R Programmer with B.S Accounting

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StilloftheNight

New Member
#1
#1
Is it possible to become a Statistical Programmer such as an R programmer with an undergraduate degree in Accounting? From the research I have done, most job descriptions like to see someone with Math, Comp Sci, or Stat degrees. Wouldn't accounting be considered analytical along with those as well? To the best of my knowledge, those majors do not teach anyone how to become a good programmer, as they mostly provide lots of theory for the purposes of academic knowledge.

I am almost done with an Accounting major, but I developed more of an interest in Statistics (go figure right!). If I can teach myself R by using books and other resources, do you think I would have a shot at being an R programmer?
 
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the42up

New Member
#3
#3
StilloftheNight said:
Is it possible to become a Statistical Programmer such as an R programmer with an undergraduate degree in Accounting? From the research I have done, most job descriptions like to see someone with Math, Comp Sci, or Stat degrees. Wouldn't accounting be considered analytical along with those as well? To the best of my knowledge, those majors do not teach anyone how to become a good programmer, as they mostly provide lots of theory for the purposes of academic knowledge.

I am almost done with an Accounting major, but I developed more of an interest in Statistics (go figure right!). If I can teach myself R by using books and other resources, do you think I would have a shot at being an R programmer?
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go big and put the extra year or two in to get the masters in stat. Your projected income would probably double plus open you up to a much larger job market. And if you ever feel like getting a phd, a masters in statistics is pretty much a gateway degree into every single phd I can think of.

But to answer your question, I think to supplement that accounting degree, you should get a few certifications. Go ahead and nab certifications in R, excel and MUCH more important than either SAS.

Researchers love R, its open source and a great language for doing stats.

The government and corporations love SAS, why? Because SAS is insured in case a bug royally screws up analysis.

Good luck
 
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StilloftheNight

New Member
#4
#4
The most math I ever have taken was up to Calc 2. I feel very uncomfortable with proofs, theorems at this point because I never really exposed myself to it very much. I know Stats courses are no joke especially at the grad level. I wish I knew about Stats when I started college, I probably would have taken and focused more on math courses to prepare myself. I was just curious though about the R language and if one needs to have an extensive math background for it. I have an Intro Stats book by Neil Weiss 9th edition that I read to try and at least familiarize myself as much as possible with all of the tests and assumptions, testing for normality, methods to transform skewed data into normal data etc.
 
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