired and still want to work. I can apply to be a Walmart greeter. :D

I don't see much people retire from a I.T. degree or a Computer Science degree.

3. Job security. Companies and individuals still will need accountants in a good economy or in a bad one.

4. I can be self-employed. If I wanted to be. I can be my own boss although it can take some years to do.

5. I enjoy working with numbers and based on a few personality tests I have done either online or through books I have bought. It is one of the best career choices based on my personality.

6. The last reason I have is that Accounting have different specific fields I can move into.

  On 17/11/2011 at 07:29, jc0481 said:

Thank you all for the advice. I have decided to go with the Accounting degree. I will tell you why in my own humble opinion. I did not put any order to this list.

1. There is less constant change than with a I.T. degree. With a I.T. degree I would have had to take continuing education classes just to keep up with the constant pace of technology.

2. Accounting degree is a degree I can retire from. Then when I am retired and still want to work. I can apply to be a Walmart greeter. :D

I don't see much people retire from a I.T. degree or a Computer Science degree.

3. Job security. Companies and individuals still will need accountants in a good economy or in a bad one.

4. I can be self-employed. If I wanted to be. I can be my own boss although it can take some years to do.

5. I enjoy working with numbers and based on a few personality tests I have done either online or through books I have bought. It is one of the best career choices based on my personality.

6. The last reason I have is that Accounting have different specific fields I can move into.

Those may seem valid to you.. though I kind of have to disagree..

1) Yes IT Changes all the time, but if you stay on top of it, then you learn it as you use it.

2) Plenty of People Retire from IT/Comp Science.. many of them can be filthy rich (Bill Gates, etc)

3) Job Security.. yea I can see this being different..however depending on the job you have, you may be the only one that knows how certain software works..

4) Can be very much self employed as IT

5) I think this is why you REALLY went to Accounting

6) Uhm.. yea theres many many many IT Fields.. within those even more fields. I'll do programming for example (one of the fields in IT). There is: Network Programming, Application Programming, Game Programming, Hardware Programming, and many more.

@firey: You do have valid points. The more I research Accounting as a profession. I hear horror stories of people working long hours and being miserable. I don't want to be like that. I do love working with computers. I am the I.T. guy for my family and friends. I just want a job that I love to do, won't overwork me and still be flexible with time if I want to take a vacation.

Maybe I should talk to a Accountant and get advice from him perhaps? There is a neighbor of mine and found out that he co-founded a Accounting firm. Maybe I should talk to him before I make my switch to Accounting.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • There's a few here upset Kamala Harris never got the Presidency! lol....
    • Yeah, he identified a whole lot of wasteful spending of US taxpayer money. What's wrong with that? Nothing, unless you had your fingers in the pie of course.
    • How to reduce the annoying Liquid Glass effects on iOS 26 by Aditya Tiwari Apple announced Liquid Glass at WWDC 2025 in all of its glory. It's a new glass-inspired design language from the iPhone-maker making its way to most of its software platforms, including iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, tvOS 26, and watchOS 26. Apple markets Liquid Glass as a new translucent material that "behaves like glass in the real world. Its color is informed by surrounding content and intelligently adapts between light and dark environments." The Cupertino giant isn't wrong. The new glass-inspired design does bring a fresh coat of paint and some beautiful visuals to the iPhone and other Apple-made devices. However, as the dust from the mega arrival settles, people are starting to realize the current drawbacks of having too much glass on their device. There have been reports of users, including those at Neowin, experiencing readability issues, background separation issues, and trouble focusing on the content displayed on the screen due to its transparent nature. While these are small nuances on Apple's part that can be fixed without much hassle, it's degrading the initial experience of what the company calls its biggest visual upgrade since iOS 7. That said, there are some workarounds built into iOS 26 that will help you tone down the shortcomings. If you're running the iOS 25 Developer Beta 1 on your supported iPhone model, you can follow these steps to make things a little better: Go to the Settings app on your iPhone. Scroll down and tap on Accessibility > Display & Text Size. Next, you'll find two toggle options: Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast. When you enable the Reduce Transparency toggle button, iOS 26 can "improve contrast by reducing transparency and blurs on some backgrounds to increase legibility." The other toggle, Increase Contrast, does what its name suggests. It can "increase color contrast between app foreground and background colors." Enabling each of these toggle buttons individually or simultaneously will have different effects on your iPhone's user interface. Control Center is being criticized for the extra transparency, making the UI look cluttered and difficult to focus. Here, the Reduce Transparency button adds a darker background to make the Control Center UI elements stand out. Liquid Glass transparency issues are also prevalent in the Notification Center and the navigation controls of various apps. In the image above, see how the text of the navigation buttons has become unreadable or hard to focus on with certain backgrounds. It's challenging to determine what can trigger such behavior, as one can have countless color combinations on their device. In the image below, this is how these buttons look when both Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast are enabled. It's still a hit or miss depending on what colors you are dealing with. Part of the blame also goes to the fact that iOS 26 is still an early beta, and the change doesn't render as intended every time. You can also notice the difference in the look and feel of the Control Center when reduced transparency is turned on. On a side note, you can add the Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast buttons in the Control Center for quicker access. That said, let's wait to see what changes Apple will implement as it continues to gather feedback through the beta program. Hopefully, the software will become more stable when the first public beta of iOS 26 arrives sometime in July. Interested users can try out the latest iPhone update through the developer beta program, noting that early builds might come with unexpected bugs and issues.
    • Austin residents rally against Tesla's robotaxi launch by Hamid Ganji Tesla's plan to launch its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, has sparked protests in the city. While the EV maker targets June 22 as the launch date, local residents are raising their voices against the plan due to political disagreements and safety concerns. As reported by CNBC, public safety advocates and political protesters are organizing protests against Tesla's robotaxi launch in Austin. Members of the Dawn Project, Tesla Takedown, and Resist Austin have cited safety issues with Tesla's automated driving systems. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's involvement in Donald Trump's administration and his work in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has prompted another group of people to join the Austin protests against Tesla. To show Austin citizens the safety problems of Tesla's self-driving system, The Dawn Project brought a Tesla Model Y to the protest, equipped with the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software (version 13.2.9). In the demonstration, the Model Y with FSD software reportedly zoomed past a school bus with a stop sign held out and ran over a child-sized mannequin placed in front of the car. The FSD package includes automatic lane-keeping, steering, and parking. It is unclear to what extent this test was conducted under standard conditions or what Tesla's defense is. However, multiple cases of Tesla FSD software malfunction in the past have resulted in collisions or severe accidents, according to data collected by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Interestingly, The Dawn Project CEO Dan O'Dowd is the CEO of another company that sells embedded safety and security solutions to carmakers like Ford and Toyota. It remains to be seen whether Tesla could launch a robotaxi service in Austin despite the residents' protests. Earlier this week, Elon Musk demonstrated the new version of Tesla's FSD software in a post on X. Musk's decisions on DOGE fuel public backlash against Tesla. While Musk left the Trump administration after a beef with the president, he's still a target of public criticism, which directly imapcts Tesla. As a result, the slow sales have even caused Tesla to sell its Cybertruck with 0 percent APR to boost sales.
    • I'm sure Denmark would stand to lose a lot if US consumers stopped buying Danish products, whether that's Lurpak butter or hi-fi equipment.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      greege earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      greege earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      LagFighterZ earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      ThatGuyOnline earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      5i3zi1 earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      547
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      230
    3. 3
      +FloatingFatMan
      166
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      119
    5. 5
      +Edouard
      91
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!