Like other professions, the field of accountancy has come to recognize that the younger generation of employees are more concerned about balancing their private and professional lives than older workers. Accordingly, accounting organizations headed by the AICPA and accounting firms across the US are teaming up with businesses to develop programs designed to help both employers and employees address lifestyle issues that face dual professional families. Changing workforce demographics is shaping the future of the accounting profession. Statistics show that the number of people and dual-career families entering the labour pool is increasing. What many people don’t realise, however, is that an accounting and finance degree is neither necessary nor sufficient to become a professional accountant. (Of course the reverse also holds: career opportunities for accounting and finance graduates are not restricted to the accounting profession!). These pages were written to provide some basic background information on the accounting profession, together with the transition from university student to professionally qualified accountant.
The image of accountants as dull, middle-aged men dressed in grey suits is fast disappearing. The accounting profession is associated with high salaries and a bewildering array of career opportunities including traditional auditing and assurance work, management consulting, corporate finance, IT consulting, tax planning, human resources (HR) and insolvency. In addition, the leaders of many top companies are qualified accountants.
Do you ever think where the accounter may work? There is a world of possibility for an accounter. They work in business, sports, the arts, government, education, the non-profit sector - the choice is really great! Accounting opens doors in every kind of business coast to coast. You could work for a large, international accounting firm or a small, local accounting firm, a corporation or small business, a government agency or non-profit organization, or a college or university. Accounting is also an excellent foundation for starting your own practice or company.
If you work for an accounting firm, as an accounter you may deal with clients in a wide range of industries. For example, you could be assigned to a client in the music industry, examining the company’s financial records, providing tax advice or developing a computer system to track the sale of CDs.
If you work directly for a company, you could be involved in everything from advising on how to increase profits to analysing future financing needs. If you work in government you might find yourself testifying on the impact of pending tax legislation. You can even use your accounting expertise to instruct students or conduct research.
Accounting requires a diverse array of skills, aptitudes, and technologies. You should have strong problem-solving abilities, excellent oral and written communication skills, and technical know-how. One day you may be preparing a financial report on the computer; the next you may be presenting your findings on video.
As for the skills an accounter must have it is at least a bachelor’s degree in accounting, or a bachelor’s degree in another subject with a master’s degree in accounting. In addition to accounting and business courses, one should take classes in communications, the humanities, the sciences, economics, and computer applications. So it seems really promising. Another fortune in this profession is that an accounter doesn’t work with the words, language and that long process of persuading people. It is nearly impossible to overstate the benefits of being able to write well. It is even more important to be able to write well than to speak well, at least until you reach very senior levels of an organization or are interacting regularly with the public directly as a representative of a company. Written communication has a central role in the success of an organization and the ability to express yourself only adequately is simply not, well, adequate. And if you cannot communicate well in writing you’re going to have a very tough time making a successful career from your first job. Even if this handicap doesn’t inhibit you in an entry-level position, you will run into a wall on your first promotion. The importance of effective writing in the workplace cannot be over-emphasized. Clear communication not only frees the employee to perform their tasks efficiently, it bolsters self-confidence and enhances the creative process in the entire staff. People know they are starting on solid ground and have confidence that their efforts will not be wasted or unappreciated. Clear communication shows respect for entire staff and enables excellence in business. My future career doesn’t require writing at all. I will write often of course, but this will be numbers, not letters and words, so this is a technical writing. An accounter usually calculates, so the documents I will write are just forms for filling. So the only language I will require, analyzing data/information/statistics is numbers mixed with formal English phrases. For sure I will persuade a lot of people with the most knockdown argument – numbers. My speech will be full of numbers, as that of any successful accounter, who is concise and respectful person in glasses and in the expensive suit in front of the computer in comfortable office.

Works used:
1. Blumstein Philip, Carssow W., Groves Kathryn, The Honoring of Accounts. NY: Sociologist, 2001.
2. Rest F., Choosing the profession. Cambridge University Press. 1999.