Sunday, December 23, 2012

The Advantages And Disadvantages Of An Accounting Profession

By Sunil Kumar


Accountants have always been the most in-demand professionals. Every kind of business, big and small needs a few. You will find them in such industries as baking, manufacturing, advertising, media, construction, e-commerce, and many others. This is because employers will always need someone to do the budget, payroll, and financial reports.

Aside from the fact that the company's finance is a major element, the number of baby boomers reaching the retirement age and the proposed new laws concerning trades under the Obama government make accountant more indispensable.

Requirements

If you want to become an accountant, you must earn a bachelor's and master's degree to complete the credit hour requirements, and then pass CPA exam after. These are the major requirements to become licensed, which will allow you to enjoy greater career opportunities and rewarding compensation packages. On the other hand, if your intention is to walk a different career path, an associate degree would suffice. By completing an associate's program, you can gain employment in public and private firms as payroll clerk or bookkeeper. This profession entitles you to a starting salary of approximately $25,000 to $35,000 a year.

You can study full time or part-time since many community colleges offer associate programs on flexible schedules. This is best for people who do not want to work as, say, nursing assistants anymore. You would have to spend only two years to study accounting and then start a new career path or become an entrepreneur if you want to. Just remember that you may not be able to get a promotion to higher positions with this degree.

Advantages

Aspirants have various motives in choosing accounting as their profession. For one thing, it promises job security and the demand for accountants seem to be at all time high. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted some years ago that the demand can go even higher by 2016.

If you would notice, retrenchments in various industries target almost all departments in the company but accounting. In the US, around 3,000 new accountants were give jobs while 500,000 lost theirs in merely six months.

Many career options await accountants. If you want to work for the government, a private corporation, a public accounting firm, or a non-profit organization, you can do so anytime you like. You can also work as freelance accountant if you wish to.

Disadvantages

Although many view accounting as the ideal profession to have, there are still the negative sides. For one thing, the amount of time you spend in the office is tends to be too exhausting.

Many accountants are indeed happy when it comes to financial aspect but this is not that easy to achieve. They always render overtime work, they tend to work for six or seven days straight, and they sometimes have to be in the office during holidays. When you become an accountant, you cannot expect to leave the office at 6PM. Deadlines in the accounting department is also no different from the deadlines in the newsroom that one needs devotion to survive this routine.

On a positive note, you are likely to enjoy this kind of environment if numbers are you passion. Most often, you will love the pressures and stress that come with the profession. Those who changed career do not feel even the slightest regret. If you are a passionate accountant, you would not feel working at all.




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