Can Adding CPA Enhance my Career in Marketing

Question: I am a student at University taking Bachelor in Business Administration. I intend to take a Marketing option come next semester. I have also enrolled for CPA (Certified Public Accountant) exams. I am just wondering if I am doing the right thing. Please advice. Fred

Answer: If you combine a course in accounts with any other professional discipline, as in your case, Marketing, you get an immediate added advantage. The advantage is in the 'nasty' word for your take home package called value, but great news for a potential employer, also called multi-tasking.

It is a good thing and gives your value in the sense that you are likely going to be more marketable to a potential employer because you present to them the potential of doing more than one critical job for the salary of one employee. All over this country, employers love those kinds of employees. Therefore, you are likely to qualify for a job in a long queue of job seekers faster than most. That of course is as long as you observe all the other employment marketability issues correctly.

The other side of that, and this is more important in terms of your personal career progression choices, is the fact that it is easier to get stuck in a dead end job far easier than most one-paper holders. Why?

Chances are you can clinch yourself a salary increase a lot faster in the work place than the average single-paper holder. Remember, an employer still finds it cheaper to keep you in the job at the pay of one employee for the services of two professionals. Therefore, they will offer you sweet perks like a car, house allowance, and all sorts of allowances to keep you on the job. That there is the trap of a dad end job – you are a pawn in a bigger game of keeping the best for the least that all employers play.

Now, let us get back to your advantages now that you understand employment advantages. You wish to go into marketing. You will of course learn that this is a decision-driven career that will take some years before you are given important reigns to run. However, in your own best interests and in the interests of the company (if you are clever), you are able, with your CPA to read numbers far better and therefore can honestly give better value in terms of analysis of possible results of your marketing programs.

What then is important for you is to keep a second eye open for the long-term to see where you can put in your qualifications to make good honest money for yourself. If you can read the ‘bottom line’ from the start, then you are more likely to make very strong decisions on your marketing decisions and that can be a huge advantage for yourself.


So the simple answer to your question "I'm I doing the right thing?" is Yes!