Higher Learning? An Analysis of the Intrinsic Value of the University Diploma from the Perspective of the Accounting Industry

• In Event: Emerging Research Discussion Session II

Abstract

Throughout the United States, prestigious Accounting schools are turning out ill-prepared students to employers. These employers must spend the first one to two years of employment teaching their new employees, who are recent college graduates, the fundamentals of how to perform their functions within the firm. This phenomenon in the public accounting industry has many names, but the one that this author has coined is that of “First-Year Shock” (FYS). The purpose of this study is to understand the phenomenon of FYS as it relates to the overall productivity of the public accounting industry. To do so, it is imperative to study why new hires experience this phenomenon and if it is the product of competing industry agendas or merely a maturing process that all new hires must go through to understand their job duties. Research was conducted qualitatively through the relevant on-the-job experience of this researcher and quantitatively through a survey instrument developed by this researcher that attempts to identify the source of FYS and its relationship to firm productivity

Author

• Tim Naddy, Shorter University