Why aren’t more minority accounting students choosing auditing? An examination of career choice and perceptions

Abstract

The underrepresentation of minority professionals in audit persists despite ongoing counterefforts by accounting firms and faculty. We conduct 19 semi-structured interviews with minority (Black and Hispanic) and nonminority (White) accounting majors and document their perceptions of the audit profession. We evaluate responses in the context of social cognitive career theory, which links one’s self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations to the intention to pursue a particular career path. Our findings indicate both minority and nonminority participants had an overall positive perception of the audit profession and believed they could have successful careers in auditing. However, minority students discussed more audit-related negative self-efficacy experiences than their nonminority counterparts. We conclude by recommending that accounting firm and other stakeholder initiatives include audit mentorship programs targeted specifically at minority accounting majors early in their accounting programs to generate positive (and combat negative) audit-related self-efficacy experiences.