Accountant Career Details
Career Overview
Accountants keep track of a company's money. The company's managers and people outside the company read accounting reports to see how a company is doing. Governments also use the reports to tell how much tax a company should pay. Some people such as investors read them to decide if they want to do business with that particular company. Others use them to decide if they want to lend money to the company or not, such as a bank. Most people who do well at accounting tend to do well at math and they pay much attention to small details and are able to patiently look at reports for long periods of time.
Accountants and auditors work in offices. They generally work a standard 40-hour week, but some work 50 hours a week or more, especially during the company's year-end reporting period. In some countries during tax return periods ,Tax accountants often work long hours normally from January to April. Accountants working for the government and public companies travel to audit other companies or branches of their own company. Most accountants have a specialty.
There are four main kinds of accountants. There are Public Accountants, Management Accountants, Internal Auditing Accountants and Government Accountants. Public accountants work for public accounting companies. They do accounting, auditing, taxes, and consulting work.Some have their own businesses. They do many different kinds of accounting for people outside the company.
Management accountants keep track of the money spent and made by the companies for which they work. They help forecast the upcoming quarter or the upcoming year expenses and profits. They normally earn a salary for their work.
Internal auditors make sure that a company's accounting records are right. They check the records to see if none of the company's employees are stealing or that the money is being spent well.
Government accountants and auditors make sure that government accounting records are right. They also check the records of people doing business with the government.
Salary Guide
Accounting salaries depend on the number of years of experience, location of employment and the position of the accountant. However, most starting accountants can make anywhere from $41,000 to $49,000. More senior accountants such as Chief Financial Controllers at large firms can make as much as $385,000. However, the average yearly salary of accountants is approximately around $65,840.
Notable Figures
John Grisham. While this red-hot novelist is well known for being a lawyer prior to his writing career, what is less well known is the fact that his first degree was in Accounting from Mississippi State University. It wasn’t until later that he went to law school and watched a 12-year-old rape victim testify and inspire his first novel.
Kenny G. The famous soprano saxophone player graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Washington with a degree in accounting. Although he’d already been playing semi-professionally since high school, he wasn’t sure he’d make it in the music world so accounting seemed like a much safer profession.
Mary J. Washington.Mary J. Washington, was a bookkeeper who in the 1920's began methodically surmounting racial barriers in business to become the first black woman to be a certified public accountant and the head of one of the largest black-owned accounting firms in the US.
Bob Newhart. This funny man got his first job out of the army working as an accountant in downtown Chicago. He claims to have invented his own system for balancing the petty cash—when the drawer was short, he replaced any missing money from his own pocket. When his boss accused him of not using sound accounting practices, he decided to try something else. Ironically, it was while he was working as an accountant that he began doing his famous telephone routines.
Walter Diemer. Another name you might not recognize, he worked as an accountant for the Fleer Corporation in the 1920’s. But in his spare time he tinkered with recipes until he invented a little something we know today as Bubble Gum.
J. P. Morgan. This famous financier and banker began his early career as an accountant on Wall Street. But after his father died and left him the family business, J.P. Morgan went on to become a banking and corporate pioneer. He began buying distressed businesses, in particular railroads, and merging them—a common business practice still today.
Scholarship Information
Coming Soon.
References
Robert Half 2009 Salary Guide:Accounting & Finance
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