The influence of competence and perception on interest in the public accountant profession mediated by motivation

This research paper aims to examine whether there is a correlation of Competence and Perception on Interest in the Public Accountant Profession. Furthermore, additional focus could be placed on the question, whether Motivation can play a mediating role of effect of Competence and Perception on Interest in the Public Accountant Profession. After reviewing the literature, there are seven hypotheses proposed in this study. The study design consisted of a population with a saturated sample of 50 students of the Mahardhika School of Economics, accounting study program, regular class B - 2016 entry year who are still actively attending lectures. The data is processed using SEM SmartPLS 3 where the bootstrap method is used to test hypotheses and the results show that competence alone cannot be a strong driver of interest in a career as a public accountant without motivation. Motivation will be a strong intermediary for students who have good competence towards a career interest as a public accountant. Meanwhile, having a perception related to the public accounting profession does not provide a significant and not strong influence to foster motivation to have an interest in a career as a public accountant. This study provides input to enrich the theory of the relationship between competence and perception on interest mediated by motivation.