Critical Perspectives on Accounting (1999) 10, 89–90

Article No. cpac.1998.0334

Available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

Should You Become An Accountant?

Do you like solving problems, or can you not stand them at all?
I ask this because there is a question whether accounting will you enthrall.
People think accountants just work with numbers all day,
But it is not like that, as any professional accountant will say.

True, we know more about these numbers than anyone else around,
And we can interpret them to relate what insights we have found,
And today we even work with computerized systems, it is true,
But mainly we work with people, just like them and me and you.

We serve an important function by recording what was done

And summarizing it all into a statement which is much more fun
Than attempting to make sense of individual amounts
Posted into all those individual accounts.

As a respected profession, we really got our start

In performing the attest function, whereby to financial statements we impart
A degree of reliability which would otherwise not be there.
That would make raising capital a much more chancy affair.

Once taxes were levied on net incomes, I must say,

More opportunities opened up as people did not want to give away
To the government any more money than they absolutely had to pay.
Those tax law changes make more business for us, I dare say.

You can specialize in any one of these areas you like,

Or in some other new area as it happens down the pike.
The major branches of employment are the ones I now shall name
So that you will have a head start on how to play the game.

There are public accountants, who sell their services to anyone they choose,
Provided, of course, that the client pays the fee and no dispute ensues.
Almost all accounting firms do a lot of tax work during February through May,
For that is when there is plenty of such work around for which clients will pay.

Some, but not all, firms do audit work to varying degrees.

The larger firms do more; that is how they got larger, plus collected more fees.
Just because you are capable of doing an audit of a firm
Does not mean that they will engage you to do it; if you are small, they may squirm

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And prefer a larger outfit, whether that one does better work or not.
That is the way things are, so let us not mislead you with tommyrot.
Firms today also do consulting work of various kinds
Which depend on attracting the right kinds of minds.

Public is not for all; industry is loved by many

Who want to spend more time with spouse and progeny.
Jobs and projects and pay vary all over the place,
So much so that I could not fit it all into this space.

Government is also an employer of many accounting grads;

Just think of all the money government spends! My gosh, it must be scads!
Governments collect taxes, and audit those returns,
So governments need accountants even during economic downturns.

Within the profession, education takes a few

To train the next generation of accountants anew.
For that, today you probably will need a doctoral degree,
But otherwise, today, the doctorate is overkill, you see.

I also must advise that some people who are trained

As accountants depart to other fields when new positions they attained.
We wish them well, we wish them success, we wish that they would share
The secret of how we, too, could succeed in climbing up there.

That, my friends, tells you in the tiniest nutshell

About this field, all without dropping any bombshell.
Now it is up to you to decide what you must do,
But I hope these few words help you select your correct avenue.

© 1998 Michael Grayson

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