A Career in Accounting

By
MARISA TAYLOR
Updated Sept. 13, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

Note: Because of an editing error, this page was originally published with an incorrect name.
The page has been updated.
If you want to be an accountant, it's no big surprise that you should have a knack for numbers. As
a certified public accountant, or CPA, you'll be charged with reviewing and analyzing the
financial information of client companies for auditing, taxpaying, or advisory purposes.
And as an accountant or controller for a company or private accounting firm, you could be
consulting with your company's executives about financial strategy, or advising businesses or
individuals about anything from expansion to retirement.
But in reality, it's not all calculators and number crunching, particularly because advances in
accounting software mean that technology takes care of the basic bookkeeping. The important
thing, say both recruiters and employees in the field, is to be an excellent communicator and
problem solver, since you'll likely be working in a group with other accountants or managers,
and maybe even a company's chief financial officer.

"What we really need are people who can understand our clients, talk to them, and understand
what is happening with their businesses," says Dan Black, the director of campus recruiting for
North and South America at public accounting firm Ernst & Young. "You're not put in the corner
just to plug away at the calculator. You're going to be interacting with our clients right away."
In order to become a CPA, you do need to earn additional accounting credits beyond your
bachelor's degree and pass the four-part CPA exam. The average starting salary for a CPA is
about $40,500, and it's around $39,700 for a tax accountant. But with a little more experience,
you can earn an average starting salary $67,400 as a financial controller and a starting salary of
$84,400 as a tax manager, according to data from PayScale.com.

The beauty of the accounting field is that every company and organizationwhether large or
small, public or privateneeds to keep track of its finances, meaning that someone with diverse
interests can use accounting skills to work across many industries. And with the U.S. potentially
adopting the International Financial Reporting Rules, graduates with an interest in international
affairs could develop an expertise and seek experience abroad.
"A lot of people don't think accounting is a glamorous fieldand it's not," says Philip Erickson,
a partner at a private accounting firm in Colorado Springs, Colo. "But it's a stable field, and it's
not going away."
So while jobs dried up during the economic crisis, hiring in accounting wasn't hit as hard, and
cutbacks have created a need for more hiring as the economy recovers, says Amy Thompson, the
U.S. campus recruiting leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She'll be hiring 3,000 people this year,
up from 2,600 last year.
And whether it's the new financial regulations pushed through Congress or an infusion of cash
for a green energy startup, accountants will always be called upon to help businesses and
government agencies solve their financial puzzles. And the versatility of accounting skills means
that, if you decide you don't like the field, you've gained valuable experience that's easily
transferable to other careers in finance or business.

WHAT PROFESSIONALS IN THE FIELD SAY:

When it comes to the skill sets learned by earning an undergraduate degree in accounting, it's not
surprising that 75% of those in the field who answered our PayScale.com survey said the degree was
important or very important to advancing their careers; 60% of respondents said they'd recommend
or strongly recommend majoring in accounting.

Common Majors: Accounting, Business and Finance

Personality Fit for Accounting: Those who are analytical and enjoy solving problems, working
with others, and are highly organized will do well in the accounting field.

Your Accounting Career: Recruiters say the majority of their new accounting hires, who start as
associates, work for them as summer interns between their junior and senior years in college. It's
a great way for the firm to test how you'll think on your feet in the field and work with a team.
The career trajectory in accounting can differ depending on whether you go public by working at
one of the big accounting firms like KPMG or Deloitte & Touche; there you're likely to be sent
out on client projects with a team, not unlike a consultant. As an accountant in industry, on the
other hand, you'd be working in-house in for a company's accounting department, or for a private
accounting firm. Typically, though, recent graduates start at one of the big public firms, and
branch out from there.
Getting Started: Most big public accounting firms expect new hires to be ready to sit for the
CPA exam, which requires completion of 150 credit hours in accounting, depending on your
state's regulations. But a bachelor's degree only gives you 120 credit hours, so would-be
accountants are increasingly earning those extra hours in the form of a one-year master's degree
in accounting. After all, says Nina Guthrie, the national director of university recruiting for Grant
Thornton, "What's one more year of school? Go and get that master's and differentiate yourself
among your peers."
But colleges have also started arranging ways for students to earn the requisite credits in an extra
semester, and some firms will hire recent bachelor's graduates and put them to work on more
junior tasks while they earn the extra credits in a part-time master's program. Either way, you can
take the exam after you've been hired and tackle the four exam parts separatelyor even all at
once, if you can stomach it.
Get on the Fast Track: After you've received extensive training on business etiquette, the ins
and outs of audits or tax procedures, and the necessary software for doing your job, you'll need to
hit the ground running as an associate, and are sent to a client engagement with other associates
and managers, who will show you the ropes. In industry, you might get your start as an assistant
or staff accountant in a company's accounting department. Either way, to work your way up the
ladder, recruiters say you'll need to develop the ability to look at the bigger picture when it

comes to a client's priorities, and to analyze increasingly complex financial problems beyond just
checking and rechecking the financial records.

Next Up: In public accounting, after a few years, you'll become a senior associate, where you'll
interact more with higher-ups and spend more time directing associates and interns as they assist
you in client engagements. For example, you might lead the associates charged with helping you
conduct a client's year-end audit, which the managers and partner above you must ultimately
approve. If you really have a knack for leading others, you'll then become a manager, and then a
senior manager, where you'll manage even more associates and will lead increasingly complex
projects, such as examining company's risk portfolio, or taking on an IPO, merger or acquisition.
The trajectory in private accounting is a different animal, depending on what kind of
organization you work for and the experience you accrue, and you can potentially move up the
ladder more quickly than at a large corporation. Take Scott Anstrom, who heads up Take Scott
Anstrom, who heads up the accounting department of a 40-employee Charlotte, N.C.-based
manufacturer of home theater installation products. While he has only been in the accounting
field for six years, he sits on the company's board and guides the chief executive and chief
operating officer on the company's financial performancethough he does admit his trajectory is
atypical.
Phase Three: With several more years of success, you could be named partner at your public or
private firm. You'd be billing lots of hours, particularly in the busy January to April tax season,
and would be responsible for signing off on each client engagement after conferring with the
managers and senior managers who report to you. But management experience at a firm can be a
jumping off point to becoming a company's controller, in which you'd advise company
executives about business strategy and financial operationsor even become a chief financial
officer.

Write to Marisa Taylor at careerpath@wsj.com