How to become an accountant?
February 19, 2010 2:23 AM   Subscribe

How can I move into a career in accounting? Please help reality-check my plan.

I'm 28, live in Seattle, and have a BS in economics from the University of Washington. I enjoyed my early twenties but squandered them--unmotivated and rudderless, I took regrettably long to shape myself into a fully functioning adult. I have job that is pleasant, easy, and pays adequately, but it lacks challenge or opportunity for advancement. While at first I learned valuable (remedial) social and workplace skills here, now it's just... stagnation. I learn nothing, gain no marketable skills, and feel that every day that passes is another day I fall further behind in terms of career trajectory and personal growth.

I've been working to form a solid plan on where to go next. Ultimately I would like a job where I get to use my brain; I'd like to have actual expertise in something; I'd like to do something that matters. After some thought, I've narrowed it down to accounting. Accounting isn't my passion, but my passion would require grad school, for which I'm not mentally or financially prepared at this point. I think I would be great at accounting, and if I were working for an organization that did something positive for the world, I would find it rewarding. But how to get from there to here?

I've never studied accounting and never used any accounting software. I have no specific skills or experiences to put on a resume. On the plus side, I'm smart, personable, learn quickly, have well above average computer skills, and have a good employer reference. I doubt that will be enough to get me in the door without relevant education or experience, though.

Here's the rough draft of my plan: My current job is an ideal complement to self-study and part-time classes, so I could sign up on Monday for the three-quarter Intro to Accounting series at Seattle Central community college and finish in December. Once that's done, I'd like to find an assistant accounting position where I could start to build relevant work experience. After some time, if I decided to pursue a CPA, I could return to the UW as a non-matriculated student to fulfill the CPA education requirement (about 10 more classes by my count).

Does this pass your reality check? Would three community college accounting classes, backed by an old econ degree, be enough to get an entry-level position where I could start to build accounting related work experience? Or would I be at an insurmountable disadvantage when competing for jobs with the sea of recent graduates with actual accounting degrees?

It all comes down to that question, and I'm at a loss to answer it. I would love any advice you may have for me before I start going down this road. As a bonus question--while I'm taking classes, is there anything I should study on my own, like a specific software package? Any books I should read? Anything I can do to help get that first job?

I'm grateful for any advice at all and for any answers to questions I don't know enough to ask. Thank you for taking the time to read all this!
posted by kprincehouse to Work & Money (5 answers total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Its going to be hard to get a job without a degree in accounting. You should definitely take the classes in order to start moving in that direction and learning the lingo etc. I think a good way to learn alot about accoutning is to work at a small to mid-sized accounting firm where you will experience a wide range of different clients and work (tax, audit etc). Getting a job at a place like that may be tough but might be your best bet as it will be a smaller company who might be more willing to train and work with you. They also might pay for you to study and take the exam.
You could probabaly get an entry level job in 'accounting' right now doing something like accounts receivable or something similar at a smaller company.
Sorry this is so vague but youre looking to make a big change so its kind of hard to narrow down the answer. i think the classes would be a good start and you might be able to talk to people there who can point you in the right direction.
posted by Busmick at 6:45 AM on February 19, 2010


Every company has some accounting - to a) find out for sure if you like it and b) get some experience, try talking to your boss about helping out the accounting dept some of the time. (If you guys are really specialized like all call center or something, this doesn't help - but you may make your next job some kind of administrative assistant that helps with accounting.) My husband is an accountant for a small company and he often gets helpers like this.

He went back for his accounting degree after taking a similar route to becoming head accountant at a bookstore. There was definitely a pay ceiling for not having the degree, but a CPA should cut through it about the same way.
posted by ansate at 7:09 AM on February 19, 2010


Best answer: Doing accounting without a passion for it is, I'm afraid, a recipe for burnout. It does tend to wear on even the people tho chose it because they liked doing it.

But, what you'll need to learn to start with is basic financial accounting. Debits and credits. How expenses get amortized. How to do accruals. Accountants, in college, do not learn accounting software, but you should get pretty good with Excel. This is basically your Intro to Accounting class, but make sure, since this is community college, that they're covering a fair amount. Taking an income tax course would also help, a lot.

Then you apply for staff accountant positions. You explain in the interview that you have a degree in a business-related field, and that you learn fast, and that you've actually taken it upon yourself to study this in your free time to get competent enough to do the basic work, and you'll keep working hard.

"Staff" is generally the entry-level post-college point. You will technically be a bit less educationally qualified than most folks, but you'll have more job experience and that may cancel out. You don't want to take a position labelled "bookkeeper" or "assistant" if you can avoid it. These are positions that are frequently held by people without degrees, and there's not really a good promotion track into "staff accountant". Bookkeepers are expected to stay bookkeepers, staff are new hires. Not that there aren't occasionally exceptions, but with a college degree, work experience and basic accounting knowledge you should do fine as staff.

However, from personal experience, don't make this your life plan until you've actually done some accounting. You can't guarantee getting an employer whose mission makes your life fulfilling, and whether it's tax season at a CPA firm or the corporate grind, either way accounting jobs can take a lot out of you if you're not into it. If you have a passion for something that requires graduate school, I would seriously start getting myself ready to do graduate school instead.
posted by larkspur at 7:41 AM on February 19, 2010


Best answer: You were almost exactly me years ago, except my BA is in Russian Language and Literature.

Anyhoo, when I decided I wanted to be an accountant, I too had zero experience or knowledge. So I signed up for a class at a community college and almost immediately got a job as an A/R clerk. Once I figured out that I actually loved accounting, I took a few more classes at the comm. college, got my MBA, passed the CPA exam. After I graduating I took a lame job as an auditor for a small local firm which helped me get some much needed experience and after less than a year, managed to land a job which I am still at and LOVE. And strangely is the opposite of audit--Tax!!

On the tax note, if that might interest you, during next year's busy season, you could see about working in a local firm (don't bother with the chains) for more experience and the all important networking.

So short story--yes, by my experience your plan is doable. Good luck!
posted by Zoyashka at 9:06 AM on February 19, 2010 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Thank you for the answers. It's good to know that "staff accountant" is what I should be looking for, and I'm relieved to hear that it just may be possible, although difficult. As for burn-out... I'm sure that's prophetic, but that's a problem for the future. I'm burnt out where I am now and need to do something to move forward.

Other than an income tax course, is there any other subject or specific software package that I should use this time to study? (I did take the H&R Block income tax course last year and enjoyed it, for what that's worth.) I will have extra time for self-study and would like to make the most if it.
posted by kprincehouse at 12:50 PM on February 19, 2010


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