A Career in Commerce

[dekoyl]

Recently I've began looking into this area for a future career as I think my dreams and expectations may be a little too hard to achieve. I've never had a good look into commerce before so I've got a few questions that can hopefully be answered. (Already buggered some with PMs )

1.Are accountants really in high demand? I had originally thought there were a lot of accountants, maybe even too many?
*Are actuaries in high demand as well? From what I can gather in another thread, the course is difficult so in the end there lacks qualified actuaries?

2. I looked at this course plan of eight semesters Brendan posted: http://vcenotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,10114.msg127450/topicseen.html#msg127450
So if one were to follow this plan, s/he can do honours for accounting in a fifth year, get a diploma in mathematics, major in finance AND accounting AND get CA accreditation requirements, right? It sounds very good to me (or maybe I just don't understand the value of each course).

3.I think I read somewhere that if you're an accountant without a CA title, you're pretty much useless? I've looked briefly into a few branches of qualifications and so..
In terms of better work opportunities (and frankly, a better salary), what would be the best qualifications?
CA, CPA or PNA?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certified_Practising_Accountant

4.I'm also interested in actuarial studies but you can't major in anything else, right? So say I wanted to do accounting (if actuary doesn't work out), I wouldn't be able to, right?



Thanks. 

[costargh]

1. Yes. Properly trained accountants with relevant qualifications are in high demand at the moment (maybe not so much now due to current economic climate but that goes for most jobs)

2. Dont know

3. CA is the best so when choosing subjects choose the subjects that allow you to complete your CA

4. Not sure

[brendan]

If you did Spesh, there is a 1st yr program that keeps open both the actuarial pathway and CA accreditation, but after you first yr, you must decide on one or the other. A good guide as to whether a person is suited to Actuarial Science, is their score in Spesh. If you didn't get high enough in spesh to meet the prereqs of https://app.portal.unimelb.edu.au/CSCApplication/view/2009/620-157 i.e. at least a 38 raw in spesh, then Actuarial Science probably isnt for you.