Darrian
How did you go about becoming an accountant?
I am a junior in high school and I as interested in the field. I like math and crunching numbers. Is this the major for me? #finance #accounting #math #accountant
7 answers
Dejan Stefanovic
Dejan’s Answer
I first was interested in accounting after a high school course, and knew I wanted to study accounting/business once in college. During college, I sought internship positions in the accounting field to gain experience and push towards a career. After a successful internship with PwC, I was given a full-time position as an associate, where I currently am today.
Dejan recommends the following next steps:
Your answer is great Dejan, thanks so much for sharing your expertise! At this moment there are more than 800 unanswered questions so I wanted to encourage you to keep going! So many students will benefit tremendously from hearing from you. Keep up the great work!
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Dustin Bartolomeo-Damon
Dustin’s Answer
What an awesome question to be asking in High School! Accounting is a great profession.
I launched my career in Accounting at PwC as an Auditor. At a professional services firm like PwC, you'll be able to use those math skills you're learning -- though Accounting is about much more than just crunching numbers or spreadsheets. You'll be impacting people. PwC's accountants are part of a 250k+ team who bring their personal experiences, skills, curiosity, and passion together to build trust in society and solve important problems.
When I started working at PwC there were tech jobs and non tech jobs. Now there is simply talent and your generation will need to apply a technology lens to every industry as you transition from backpack to briefcase. The profile of an Accountant continues to evolve. Now we're looking for talent that still has a strong technical background (accounting concepts, etc.), though we also need people that will bring data and technology capabilities so we can solve problems in different ways. Think digital storytelling skills, developing automation strategies, data wrangling, visualizing data insights -- and explaining what that all means to stakeholders and clients. Those terms may not be familiar based on where you are in your current academic journey, though these are good topics to start researching.
It's a really exciting time to pursue a career in Accounting! I outlined a few next steps below. Best of luck!
Dustin
Dustin recommends the following next steps:
Maggie Shaffer
Maggie’s Answer
I chose accounting as my major as a freshman in college mostly because I liked math in high school,.I ended up enjoying the accounting major and now working full time I realize that math and accounting aren't interchangeable, even though most people think that. I ended up choosing to go to grad school for accounting super late in my senior year, and it's what gave me my job with PwC today. I ended up doing an internship and they gave me a full time offer. Most of the time colleges will have the connections with recruiters from firms, but if not you can always reach out and network with those that have the connections.
Gary Petito
Gary’s Answer
Hi,
Great question. Accounting is a huge field...there are a lot of ways to get into the field. Here are a few links I found about accounting jobs:
http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/accountant
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/financialcareers/08/accounting.asp
You could get into the field with a little as 4 courses in accounting and start working as a billing clerk or some other entry level job...or you could get a 2yr Associates degree or a 4yr Bachelors degree or even a 6 yr Master degree. That is the great thing about accounting...there are also a lot of specialties within accounting - tax, government, auditing, management. There are also certifications that can help your career in accounting, CIA/CMA/CFA/CPA, here is a link to those:
http://www.accounting-degree.org/types-of-accounting-certifications/
Good luck...accounting is a great career field. I often wish I had gone into that field when I was younger.
Apoorva Shenoy
Apoorva’s Answer
Accounting can be a very rewarding career path! It certainly offers job security and can be a lucrative profession.
In addition to all the great advice that's already been shared, a few things to consider as you enter college. Get connected with your academic advisor and career services early in your college career. You'll want to review the requirements of your state's Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification and plan your academic schedule accordingly to meet those credit requirements. For example, most states require 150 credits, which is more than many students generally graduate with so you may need to plan to take a few extra classes or explore the option of summer/winter courses or an MSA (Masters in Accounting) program. While this may sound a bit daunting, these are things your academic advisors should be able to help you navigate. And the earlier in your college career you plan these things out, the easier they will be to execute!
Best of luck wherever you land!
Rachael Fassnacht
Rachael’s Answer
I would suggest shadowing an accountant within your network for you to determine if the career is something you are interested in pursuing. I obtained a part-time position at a CPA firm once I determined accounting might be a fit for me based on my interests, strengths, and how I worked. I went on to major in accounting. I noticed my introduction courses were where students determined the major was or wasn't for them. I obtained an internship and was offered a full-time position at my firm.
Britney Kero
Britney’s Answer
Hi,
My accounting career began at PricewaterhouseCoopers or PwC when I was only a Freshman at UCSB. The Big 4 Public Accounting firms have a lot of intern opportunities, and therefore I highly recommending researching which is the right path for you. The Big 4 accounting firms aren't the only public accounting firms that have internships, therefore researching other companies such as this are helpful as well. Your high school and college guidance counselors should be able to find you information on how to apply to these programs as well. My advice is to start in the auditing field (public accounting firms), as an internship or job here will give you the most broad experience. From there, entering into industry (accounting within companies such as Zynga) can be the next step!
-Britney