OXFORD, Miss- “The economy has been playing a huge role in the number of jobs offered to students graduating from the school of accountancy, Dr. Riley Shaw said.
The University of Mississippi School of Accountancy has seen a drastic drop in the number of jobs students are offered after graduating.
Dr. Shaw said, “the demand for accountants has gone down quite a bit in the past years, but the supply (students graduating) has risen.”
Dr. Shaw graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Ph.D. in accounting. He started teaching here in the fall of 2002. He is now an Associate Professor of Accounting.
There are about 750 students in the school of accountancy, 120 of those are working on their masters degree, in hopes of ensuring themselves jobs.
“It use to be if you could walk and talk you could get a job, but the economy and demand has really put a halt to students receiving jobs,” Shaw said.
Erin Elliot, a student who graduated from the masters program for accounting at Ole Miss said, “it’s been tough, but somehow I stuck through and got what I was striving for.”
As a member of Beta Alpha Psi, the greek organization for students in the school of accounting, her job offers increased drastically.
“The emphasis of grades and also being involved in Beta Alpha Psi and other extracurricular activities plays a huge role in students getting offered jobs,” Shaw said.
Erin will be interning at IFAC in New York City this coming August, she is hoping to be offered a full-time job while interning.
IFAC, the International Federation of Accountants, offered Erin the position immediately following her graduation.
She will be interning for two months, while she also searches for other accounting jobs in the city.
Many alumni from Ole Miss get a chance to meet the students from the Beta Alpha Psi, which also boosts the number of jobs offered to students.
“If an alum has a spot open at his or her firm, they will call the school and ask for a student to come work for them,” Shaw said.
Students still seem interested in getting degrees whether the economy is playing on their side or not.
“There is a lot of regulation in firms today, if your performance isn’t good, you’re gone,” Shaw said.
The number of students in the school has risen over the past years. This past year alone the number of students in the school was an all time high.
The economy is slowly coming back, and jobs are starting to be offered to young, aspiring accountants. This could be the silver lining that graduating students are hoping for.
