Students entering the NC State Jenkins Master of Accounting program this fall say they feel ready to dive deeper into their coursework and prepared to talk with recruiters, following a two-week immersion in data analytics that kicked off the semester.<\/p>\n
In order to increase data analytics skills for its MAC students, the MAC Curriculum Committee dedicated the first two weeks in each of its four required MAC courses to teaching the first four chapters of the textbook, \u2018Data Analytics in Accounting.\u2019 Students split their time between in-class lecture and discussion, followed by lab work to reinforce their skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cData analytics represents one of the most significant changes facing the accounting profession in many decades,\u201d said Scott Showalter, MAC program director. \u201cThe message we are hearing from professionals in the field is that we need to do this to stay relevant.\u201d\u00a0As the accounting profession comes to understand how data analytics will shape the profession, Showalter said the entire profession from top to bottom will need to re-tool.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistorically change is driven by the top of the house,\u201d Showalter said. \u201cHowever, if you look forward at who\u2019s going to drive a lot of this change, it will actually be the younger employees.\u201d\u00a0Younger employees will have more experience with data and analytics, thanks to forward thinking programs like the Jenkins MAC program.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re preparing students for the change that they\u2019re going to drive in the accounting profession when they leave here,\u201d Showalter said.<\/p>\n
Paul Weeks (Jenkins MAC \u201815) is one of those younger employees, working for CliftonLarsonAllen Charlotte in the firm\u2019s data analytics and insights group.\u00a0\u201cThe growth potential in data analytics is huge, especially on the finance side,\u201d Weeks said.<\/p>\n
As more of the day-to-day processes become automated, firms will be looking for individuals that can gain perspectives from the data they receive, do in-depth analysis, and highlight trends that perhaps others haven\u2019t seen before, he said.\u00a0\u201cThe accountant of the future isn\u2019t someone who\u2019s doing basic accounting \u2013 you\u2019re going to be there for your business intelligence and insights,\u201d Weeks said.<\/p>\n
MAC student Chase Riker is in the midst of recruiting, and said recruiters are talking about innovation, with data analytics often a main focus. He\u2019s found recruiters are excited to hear he already has some experience with data analytics. Riker said the data analytics immersion sets Jenkins MAC students apart in the eyes of recruiters.<\/p>\n
And in fact, the experience made a bigger impact on Riker, who has shifted his focus from audit to innovation.\u00a0\u201cIt opened my eyes to what I want to do, and where I see myself in the profession,\u201d Riker said. \u201cI realized I want to be involved in more of that innovative thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that students have been introduced to these new skills, they have the foundation necessary for further data analytics cases and exercises that will be added to additional MAC courses. Each professor teaching this fall reviewed and updated their course content to reflect this change.<\/p>\n
Jenkins MAC student Jessica Woolfe didn\u2019t have much experience with data analytics when she entered the MAC program, and appreciated the two-week immersion to gain a more grounded understanding of the topic.\u00a0In her coursework, Woolfe said she\u2019s better able to take a step back to do the analytics and better understand the questions that are asked.\u00a0\u201cI think it\u2019s extremely important, the whole accounting profession is moving into more of this analytical thinking mindset,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about crunching numbers \u2013 with this new technology our roles are shifting.\u00a0Now we\u2019re interpreting this data a lot better and a lot more efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenkins MAC student Logan Tucciarone finds the information he picked up during that two-week immersion is always in the back of his mind as he continues his coursework.\u00a0Tucciarone said the immersion experience created an awareness he\u2019ll use in his studies and as he moves into the profession.\u00a0\u201cThe important thing is getting the taste and the awareness of how important data analytics is \u2013 it really is the future,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom what I understand in recruitment, we\u2019re not expected to know everything but we are expected to have a good idea of what\u2019s going to be set in front of us.\u00a0Data analytics is going to be something that comes to the forefront in this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally posted on October 10, 2019, on the MAC Student Life Blog<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"Students entering the NC State Jenkins Master of Accounting program this fall say they feel ready to dive deeper into their coursework and prepared to talk with recruiters, following a two-week immersion in data analytics that kicked off the semester.\r\n\r\nIn order to increase data analytics skills for its MAC students, the MAC Curriculum Committee dedicated the first two weeks in each of its four required MAC courses to teaching the first four chapters of the textbook, \u2018Data Analytics in Accounting.\u2019 Students split their time between in-class lecture and discussion, followed by lab work to reinforce their skills.\r\n\r\n\u201cData analytics represents one of the most significant changes facing the accounting profession in many decades,\u201d said Scott Showalter, MAC program director. \u201cThe message we are hearing from professionals in the field is that we need to do this to stay relevant.\u201d\u00a0As the accounting profession comes to understand how data analytics will shape the profession, Showalter said the entire profession from top to bottom will need to re-tool.\r\n\r\n\u201cHistorically change is driven by the top of the house,\u201d Showalter said. \u201cHowever, if you look forward at who\u2019s going to drive a lot of this change, it will actually be the younger employees.\u201d\u00a0Younger employees will have more experience with data and analytics, thanks to forward thinking programs like the Jenkins MAC program.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re preparing students for the change that they\u2019re going to drive in the accounting profession when they leave here,\u201d Showalter said.\r\n\r\nPaul Weeks (Jenkins MAC \u201815) is one of those younger employees, working for CliftonLarsonAllen Charlotte in the firm\u2019s data analytics and insights group.\u00a0\u201cThe growth potential in data analytics is huge, especially on the finance side,\u201d Weeks said.\r\n\r\nAs more of the day-to-day processes become automated, firms will be looking for individuals that can gain perspectives from the data they receive, do in-depth analysis, and highlight trends that perhaps others haven\u2019t seen before, he said.\u00a0\u201cThe accountant of the future isn\u2019t someone who\u2019s doing basic accounting \u2013 you\u2019re going to be there for your business intelligence and insights,\u201d Weeks said.\r\n\r\nMAC student Chase Riker is in the midst of recruiting, and said recruiters are talking about innovation, with data analytics often a main focus. He\u2019s found recruiters are excited to hear he already has some experience with data analytics. Riker said the data analytics immersion sets Jenkins MAC students apart in the eyes of recruiters.\r\n\r\nAnd in fact, the experience made a bigger impact on Riker, who has shifted his focus from audit to innovation.\u00a0\u201cIt opened my eyes to what I want to do, and where I see myself in the profession,\u201d Riker said. \u201cI realized I want to be involved in more of that innovative thinking.\u201d\r\n\r\nNow that students have been introduced to these new skills, they have the foundation necessary for further data analytics cases and exercises that will be added to additional MAC courses. Each professor teaching this fall reviewed and updated their course content to reflect this change.\r\n\r\nJenkins MAC student Jessica Woolfe didn\u2019t have much experience with data analytics when she entered the MAC program, and appreciated the two-week immersion to gain a more grounded understanding of the topic.\u00a0In her coursework, Woolfe said she\u2019s better able to take a step back to do the analytics and better understand the questions that are asked.\u00a0\u201cI think it\u2019s extremely important, the whole accounting profession is moving into more of this analytical thinking mindset,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about crunching numbers \u2013 with this new technology our roles are shifting.\u00a0Now we\u2019re interpreting this data a lot better and a lot more efficiently.\u201d\r\n\r\nJenkins MAC student Logan Tucciarone finds the information he picked up during that two-week immersion is always in the back of his mind as he continues his coursework.\u00a0Tucciarone said the immersion experience created an awareness he\u2019ll use in his studies and as he moves into the profession.\u00a0\u201cThe important thing is getting the taste and the awareness of how important data analytics is \u2013 it really is the future,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom what I understand in recruitment, we\u2019re not expected to know everything but we are expected to have a good idea of what\u2019s going to be set in front of us.\u00a0Data analytics is going to be something that comes to the forefront in this.\u201d\r\n\r\nOriginally posted on October 10, 2019, on the MAC Student Life Blog<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>"},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NC State Jenkins Master of Accounting students begin the semester with a two-week data analytics immersion that prepares them for networking with recruiters. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,28,323,398,286,9],"tags":[],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-12037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accounting","category-faculty-and-staff","category-graduate","category-mac-program","category-newswire","category-students"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12037"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12043,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037\/revisions\/12043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12037"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=12037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}