But in internships, he felt bogged down by the repetitive tasks of accounting — such as balancing cash sheets — and the work proved less interesting than the college class he enjoyed most: data analysis.
Don’t want to start at the bottom? As an intern? The “military” will be so much better.
The first two comments were really good two.
I happen to know a young, very successful accountant personally. This article echoes their comments perfectly. Late nights, spent in client offices in industrial parts of town - why?
There is more and more of these pushbacks in a lot of different careers. “The way we’ve always done it” isn’t going to cut it anymore.
Government regulations are driving a lot of these inefficiencies.
Before my retirement, I worked in IT for major financial institutions. With every new regulation, the amount of software change required was mind boggling.
The accounting portion of business removes almost all personal interaction and focuses on the numbers. This is a side of business that I enjoy, although very boring. Personalities are removed. This part doesn’t equate whether or not you like someone, it simply lays out the truth in numbers of what’s actually taking place. That’s the stimulation…seeing the black and white truth in numbers. Many people need the comfort of personal interactions, that the core of this profession is free from. I don’t know that I could specialize in this area because of the lack of external stimulation but it sure is an important area, that does shed light on the truth regarding performance of a business.
My aunt was an accountant all her life. She absolutely loved it, and her skills were in demand no matter where she went.
She raised her kids doing accounting work for a non-profit organization dedicated to helping disabled people get equipment like wheelchairs, lifts, etc…
After that, she tried and hated working for the IRS, then left for a job working and living at Yellowstone National Park (rent-free).
I spent a good amount of time as a forensic accountant and loved it. I’ve branched out on my own now in private practice with only a handful of clients. I like to keep it that way, as I am at a point where I can largely live off of my investments now - and I have some flexibility as to how much I work.
I was actually already working for a Fortune 500 company in A/R when I decided to go back to school for an accounting degree. During that coursework, I was able to move into internal audit. When I finished with that degree and got my Master’s, I was hired by their external audit company as an auditor. I went into forensic accounting from there.
Interesting question. From my experience they are taught to use technology. I can’t count the number of confused younger cashiers I’ve encountered that had no clue how to make change, other than that displayed on their register.
For instance, the register says the change from my $20 bill is $14.52. I then present 48 cents and ask for a 10-dollar bill and a 5-dollar bill. Or heaven forbid I ask for 2 five-dollar bills and the rest in one-dollar bills!
Never going to happen.
I’ve literally had to abandon any effort to obtain something other than what the register is showing.
Clueless.
Another relevant example would be simple reality checks. For instance, adding 5 numbers on a calculator. Someone who knows arithmetic basics, will add estimates in their head and arrive at an estimated number of say 1,100. The calculator shows 110,142. A person with no understanding of the basics will take the calculator number and move on.
A person who understands the basics will question the number and perform the calculations again, knowing there is no way the 110,142 could possibly be right. Sure enough, recalculation shows a more realistic 1,142 result. Somewhere in the original calculation there was a fat finger entry. Unless one has some understanding of basic math, the error would go unnoticed.
I worked as an auditor for 30 years and enjoyed it as much as any job. But then I preferred the time when I was working at data behind a computer more than when I was dealing with people.
My young son is pretty good at the analytic and math skills needed, so I am going to encourage him to take a few accounting courses as a fall back, even if he prefers some other field (which I think he will).
There was a big change in those thirty years, from working with calculators and paper spreadsheets to analyzing data from computers, often hundreds of thousands of data entries.
When I was an engineering student back in the early 70’s, all of our math work was done with a slide rule and with paper and pencil. Work was graded on getting the right answer as well as all intervening steps leading to the final answer. Often, partial credit was given for the accuracy of the calculations leading to the final answer. If the final answer was wrong because of an error in a single calculation, a good score (but not a perfect score) was still given.
It sounds like the 150 credit hour requirement is causing part of the problem. As I doubt they are receiving an additional 30 hours in pure accounting just what is driving the extra 30 hours.
