*Article contributed by Sarah Morris.
Deciding what degree you’ll choose in college is a tremendous factor that will affect your future career path. Not everyone can be as brilliant as Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and other successful college dropouts after all. For someone keen on dealing with numbers, one particularly popular choice is Accountancy.
If you’re considering an Accountancy degree at a reputable school such as the University of Alabama Birmingham, here are some of the compelling reasons to consider an accounting profession:
- It’s Lucrative – Accountants are known to be highly paid professionals. It’s no wonder that when salary is a major factor in choosing a career, accountancy will always be on the list. When you are a Certified Public Accountant, you’ll be paid even higher.
- Opens Many Career Paths – You won’t just find accountants inside a corporate office. Nowadays, there are varying fields that an accountant can be a part of. There has been many career opportunities and choices that an accountancy degree holder can choose from. Here are some of the most common options:
- Corporate Accounting Staff or Manager – This is the typical career path that accountants choose to take. You can be working alongside other accounting professionals in one department. It’s stable, and it pays well.
- Public Accountant – If you’re a CPA, you are eligible to work as a public accountant and provide varying accounting services as a member of an accounting firm.
- Tax Accountant – As the name suggests, you’ll be dealing with taxes and documents required for tax filing.
- Forensic Accountant – Accountants can also work in the police department. Forensic accounting involves the investigation of accounting records for any crimes and fraud.
- University Instructor or Professor – Universities value instructors and professors who have a strong background in accounting. It offers aspiring accounting professionals a chance to have quality guidance and learning from real accountants.
- Accounting Consultant – You can offer accounting advice to individuals and companies to help them come up with the right business decisions.
- Auditor – Companies monitor business transaction transparency, standard compliance, and anomaly prevention through regular audits. An accountant’s attention to detail and experience in gathering records pertinent to business processes and transactions is highly sought after for auditing positions.
- Financial Advisor – Since finance and accounting are closely related, you can also work or offer services as a financial advisor to individuals, or conduct seminars on proper financial management.
- The Demand is Constant – Every business transaction needs accounting, and every company has an accounting department to do it. Since businesses continue to boom in almost all parts of the globe, there will always be positions to fill in.
- There’s Career Growth – Accountants have to deal with all the daily business transaction. Different challenges can be faced every day that comes with new learning. This means that growth is always a part of the job.
- Higher Chance for Promotion – Due to the dynamic and critical nature of accounting work, accountants become experts in their profession. Oftentimes, personal transactions of bosses are carried out, which require a degree of trustworthiness. An accountant’s expertise, integrity, and consistently excellent performance can be rewarded with a promotion.
- Financial Literacy – Having extensive knowledge in accounting is a strong foundation for financial literacy. Having a degree of financial literacy is a very important aspect of going through life, especially with your personal finances.
- Be Your Own Boss – This is if you’ve had experience in the corporate setting and you are also a Certified Public Accountant. If you are confident enough to build your own client base, you can start a private accounting firm and provide different accounting services like tax management, auditing, and consultancy.
- Travel Opportunities – There are times when clients that need auditing or accounting services are located in other states or overseas. You’ll be required to travel to meet them personally. You can have the chance to explore new places along the way. In other cases, you could also be hired by a major corporation in another country, and you’ll have to work and live there as an expat.
- Gateway to Entrepreneurship – As an accountant, you’ll be equipped with the firsthand knowledge in business accounting and wise financial management skills. This will allow you to venture into different businesses without having to hire externally. And once again, financial literacy can significantly help grow your business.
At its very core, accounting doesn’t merely deal with numbers. Analysis of accounting data is also important to help steer a business in the right direction. You’ll indeed need a sense of ease with numbers and computations since that’s a fundamental task of accountants, but you’ll also have to read between the lines. If you wish to pursue this profession, you’ll find it both challenging and rewarding.
*Article contributed by Sarah Morris.