Being a lawyer vs. being an accountant Forum

[robotclubmember]

This may surprise you then, but the vast majority of companies aren't called "firms." If you want to know have I worked, the answer would be yes.

In addition, I have access to reams of hard data on hiring by virtue of being a law student that lets me comment much more intelligently on legal hiring than you can on accounting hiring.

You are right. The fact that I've interviewed people and worked in Big Four for a few years means I know less about accounting hiring than you know about legal hiring. I'm sure you learned much more from your reams of mostly-publicly available data than I learned from my statistics that are complimented by work in the field, regular meetings with partners, and building staffing models for my office.

EDIT - Are we talking about hiring data? Or the pros and cons of choosing a career as an accountant or lawyer? I'd like to know. Oh, and I'm posting real shit: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2#p4009002. What are you adding here exactly other than telling me you don't like me, basically.

[kn6542]

Another thing factoring into my decision is that I like the topic area in law more than accounting. There is value in doing something you would enjoy more. It would be awesome if we could all just to a cost-benefit analysis with different salaries and different probabilities, but life isn't that simple.

Not speaking from personal experience but I can say from friends who are in biglaw that the ones I know at least don't find it fulfilling at all even when they are making 170k+.

Big law and accounting are both fields for sell-outs who aren't looking to contribute real value to society. We don't produce tangible goods or design new technologies. We just enable the decisions of people who have a vision. They both crush you with hours. Big law pays a lot more than the other and doesn't make you spend half the year living in a Holiday Inn. That's the difference. All the other differences between working at an accounting firm and a law firm are cosmetic. If the debate is accounting versus law, then job satisfaction isn't going to be a tie breaker for one or the other.

Wow, someone is in a cheerful mood.

This is basically true, except you might note that "sell-out" connotes the possibility of doing something else. Many people (not all) who choose biglaw or accounting are not capable of creative enterprises. There's a reason they do what they do, and yay for them.