Increasing student awareness of the accounting profession: Utilizing accounting career panels as a cocurricular student activity

This chapter discusses the utilization of professional accounting career panels as a cocurricular student recruitment and development activity. These career panels provide an opportunity for students to interact with the members of our Accounting Advisory Council and recent accounting graduates to learn more about the accounting profession and the career opportunities available to accounting majors. We address two questions in this chapter: (1) Can professionals be used to better inform students about the accounting profession? and (2) Can this approach be used to increase the degree to which students will consider accounting as a major? The analysis of the responses to questions elicited in the postcareer panel questionnaire indicates that students learned a significant amount from the experience. In addition, the data show that students from principles-level accounting courses who participated significantly increased the degree to which they would consider accounting as a major.