Abstract
ABSTRACT This research aims to grasp which factors influence the generation Y to choose accounting as its career. A significant decline in the number of candidates willing to pursue a career as accountant has been observed abroad - USA, Australia, and Japan. However, in other countries - Brazil, Singapore, and Hong Kong - the opposite has been observed. Another issue is the decline in educational qualification of those pursuing an accounting career, contributing in a way that many talented students change their career choice. This may be explained by the fact that people tend to believe accounting is an exact science, full of calculations, boring, and not very creative, bringing an unbalance between the traits an individual should have according to the job market and those perceived by society. In order to give a contribution to literature concerning the factors that influence the generation Y in its career choice, a goal of this research was conducting an exploratory study where some hypotheses were formulated to support the discussion. We used Mannheim's Generational Theory and the literature on career choice. Data collection was carried out using a questionnaire, based on Schwartz's Portrait Value Questionnaire and Germeijs and Verschueren's Student Choice Task Inventory, adapted through focus group interview. Data were fully collected online and the sample consisted of 665 subjects. The results showed that people who chose accounting as their career were influenced by factors such as creativity, independence, challenging and dynamic environment, job security, money-making, job availability, and other significant people - friends and teachers. The subjects were not influenced by social factors, such as working with people and making contributions to society and family. They wish for more autonomy, creativity, and flexibility at work, and people still care about job security and money-making.
Highlights
Increased school time and increased years of schooling, named by Pimenta (2007) as “post-adolescence,” are observed due to increased length in time, and because of its association with other factors, such as a later entry into the job market, since young individuals wait and try out professions, remain with their family, and delay marriage
The Gen Y (Stein, 2013) consists of young people who are eager to consume new technologies, looking for immediate outcomes and rewards, yearn for autonomy and balance between personal life and work, prone to multitasking, settled down to a domestic life and civic duties, there are controversies concerning these traits in the literature, e.g. Dejoux and Wechtler (2011), who present myths related to the Gen Y, such as lower efficiency due to a predilection for multitasking
The results indicate that the Gen Y perceives the prestige of a career as exerting influence on its decision to pursue an accounting career; this does not corroborate the findings by Azevedo (2010), as well as our focus group interviews
Summary
Increased school time and increased years of schooling, named by Pimenta (2007) as “post-adolescence,” are observed due to increased length in time, and because of its association with other factors, such as a later entry into the job market, since young individuals wait and try out professions, remain with their family, and delay marriage Such an increased length of schooling may be explained by the characteristics of modern society, with sudden social and capitalist changes: people believe that a young adult is never prepared for a professional career, she/he is expected to acquire further knowledge and expertise (Oliveira & Melo-Silva, 2010). In Brazil, research addressing this theme has gained ground recently through studies conducted by authors like Cavazotte, Lemos, and Viana (2012), Oliveira, Piccinini, and Bitencourt (2012), Scharf, Rosa, and Oliveira (2012), and Vasconcelos, Merhi, Goulart, and Silva (2010)
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