Attention Accountants!!

Career Opportunities & Internships
21

Being in accounting isn’t so much about being “logical and mathematical” thinking. Having good arithmetic skills certainly makes your job easier, but it’s not rocket science. It’s more about knowing the rules and remembering things. Also, getting CPA certified significantly increases the amount of jobs available to you and the salary.

To answer your survey questions:
A) I work 36-40 hours every week.
B) I work in Walnut Creek, CA and live in Oakland, CA
C) I don’t get burned out but I’ve only been working here since the beginning of April.
D) I barely have any free time, but I’m a part-time student at community college who is doing a dozen transfer applications. If I was just working, I’d have plenty of free time.
E) I am neutral about working in accounting. I’m going for a Finance degree so until I transfer to a real college this is my job. Post-transfer, I don’t want to work in accounting again.
F) I’m fine but I’ll be happier once I transfer to a real university

Here’s the thing. I saw that you said you don’t care too much about salary, and you just want 50-60k and you’d be happy. However, you also don’t seem particularly excited about the prospect of working in accounting. The thing that you need to remember is if you don’t absolutely love your job then you want to have spare money to enjoy your passions and hobbies outside of it. Will 50-60k do that for you? If you have kids (if you want them)?

22

Thank you for your post. Like I said before,moving into this field is a result of circumstances and out of the business degrees I found accounting most stable and a well respected good paying job. And to be honest I don’t have any idea how much that will be to support anyone , but I do believe that if I am an accountant I would be able to afford a good lifestyle. The reason I said I would be comfortable with that salary was that I didn’t want to be the person that was working 70-80 hours a week with burnout and no time for family or myself. I was just hoping that that was possible with a field with accounting. But it’s nice to know that accounting is not impossible for someone who wouldn’t fit into the math whiz and logical mind way of thinking. and I really hope i can make a profession out of it that I love

23

^^ @philbegas are you an accountant switching out from your career or not one at all?

24

Technically speaking it’s not really my career because I don’t have a degree yet or CPA. But I do work in accounting, just technically as an assistant, mostly dealing with the accounts payable and bank reconciliation side of things.

Business will always be a pretty reliable thing to get a degree on. That and medicine, law, and engineering are always valuable. I wouldn’t fault you for doing it, but maybe try to work an internship or as an assistant before you make that life choice?