Macroeconomics Analysis of 3 Career Choices

I: Introduction First of all, let me say that the scenarios presented in this paper are based on personal life experiences. I was a grocery clerk when I was in college the “first time around” and recently I was an automotive technician at a local Toyota dealership. I am now in school (both Saddleback and CA State Fullerton concurrently) to obtain my BA in Business to become an accountant and ultimately “sit” for the California CPA exam. That said, let me assign probability factors to the following complex careers: For the staff accountant, I set the probability at 90%. I plan to graduate and get an accounting job. The probability of me continuing my training to acquire my CPA is also 90%. I plan to work and gain experience while I study for the CPA exam. Finally, to acquire my MBA while working is a 50-50 (50%) chance at this point in my life. I’m doing OK financially but if a firm wants to reimburse me for my tuition and expenses, I’ll do it. II: Methodology Even though I actually worked at the two “simple” careers at different points in my life, I adjusted all salaries to “today’s” salaries: For the grocery clerk I used today’s journeyman salary scale (Table 1) and for the automotive technician I used today’s Flat Rate hourly amounts and approximate labor hours for Toyota vehicles (Table 2). Of course I used the average salaries for accountants in today’s dollars as described in Tables 3, 4 and 5. In a nutshell: I researched and used actual salaries paid today for the positions that I held in the past. For Benefits I calculated what my employer contributed for health insurance and retirement; for the Accounting positions these are estimates. Job Related Expenses (JRE) included tools, uniforms and estimated costs to attend additional schooling (based upon current expenses incurred at CA State Fullerton.) My Stress & Happiness (S/H) calculations were based upon personal experiences where “0” is “mellow” and a positive value is