SAS and accounting are not unrelated, it’s an excellent combination. One complements the other. You first need to get SAS certification and then sell yourself as a package. SAS is a tool that an accountant can use to provide information to management in their decision making. Here is a list of things a SAS base programmer with accounting knowledge can do for a company. Variance reports month over month year over year. Independently verify reports from financial packages, COBOL programs. On demand reports not just in detail but create XL or power point slides. Bring data to a common platform from DB2, ORACLE, XL, IMS etc. Use your accounting knowledge to find gaps in the information and how you can add value to the company. I have been programming in SAS since 1987 and I don't have SAS certification. I have looked at questions in SAS certification and my judgment is that I will not pass the test without preparation. I learnt SAS by doing every example in SAS5 manual. Today one do the same by just trying SAS examples from the internet. There are thousands of them. I work for a retail chain in NJ, we have 7 SAS programmers working only with SAS base, PROC report, PROC SQL, DB2, Unix and JavaScript. Our team is a profit center for the company. Because we create reports to our vendors who want to know how and when their products sell within the retail chain. They pay top dollar for this information. My suggestion is learn Base SAS, PROC SQL, PROC REPORT, SQL, basic UNIX, Create XL spread sheets by SAS ODS.
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