To be a Certified Public Accountant: What Students Say

This study aims to analyze the interest of accounting students in choosing a career to become a certified public accountant in Indonesia. The public accountant profession could be one of the professions considered by accounting students. Data shows that the number of public accountants in Indonesia is still very small compared to other countries. This could be caused, in part, by the lack of interest in accounting students in Indonesia to become public accountants. However, there is no published research yet on the actual career interests of accounting students in Indonesia. Most of research on accounting students career interest in Indonesia, focused on the factors influence the students’ interest or desire to choose a career in accounting profession. This research will fill this gap by exploring the desire of Indonesian accounting students in becoming public accountants. The population of this study were accounting students in some of state universities in eastern part of Indonesia. The samples in this research were taken using simple random sampling technique. The data analysis technique used was descriptive statistical analysis. The results of this study indicated that Indonesian accounting students' interest in choosing a career as a public accountant is high. These results can be used as a reference for policy makers in deciding the career path of an accounting student to become a certified public accountant.