The accounting field is a great field to be in. It’s a field that’s not going away anytime soon. There’s a lot of people needing help in this area and if you’re interested in getting into accounting, then you should think about it.
Accountants are needed everywhere from small businesses to the biggest Fortune 500 companies. You can work for an accounting firm or even open your own. If you’re looking for part-time work then you can do that too.
The people who need accountants are doctors, lawyers, dentists, and so on. Accountants help them do their taxes and keep their books so they can ensure that they don’t get in trouble with the government or with their company and so they know how much money they made and all the necessities they need to know for when filing taxes.
Accounting is a great career choice because it has job security. It’s not like when you’re young and just out of college and then your career path ends because people no longer hire you after that age. Accountants always need help with keeping track of money and all that stuff. No matter what career you choose, if you love numbers and math, then you should think about becoming an accountant.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by 2022, there will be over 5 million jobs for accountants and auditors. That’s more than double the number of people with accounting degrees today.
The most successful accountants are those who have gained experience, training, and certification in this area. However, the demand for professionals with these qualifications is so great that even those with less experience can often find jobs.
The most important qualification is a good education. Accountants must have completed at least a four year bachelor’s degree program before they can take the designation of Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Most employers prefer candidates who have completed graduate programs or at least one year of practical experience before seeking employment.
Some people think that the field of accounting is narrow and dull. However, there are many different types of careers available to accountants. For example, some accountants work in public accounting firms, some work as internal auditors at companies or universities, and some work for the government. Some accountants specialize in tax preparation; others advise businesses on managing their finances. Some do cost accounting; still others audit computer systems to make sure that they are working properly and securely.
In any economy, the number of people who know how to read a profit-and-loss statement is much smaller than the number of people who would like to be able to do it. Accounting skills are always in demand; indeed, the only economic problem is that there aren’t enough good accountants.
What do accountants really do? Is it just counting money?
Accounting is about making sure the numbers all add up. I’ve listed some of the kinds of things accountants do below. The list is by no means complete, but it should give you a better idea of what you might do in your career as an accountant.
- Work with auditors to help them solve client’s business problems
- Work in the financial department of a company, analyzing its assets and liabilities
- Review client’s operations to make sure they’re operating efficiently
- Prepare financial statements to help management make decisions
- Review client’s tax returns and advise on tax law changes that affect them
- Help clients deal with mergers and acquisitions
- Help companies get finance from banks or investors
- Advise clients on how to manage their risk exposure, for example by hedging against exchange rate changes
It is easy to be an accountant. Anyone can do it, if they have enough education in math and English. If you are good at algebra, you can even become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) without any additional training.
Accounting is often described as “number crunching.” But that’s not really what accountants do. Accountants take the numbers that business people create when they buy and sell things, and translate them into statistics that business people can use to analyze their businesses. It’s the same kind of translation that occurs in every language: words are used to express facts in ways that are efficient for thinking about them.
The ability to make sense of situations using statistics is useful in many fields, including politics, medicine, crimefighting, corporate management, sports… the list goes on. But it’s especially useful for business. Businesses need to use statistics because their whole purpose is to make decisions based on uncertain information.
Accounting is one of the few jobs where you come out ahead by making mistakes; your mistakes get corrected later by someone else.
But there is an another side too. In an April 2009 article in the CPA Journal, a trade publication of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, a writer named Mary Beth Franklin described her search for a job. She had a master’s degree in accounting and 15 years of experience, but she could not find a job as an accountant.
A year and a half after she began looking, she had been contacted by only one employer. In the interim she had been hired as a substitute teacher and as a cashier at Target, as well as spending three months on unemployment insurance.
In previous recessions there was always plenty of work for CPAs. But this time was different, Franklin explained:
In my search I have encountered organizations that have eliminated their entire accounting department with no plans to replace them…. Many organizations have frozen or eliminated their hiring of CPAs….
I have also spoken with many talented CPAs who have left the profession because they could not find jobs. They have taken jobs outside their field, with government agencies or nonprofits, or they are working part time or doing odd jobs at home to supplement their income. For some it is just too difficult to continue paying student loans and making payments on their homes while working part time for low pay.