Job Selection Preferences of Accounting Students in Malaysian Private Universities

The purpose of this descriptive study is to investigate the factors affecting job selection preferences of accounting student in Malaysian private universities. The independent variables which were chosen are starting salary, gender, employer reputation and working environment. This research seeks to identify whether starting salary, gender, employer reputation and working environment are vital to accounting student in Malaysian private universities when choosing or selecting a job in future. In order to observe these factors, 200 students, specifically students who enrolled in accounting field from few of the private universities in Malaysia were surveyed. The data collection is tested using IBM SPSS Statistics software. The research findings showed that three factors, which are starting salary, employer reputation and working environment, have significant relationship with job selection preferences while gender variable are not significantly related to the dependent variable. The findings of this study has implication on the employers and educators by providing guidance to them of what a fresh graduate prefers when selecting job or career. Besides, the findings will assist universities to have better knowledge about career preferences to come out with curriculum for the accounting program which can boost accounting students to choose accountant as their profession. Not only that, professional bodies such as Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) can identify factors that affect the decision of these accounting students in selecting their career so that they can formulate various strategies to accomplish a desired number of accountants by 2020.