Is Accounting a Good Career Choice?

In our painfully sensitive world, it's still completely fine to stereotype and mock accountants. The Washington Redskins could re-brand as the Washington Bean Counters and probably get away with it.

There's even a list on the internet of 77 accountant jokes that includes these shameless highlights:

• What is an extroverted accountant? Answer: One who looks at your shoes when he's talking to you, instead of his own.
• What happens when you lock an accountant and a hyena in a room? Answer: The hyena quits laughing.
• How was copper wire invented? Two accountants were arguing over a penny.
• Did you hear the joke about the interesting accountant? Me neither.

With all that sarcasm, why would anyone want to be an accountant? Answer: read on.

What do accountants do anyway?

There's an old saying that there are three kinds of accountants: 1) those who can count, and 2) those who can't.

I know, a little lame maybe, but jokes aside, there are roughly three categories of accountants:

Category 1-Public Accountants. Public accountants work at firms like PwC, Grant Thornton, or Wipfli (the exceptional firm where I cut my teeth).

Most public accounting firms offer two core services: 1) Preparing income tax returns for businesses and individuals, and 2) Auditing the financial statements of mid-sized and large businesses.

Sounds exciting, right! More on that soon.

Category 2-Private Accountants. In a typical mom and pop business, mom and pop do their own bookkeeping. Larger companies, though, have dedicated accounting teams to track and analyze the company's financial results. Job titles on a private accounting team range from bookkeeper (entry level), to controller (mid-level), to CFO (highest level). Many controllers and CFOs begin their careers in public accounting.

Category 3-Specialized Accountants. This is a catch-all group of consultants, forensic accountants, contract CFOs (my specialty!), freelancers, business valuation experts, etc. Folks in this group generally first work their way through Category 1 or 2, or both, to gain the necessary expertise. It's also worth noting that many of the large public accounting firms have divisions that offer these services as well.

Why would anyone choose to be an accountant?

The Department of Labor says there are 1.4 million accountants in the US alone. If accountants were a US state (wouldn't that be an exciting place!), there would be ten US states with smaller populations.

Why would 1.4 million people voluntarily choose accounting as their career? Aside from sheer love of logic and numbers, here are three solid reasons:

Reason 1: Accounting is a phenomenal base

Let's say you want to:

1. Become a business owner or partner.
2. Become a CEO, or upper-level manager.
3. Have the freedom to move around within a company.
4. Be a freelance business consultant.

Spending 5 to 10 years in accounting is a great path to any of those options. Why? Because accountants see it all.

Public accountants see the internal organs of many different companies. They observe which industries are profitable and which are an uphill battle. They see the bottom-line effect of various management styles. They are exposed to countless compensation strategies, tax strategies, and investor/lender arrangements.

Private accountants have the same broad view, but within a single company. They touch every transaction and interact with every division and every manager. No one gets a pilot's view quite like the accounting team. Often the finance team has a better view of reality than the ownership team.

This broad exposure gradually builds into incredibly broad experience, which opens doors to a host of further career options. Plus, if the further career options don't pan out, there's almost always a job waiting back in accounting.

Which leads to the next point...

Reason 2: Accounting is a recession-tolerant profession

Unlike the sales team - which makes boatloads of money in the good times and suffers in the bad - the accounting department has steady work. Companies need to manage their finances in good times and bad.

In fact, bad times often generate extra work for accountants. This last quarter was no exception, at least here in the US. Many companies leaned heavily on their internal accounting team or outside public accounting firm to help obtain SBA loans, and to figure out the complex PPP forgiveness rules.

Bottom line: A career in accounting is generally quite stable.

Reason 3: Accounting is a universal need

Only certain businesses need engineers, or doctors, or welders, or economists. Every business needs accounting. Accounting is not a niche fad that rose to prominence over the past ten years and may soon go away.

How do you know if accounting is right for you?

Without going through five years of school and working as an accountant for a few years, how can you know if you're cut out for it?

Here are a few considerations:

1. Are you detail-oriented? Sloppy accountants usually do not thrive.
2. Are you logical and analytical? If not, eventually you'll be lost.
3. Do you care about getting things right? Let's say the checkbook doesn't balance by $90. Are you fine just writing it off and moving on? Great accountants often do write it off and move on, but they aren't fine with it.
4. Do you enjoy computers and technology?
5. Do you enjoy working indoors and sitting in front of a screen for hours each day. This is a big deal. I've seen people who would make great accountants but they can't stand constant indoor screen time.
6. Do you love taking a complex situation and reducing it to something simple and useful?

If you answered yes to all those questions, you'll likely do well as an accountant.

Will technology eliminate accountants?

By now I hope you've forgotten the derogatory accountant jokes and are warming up to accounting. But you're wondering, what is the future of accounting? Will technology or offshoring take a toll like it has on some other jobs?

The future definitely looks bleak for data entry bookkeepers. The days of having an army of people type in numbers and print off reams of reports are basically over. Routine work generally can be done more efficiently with technology or offshore labor.

The key is to be the one doing the automating. There is a gaping need (that I believe will continue for years) for innovative finance professionals who know how to automate processes and reports by using cutting edge technology.

If you also know how to explain financial results to business owners in plain English, the sky is the limit.

In simple terms, what is the best path for an aspiring accountant?

Two words: Public accounting. The years I spent in public accounting were some of the most boring, miserable years of my life. And by far the most profitable.

You work like a rented mule, in uncomfortable conference rooms, for clients who wish you weren't there. What you get in return is an almost second-nature ability to find solutions to highly complex problems.

Early in my career, I handed a busy, complex spreadsheet to a CFO who had spent years in public accounting. She instantly grasped the "gist" of it and was able to follow the complex calculations. Later in my career, I understood where she had gained that skill.

Harold Geneen said "In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first, the cash will come later."

Public accounting is the experience. Start there if you can.

One more quiet suggestion: If you go into public accounting, find a regional CPA firm, or a small-town branch of a larger CPA firm. You'll get to work in both tax and audit, while your big-city colleagues are pigeon-holed into one division, and often a specialty within that division.

It's been 17 years since I left accounting school, and I have no regrets for choosing accounting. I've had the opportunity to work alongside countless entrepreneurs in diverse industries. I've been able to freelance and work remotely from home. I've found myself in far flung places (at least for this homeboy!) like Indonesia and Ghana, working on accounting projects.

In short, I think accounting is great, and the mockers are wrong.

But I'll admit, even if I strain my ears, I can't hear any hyenas laughing!