Pursuing a career in accounting
I have always wanted to pursue a career in accounting as I was right in mathematics and kept things organized. Accounting gets considered a very diverse field, which continues to become ranked among the top chosen career paths in many universities. It has recorded increased demand in the work market, and the business field, with an accomplishment in need for education and its skills, results in rewarding and enjoyable work experience (Samsuri et al., 2016). Therefore, I acknowledge accounting as the financial information system, which provides an understanding of how organizations function financially. I have interacted with both small and big business enterprises and realized that there tends to become needs for accountants in every type of business for both profit and non- profit organization. The witnessed growing demand for accountants, together with the increased attractive salaries they earn, makes accounting my future choice.
The field of accounting consists of several different specialized areas that individuals could choose to pursue. I consider public accountants and internal auditors as the best two fields that I am interested in my future career. Public accountants execute their services for public companies whereby they perform tasks such as doing the actual accounting, tax, and consultancy work. They use financial statements to indicate in monetary terms the resources for the direct control of the organization (Samsuri et al., 2016).
These types of accountants encompass internal auditors, also called auditors, fraud investigators, including inspectors and investigators. They perform the task of measuring the company’s level of compliance based on the policies with the company set objectives. These workers offer advice to the management in enabling efficient execution of their formulated plans. Besides, they tend to raise the reliability of financial reporting, including preventing and investigating fraud hence protecting the company’s property. I have passion and love in dealing with numbers, and I am very detailed oriented; hence I believe pursuing a career specifically for auditing will help in problem-solving thus keeping me in love with my career and the rising accountant market.
There tend to exist several things which I need to fulfil before entering this field of accounting. Attaining the CPA which tends to become the main focus for the career, first I must receive the Associates degree in accounting that will display a framework for the career and create an experience for the future working. After that, I would enrol for the bachelor’s degree which will not get considered as a direct paths towards qualifying to get the CPA licence. While pursuing my degree I need to work extra hard to attain 150 college credits including passing the ethics exam to get a chance to seat for CPA exam. Basically, different states houses distinct requirements in maintaining my CPA licence, however, I must achieve many higher education credits per year to recertify (Samsuri et al., 2016). Therefore, with a determined mind and attitude I understand that getting to the climax of my achievement incurs many steps that I must climb, thus I am prepared for the challenge for the future career. Thus a wide range of opportunities get laid for achievement of the career, however, the attainment will depend on the degree I will obtain in Accounting.
Consistently, having an associate degree in accounting creates a chance of being an accountant clerk which consists of a salary ranging from $ 18000 to $ 40000 per year, a good pay for a beginner but contrary to the higher level of career achievement. Therefore, following the established target of pursuing a bachelor’s degree with the higher level to attain CPA which could make the earning to become $ 40, 000 to $ 80 000 in every year depending on the experience. Generally, accountants get expected to exercise a high degree of being trustworthy, honest including having strong communication skills and being attentive to detail (Samsuri et al., 2016). Additionally, I possess an added advantage of housing knowledge in Excel and using computer programs hence spreadsheets becomes the core of accounting in an organization. Housing a skill in mathematical problem solving drastically added my ability to increase the chances of becoming an accountant.
According to the literature recorded public accountants have no typical day in their life, thus confirming that when one joins this field of profession, the appearance of workdays depends on the size of the firm accommodating a worker. It also depends with the position one occupies in the career including the aspect of accounting one specializes in and whether it seems to become a tax season. The daily task depends on the time of the months and the year whereby, spending time on the closing activities for clients such downloading monthly bank and broker statements, reviewing capital transaction including calculating management or performance fees.
The tasks will involve drafting accounting records involving sending the official final copies with an invoice. Therefore, being and accountant I have to plan on how to execute the task for the day. Firstly, the task of the morning becomes checking for emails from clients or from the service providers who work with the clients. Next, the accountant needs to dedicate one to two hours to technical training such as reading industry news like CalCPA Daily Clips. Attending seminars, accounting classes and issuing the financial records to the company’s management and ensuring transference of vital information to the clients and workers associates (Samsuri et al., 2016).
During the day the job demands for a corporation between various clients and teams including tax payers, lawyers and prime brokers however, the main concentration needs to remain on the essential skillset as an accountant. Therefore, an accountant typical day gets on to become busy with less time for entertainment and open association. I have passion of following a busy schedule with a mind-set of ensuring an increased production with efficient execution of services such as preparing invoices and attending to all the clients.
Accounting jobs have increased in demand for the past five years because every accountant in the nation performs up to the same standard. In the modern world of today every accountant who meets their standards which gets expected to analyse and report financial records, with the most essential characteristics of an accountant that extends beyond the bare minimum demands of the job. I believe the future accounting requires an accountant with an added financially literate, including top- notch workers need to possess a number of personal characteristics ensuring that individuals provide the best possible quality of service (Samsuri et al., 2016).
Therefore, I believe that employees of today expect to employ accountants with several skills that will enable them ensure a competent and productive economic development. Firstly, service- oriented mind-set accountants need to look forward to directly interacting with the clients in order to establish a good relationship while learning as much as possible. The mind-set of an accountant needs to become aware of the economic and industrial factors including their ability to fully invest in the clients to learn as much possible with skills to demonstrate genuine care for the client’s needs.
Secondly, the future needs innovativeness among the accountants whereby creative thinking in making decisions. The accountants will always think and use cookie- cutter methods if there is an opportunity to develop a better solution in making decisions over challenges in life. The technological world demands accountants housing skills of implementing unconventional with effective approaches in solving challenges demanding more than knowledge from books. They need to execute practical and more applicable way of attending to clients. Through an interaction with the Bank manager I realized that accountants must always be willing to practice and strengthen their innovative capabilities.
Accountants need to exercise an attribute of reliability and trustworthiness, especially in the modern era where all transactions and mathematical calculations get done virtually through computers. They should ensure that the intimate details clients share with them must remain confidential and never get leaked to the third parties, either intentionally or accidentally. The clients always need to become well- placed trust in the accountant’s ability and potential to keep vital information confidential throughout their interaction. Contemporarily, many companies observe ethical standards which encourage professionalism among the employees.
Besides, clients tends to make partnership with organizations which uphold high ethical standards. Safety has become the best consideration for both clients and their accountants which defines a reliable and trust of an accountant. The accountant career in the modern world considers the impression laid by the accountant in the field of professionalism which attracts clients for better productivity and creation of connection. I link the status of the current accountant career in the market with productivity and realize that ethical standards affects the number of clients in the organization.
Additionally, through the interaction I have had with my elder brother an accountant in the neighbourhood bank, I realized that modern career in accounting expected workers with strong organizational skills. The observant society we live in today tends to become more careful hence noting that every single data and paperwork must get accounted for at all time. All workers with accountants included get expected to possess management skills whereby poor organizations skills will always restrain the efficient execution of the tasks. Therefore, to optimize productivity they will get expected to well organize their activities and needs including freeing up more time for the most important tasks at hand (Samsuri et al., 2016).
Lastly, with the increase in technological advancements the accountant career demands a more vigilant individuals. Considerably, I pay much interest on the economy and nuances of tax in the market and realized that being vigilant becomes the subject to change at any time. Therefore, the most important aspect of an accountant tends become housing knowledge in all aspects of life including the latest amendments. They must keep current in their field because they need to ensure that their skills and knowledge is still important and applicable. I discovered that in pursue of this career I must always get to become updated to the current happenings, because what would have gotten considered good in the past months ago may no longer get viable in the current time. High quality accountants must get able to react to the scenario before it develops into an immediate problem (Samsuri et al., 2016).
References
Samsuri, A. S. B., Arifin, T. R. B. T., & Hussin, S. B. (2016). Perception of undergraduate accounting students towards professional accounting career. International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, 6(3), 78-88. Retrieved from:
http://hrmars.com/hrmars_papers/Article_09_Perception_of_Undergraduate_Accounting_Students_(1).pdf