What would be a reasonable salary to expect? What is the long term potential?

Joey, sites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor will give you a lot of information around pay expectation. Given that the salary is a reflection of your education background, experience and skills, I'd recommend you strengthen your position on those areas, and put yourself in a better position when it comes to the salary discussion.

Hi Joey, you are asking a smart question. I do agree with the advice above. In the beginning of your career, it is really hard to really gauge the expected salary. Certain jobs you want to accept it event it doesn't pay as well but simply you can gain great experience and a good name in your resume. Experience is precious, and can certainly give your good credentials.

Secondly, expectation of reasonable salary is really depending on the city that you are located. Every city or town have different standard of living. So, if you go on google to type in the average standard of living cost in the city that you want to live in; and that is a good gauge of the salary that you want to work towards. Every city have different living of standard, some are higher and some are lower, and also depending on the taxes in each state. Here is a link as an example: https://stefanieoconnell.com/much-need-live-new-york-city/

Third and lastly, is depending what kind of lifestyle that you want. We all have our needs and wants. When you are younger, you can split your rents with 4 best buddies. You might be able to get by with $30K salary. But when you are at our 30s, you want to have a private life with your gf and eventually owning a house. You will you want to think about earning 45K-55K of salary. (again, depending on which city, and town).

Owning your own business, as an entrepreneur has an upside to it. You can work as hard as you want, to earn your salary, compare to a job which you have a fix salary. But of course, the responsibility of owning a business is much higher.

I always think it's good to work for someone for a period of time to gain some experiences is best way to start a career. That way you can learn and meet people.

Good luck Joey.

Junnie

I focus mostly in the accounting field, the more technical side of business. There are two general routes that students most often choose to pursue in accounting: tax and audit. Tax professionals will work with companies to minimize income taxes owed throughout the year and act as client advocates and consultants. Auditors review and test the financial statements of companies; their general goal is to ensure that relevant financial and non-financial information that companies release to the public is fair and accurate.

Staff accountants will most often start within the 45-60k range, but the potential for growth, especially in larger firms, is enormous, increasing salary by up to seven times the original within 10-12 years. Most middle market and large accounting firms are committed to the advancement of all staff, and the opportunity to take on supervisory responsibility even within the second year of employment. These firms will very often invest in your future as a professional, including advancement of technical skills and providing plenty of technology resources to help you stay at the top of your field. For auditors especially, there are also several exit opportunities, including controller or Chief Financial Officer for one of your clients. Tax professionals may also be recruited by clients. Overall, the public accounting field provides great advancement opportunities and very solid long-term salary potential.

Joey the salary request often times will be based on years of experience, along with how much experience you have today. Often times there roles / jobs that require someone with a unique or rare skillset which command a higher base pay. When evaluating the long term potential , this is a great question to ask yourself and the company/s you meet. I have found in today's market people on average are staying in jobs now 3-5 years. Whatever you decide to do to earn a living or create a career, do what you enjoy most and the money will be there.

The long term potential for any of those career choices is great, and it depends entirely on you. Salaries are great, but will vary significantly based on your degree, what career you chose, and the location / company. But instead of worrying about that, see what aspects of business you're attracted.

If you're very numbers oriented you can go into finance and accounting - those jobs involve understanding a company's financial position, where the company should invest its resources (eg should the marketing team get a 10% increase or the engineering team..) etc

If you like telling stories or communicating; you can go into marketing, public-relations, or any of the communications jobs. Those careers involve coming up with a marketing strategy ("how should we convince 25-30 year olds that our power bar is the best" to coming up with a way to spreading that message, "buy $50,000 worth of ads on instagram"

If you like being orderly, diving deep into how a business functions, you can look at Operations. Operations teams solve fun/ challenging business problems. For example, Ops teams will figure out how to make factories more efficient. Tim Cook (the CEO of Apple) has a background in Business Operations, some of his responsibilities included making sure that iPhones were built to highest quality standard and on time.

Furthemore, the opportunities in Business will vary based on the industry you pick and the role you chose. Ok so what should you do, how should you pick?

1. Well first focus on getting into a good college; If you are interested in an industry, try to get close to it geographically. (For example if you're interested in tech-business, go to california. If you're interested in entertainment, go to LA etc)
2. When you're in college, talk to ask many people as you can - whether they're people at career fairs, your teachers, or even fellow students about to graduate. You can ask them about their career, how they got where they are, and what they're doing. Their answers will give you insights into the opportunities potentially available you.
3. Based on your experience, the people you meet, hone in on what your interests are.

Hope this helps guide you and pick a path.