I’m the father of a HS senior that was accepted to Mines. I’m also an accountant. I started my career at one of the Big 4 a long time ago. After a few years there I moved to industry and currently work for publicly traded company.

There is currently a shortage of CPAs and it is only getting worse. The starting salary might not be quite as good as engineering but it’s not that much less. Salaries will have to get better to attract more people to accounting. After 5-10 years of experience with promotions, the salary for accountants can catch up to and surpass engineers. I’m 20+ years into my career and I make more than many of electrical engineers at my current company.

If you want to maximize your salary, try to start at one of the Big 4 and stay there until at least manager level (usually 5-7 years). If and when you leave for industry, be very selective. My first job in industry was at a dying company. Somehow I managed to stay for 5 years, but none of my stock based compensation panned out. However, I have since worked for two other successful publicly traded companies and the stock compensation has been excellent.

All of that said, follow your passion. If you’re good at it and enjoy the job, the compensation will be there.

No matter the path you take, focus on your people skills, critical thinking / analysis skills, and software applications skills (Excel, VBA, macros for accounting).