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The Accounting Life

RWS 1301
Luis Ruvalcaba
Introduction
What is the discipline accounting and why is it important? Are all the stereotypes true? Is
it really just a boring job, isolated from everyone and everything while working with tedious
numbers? Accounting is one of the most important jobs these days, especially with all these
blooming business which are becoming more complex. The primary task of accountants, is to
prepare and examine financial records. They make sure that records are accurate and that taxes
are paid properly and on-time. Accountants and auditors perform overviews of the financial
operations of a business in order to help it run efficiently. So you see it is a key role in keeping
a business running, without this discipline no business would succeed, it would just corrupt itself
and become bankrupt. Accounting is studied in the college of business which at my university,
UTEP, it is right next to the library. In 2012, there was 1.275,400 accounting jobs here in the
United States and it is projected to grow 13 percent from 2012 to 2022 according to the United
States Department of Labor. There were 620 undergraduate degrees, 261 masters degrees and
two doctorate degrees awarded in 2010 for the college of business and education at UTEP.
Math has always been my strength; numbers are my friends, unlike a lot of people,
which dont like math. That is the reason I decided to thrive for a discipline with numbers.
accounting caught my attention with the job opportunities in our economy and how it keeps
rising as a demanding job. These are main reasons why I chose to pursue this research
methodology for my inquiry and do some selective research on it before I dedicate my life to it.

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My primary question was, how can I become a successful Accountant and live a happy life? This
was my main concern because Im paying the school to educate me on something I will do the
rest of my life, but I cant do something thats going to keep me constantly unhappy. I followed
up that question with a set of four secondary questions that I wanted to answer with this research.
My questions were, how do I know I will enjoy doing this for the rest of my life?, Can this
degree ultimately lead to something else? How?, Could I successfully complete all the courses
needed for the next four years?, and Why do I want this major. This career is crucial to our
society in this point in time and I am proud to take this route in becoming a part of this job
demand, and I will get one step closer through this research.
Literature Review/Background
Accounting is used worldwide, jobs can be found anywhere because every organization
needs them. The fact that the demand for this discipline will continue to grow is great news for
me because that means pursuing this career will serve me with an opportunity that not a lot of
majors possess and that is acquiring a job straight out of college. The idea of this project is to
create our own first person research instead of just looking at the internet or a book for
information. The main focus was to answer our questions and become more familiar with what
we are planning for our lives because this could either help us want to keep pursuing this
discipline or it can help us realize its not the correct path.
Personally this just helped me figure out that this is in fact what I want to do. One of my
secondary questions that I wanted to answer for myself included, how do I know I will enjoy
doing this for the rest of my life? This research will help me answer my question because I did a
set of methods such as, interviewing of a professional and observation of students. This will
widen my thoughts on this career through a professional and a student working their way up like

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I am doing. Even if my answer is that I will not enjoy this the rest of my life, I asked myself
another question which will ensure I can do something else if I become unhappy.
The following question was, Can this degree ultimately lead to something else? How?
The answer to this is yes, I can do so many things with an accounting degree. For starters, if I
were to just earn business degree, all I could do is business, but with an accounting degree it
broadens up my options. For example, I cant be an accountant with a business degree but I can
be a business man with an accounting degree. There is much more opportunities other than being
an accountant with an accounting degree. I can even become an entrepreneur because in order to
run a business you need an accountant and that means I would know all the insides of the
business, therefore I could become my own boss. This is something that really gives me a sense
of relief because if Im not happy, I could always look for a different plan with the degree that I
would have.
Could I successfully complete all the courses needed for the next four years? This
question that I asked myself is none other than a question only I can determine for myself. This
will show how much I want this. Working hard and not giving in no matter the circumstance is
the only way I could ever answer this question. If I want it bad I will get through it through thick
and thin. Although observing a business class did give me an idea of what I will be up against in
the near future. Some of the research I completed will also help me just with knowing what I will
face, but nothing in life is given, therefore I dont believe I cant do this because millions of
other people have done it, so why not me? My last question was, Why do I want this major
like I mentioned earlier, I like math; its been my strongest subject to date. I dont see myself
doing something outside of math and numbers in my life, that could always change but for the
moment thats what it is. Not to mention the money it offers, most starting salaries are at about

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$60,000 a year, with a salary increase the longer you are within the company. Therefore I think
this is the right choice for me.
Procedures/Methodology
In order for this research to be effective, I had to go out and personally research. The way
I did this was by conducting some useful research methods such as, interviews, surveys,
document analysis, and site observation.
For my interviews I only went on with one, in which I interviewed a business professor
which asked to be anonymous. I interviewed him during his office hours for about 21 minutes. I
recorded the whole interview, but with my bad luck I went in with low battery, as I was just
about to save the recording my phone decided to die at ten percent. Throughout the interview I
decided just to jot down some vague notes because I wanted to listen and understand what he
was saying rather than asking him to repeat what he said because I was barely half way done
writing his response. Although my plan was not all that great because I didnt have my back up
which was the recording, what he respond to my questions was really impacting on me and made
me really think, therefore I remembered most of his responses. Some of the questions I asked
were, why did you decide to pursue this career? Was this your first option? Is this what you want
to do for the rest of your life? Why or why not? And if your work were suddenly eliminated,
what do you think you would go on to do with the skills you have? (See appendix A for the rest
of the interview questions). What really impacted me is the way he described his discipline and
why he chose it; he said he had a passion for helping the young audience. I sensed his frustration
from students now as he explained how our generation has become lazy and full of
procrastinators. He told me he decided to pursue that major because it was his strength and it was
something he could do day in and day out for a long period of time. What really impacted me the

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most was the way he expressed his feeling about students lack of work ethic as opposed to his
when he was in college. After this discussion I began to focus a bit more on studying, and
immediately saw results. His responses were somewhat answering my secondary questions, I
really enjoyed this interview because it showed me how a professional thought before going into
his discipline.
My survey was filled with about ten easy to answer questions for students, which I
distributed to a business class, that only had a population of 32 students that day. I received all of
them back however not all of them were answered completely. It was just a few that I received
with this problem, but it didnt necessarily throw off my research or anything. The question I was
looking for to be answered most was, was this major your first option? The reason I wanted to
focus on this question was so that I have an idea of how much business students change their
major. Therefore it would help me determine whether I would change my major in the future.
The results I got was that, all sophomores had not changed their major; this was their first as
opposed to juniors, which had a handful that said this was not their first option for their major.
Although there was a few who had changed their discipline ones they got older, I still feel
confident that will not be the case for me because in a population of 32, only 16% had changed
their major.
In my document analysis I learned a lot through another persons perspective through the
Internet. I collected a lot of data and information which I then used to widen my knowledge on
this subject. For a more detailed report on the document I read (See appendix B). The purpose of
this assignment was to determine how and for whom the document was written for, and of course
to give useful information about accounting in todays society. This document helped me

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understand the different types of writing there is, so that I could have an idea of how I was going
to write my paper.
For my site observation, I went to the same professor I interviewed to observe his class
and mainly his students. I sat where I believed I had a clear view of almost everyone in the class,
I sat two rows from the very back in the middle of the class. My focus was to watch a front
student, a middle student, and a student in the back (See appendix C for the detailed pre plan)
The students I was observing all seemed to know the material because they were all contributing
to the lesson. I wanted to also focus on the professor in a way of how he would present to the
class; boring, exciting, or even timid. I thought this was important because that reflects on the
kind of attention the students give him. I noticed a lot of effort and desire, and in business thats
what you need. I was content with the type of things I saw during this observation. With this
observation I was able to analyze students in a class, helping me answer one of my secondary,
Could I successfully complete all the courses needed for the next four years?
Data coding: I coded my data for each of these research methods. For my interview I recorded
the whole interview although the recording deleted, I also wrote down notes. For the site
observation I used the heuristic given to us for our own benefit.
Results/Discussion
Personally my plan after this research is in fact not to work as an accountant all my life. I
want to do it for about three years or until I become financially stable, then I plan on buying
some type of franchise to become a boss. Therefore with this idea that I now have, I have
answered my ultimate primary research question. How can I become a successful accountant and
live a happy life? If I do become unhappy with the way the accounting life goes I can always go

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to different side of business whether it be management like I plan or even marketing. Business is
all about who and what you know, therefore if I become familiar with the right people in my
accounting career, I can definitely find comfort through them to help me advance in a different
discipline.
Conclusion
This might seem like a long dream and process but I must start somewhere, and that
somewhere started with this research project which has helped me familiarize myself with the
career I plan to pursue. I believe there is still much more to learn, for starters, I need to learn how
to even be an accountant, but everything is taken one step at a time year by year. It wont be easy
but I believe I have a sure knowledge of what I want and what I will do to get it.
I believe a younger audience who already has an idea of what they want to pursue, would
benefit from a project like this because they can help themselves save their time and money by
knowing more information about the discipline they are going into. If their question is similar to
mine they should not let that question make themselves wonder if this is the right career to
pursue.

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Appendices
(Appendix A)
Interview Questions
1.

Describe a typical workweek.

2.

What skills are required in your position on a day-to-day basis?

3.

Why did you decide to pursue this career? Was this your first option?

4.

How did you get your job?

5.

If you could start all over again, would you change your career path in any way? Why?

6.

Who was your main influence when choosing your career today?

7.

What can you tell me about accounting?

8.

Is accounting a job you once considered? Why or why not?

9.

Is this what you want to do for the rest of your life? Why or why not?

10.

What are some major frustrations of this job?

11.

What classes from which you had to take were most challenging?

12.

Do you love your job? Why?

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13.

If your work were suddenly eliminated, what do you think you would go on to do with

the skills you have?

14.

Has your job affected the way you live your everyday life? In what ways?

15.

What were your occupations before you got this job?

16.

How long did it take you to find a job in this field after graduation?

17.

Can you tell me the type of jobs and how many youve had in your lifetime?

18.

How important are grades/GPA for obtaining a job in this field?

19.

What kind of experience would you recommend for me to pursue a career in this field?

20.

I assume you consider yourself quite successful. What advice can you give me to become

successful as well?
(Appendix B)
Document Analysis
Careers-in-Accounting, http://www.careers-in-accounting.com/
1.

Purpose

The purpose of this article was to inform people of what is possible with an accounting degree
besides being an accountant and what accounting is. The primary audience is someone who is
not fully educated about the degree in accounting and what you could do with it, perhaps a high
school student. The secondary audience is to a person who might be a bit familiar about
accounting although not fully, in that case maybe an underclassmen college student. The writer

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did a pretty good job of explain what accounting is and how it is being used now a days, but
perhaps he could have possibly maybe added a little bit more information.
2.

Writing roles

The writers role in this document emphasized in teaching and educating us about accounting in
our nation. For example he explain what it is, Accounting is the study of how businesses track
their income and assets over time There's a lot to get out of a job in accounting. Perhaps most
important: you will learn how business works. He informs the reader about what hes talking
about. I believe maybe he could have included information such as what you must do to become
an accountant, and classes, etc.
3.

Types of arguments

The argument intended is simply just giving the reader facts about his topic. Heres an example
of a fact he gives us, Accounting jobs are plentiful even in the current weak economy and the
money for well-trained accountants is good. All the writer is doing is explaining how
accounting is working in this given point in time. He gives us facts about how it is being used,
how it is doing in our society, and most importantly why it is such a successful profession right
now. The writer made effective arguments for the most part, although he did not support most of
his arguments/facts with sufficient evidence, but I still believe the audience would find this
document compelling and effective.
4.

Structure/Organization

The information is structured in grouping. First he begins with what accounting is, then what can
be done with an accountant degree, followed by how people are using it and how effective it has
been. All of these groups have good facts that will pull the reader in. Even though it is in groups,

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there is no subtitles to each of its paragraphs, the reader can distinguish the differences in context
but it is not structured effectively.
5.

Function

All the writer wanted to do is for the reader to learn something and educate ourselves on a career
that is excelling at its best in our society right now.
6.

Document design

The writer did a good job of explain what he wanted to cover, and not making it look difficult or
boring to read. I like how I only had to read it one time to understand the message and the topics
he wanted to get through to us. The reader will not be stressed if they receive this document, it is
a document which can be read just before going to bed, or while sitting down eating their
breakfast. It will not take up much time reading this document but it is still filled with important
information the reader might be interested in. This document is appropriate for its intended
audience because it is filled with facts and information which is easily grasped.
(Appendix C)
Site Observation Pre-Plan
Address the following considerations:
1.

What are your objectives for the observation or what do you want to learn?

My objective for this observation is to watch the behaviors of students in an Accounting

class. Such as, the type of work they are doing, the environment in the class, and the tone
presented in each person who speaks. This will help me understand what I will be up against in a
few years and throughout my career.

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2.

How do your objectives correspond to your secondary research questions?

The objectives I listed correspond to my secondary research question by helping me

answer my secondary question, ultimately giving me a perspective from other peoples views.

3.

What are your targeted sites and why have you chosen them?

My targeted site is an accounting class, or an upper level business class.

4.

What populations inhabit your targeted sites?

For the classes, the population I will target is about 40 to 50 students.

5.

Is there a clear connection between your objectives and your choice of sites and

populations?
-

Yes there is a clear connection between my objectives and the sites I targeted because

they are dependent on one another.

6.

When do you plan to conduct the site observations?

I plan on conducting the site observation, no later than October 20th.

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7.

What is your plan for recording your observations? (We recommend the two column

method.)
-

My plan for recording my observations is in fact using the two column method because it

is just what I need to record my information and it is seams as it will be very effective.

8.

From what physical position within the site will you make your observations?

-I will sit in a far back middle corner of a classroom, that way I can see most of the students, and
the professor of course.
9.

What permissions do you need to conduct the site observations?

The only permission I would need for this site observation is the permission of the

professor.