

Ask YC: Management or Accounting Course? - dkasper

I have room for one business class in my schedule this semester, and this is my last year so I really want to make it count.  For a startup cofounder, do you think it would be worth more to take an introductory management (for when the company grows obviously) or first semester accounting?
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mechanical_fish
First-order answer: What's behind door number three? I wouldn't pay money for
either of these things.

The basic principles of accounting are nice to know, but there are books and
websites that will teach them to you, and it's not a subject you need to
slowly grind through for months. What you need is to skim a few books on the
subject to become tangentially familiar with the vocabulary and the concepts.
Why spend tuition money and sixteen weeks of work on two weeks worth of
material?

I don't mean to imply that accounting is a trivial field. It isn't. Which is
why you'll be paying someone else to do it for you. All _you_ need to do is
understand what your professional accountant tells you.

Meanwhile, the things you really need to learn about managing will surely not
be taught in management class. And a single class won't give you the big
advantage of the MBA degree: Socialization with other MBAs. ( _Note: This is
only an advantage if you are on the typical MBA career path._ )

Second-order answer: Take the course with the best teacher. Whatever it is. If
the management teacher is an amazing lecturer, forget everything I said and
take the course.

Other suggestions. First priority: Have you taken introductory statistics yet?

How about economics? Linguistics?

If you've taken all of those already, consider: Have you had enough writing
and speaking practice? If not, take something that makes you write essays or
give talks. For writing, English composition is one possibility, but I'd lean
toward something more interesting like history. Or maybe the management course
will make you speak in front of class a lot -- that might be another reason to
disregard my advice and take that class anyway.

The ability to write and speak clearly is far more valuable than accounting.
You can _hire_ people to do your accounting, but you can't hire them to speak
for you.

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dkokelley
Both classes are important. I think Accounting will be more useful now, though
management will be more helpful down the road.

Most accounting courses teach you the basics of keeping books, which is useful
when your business is smaller. The management courses on the other hand,
they're designed for people who go out and get hired as managers inside of
fortune 500 companies. You'll be managing in a smaller group, and I think your
natural social skills will be all that is necessary to manage that group. You
could always take the other class after you graduate if you feel they're both
important.

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HeyLaughingBoy
As someone slogging through company-mandated management & financial training,
I'd skip both and take an introductory Finance course instead.

If you only have those two choices, then go with Management. The problem is
I've found that the best learning experiences of my management training comes
up in the role-playing parts (e.g., employee conflict resolution) or the
preparation for them and a single one-semester Management course isn't likely
to do anything like that.

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steveplace
[http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-
Management/index.h...](http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-
Management/index.htm)

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noodle
management. you'll probably be paying for accountants.

