Accounting, like other professions, is not without its share of professionals who are frustrated and discontented. Numerous surveys published over the past several years indicate that accountants, as a group, are dissatisfied with many elements of their jobs, in particular their salaries, their lack of recognition, and their working conditions.
Some surveys show that the aspects of their work with which accountants express either a "lack of satisfaction" or "complete dissatisfaction" actually outnumber the areas in which they say they are satisfied. These figures hardly add up to a profession overflowing with contentment.
Chances are, too, that the work itself is not at the root of the dissatisfaction (most accountants, according to surveys taken on the subject, enjoy the actual work). It is more than likely the situation in a firm, department, or practice.
IF YOU ARE DOUBTING YOUR ACCOUNTING PROFESSION
You may feel, for instance, that you are not making the money you should be making compared with how hard you have to work and how much you contribute to your company or to the clients you serve. You may know business people, lawyers, or consultants who are further along in their careers than you, even though you believe you are more intelligent and have a better knowledge of business in general. Perhaps you are working for a CPA firm that, in your view, does not give enough responsibility or the chance to make important decisions. You may be a management accountant in a large company that, as you see it, does not attach enough value to your work or, for that matter, the work of your entire department. You may be beginning to wonder if you made a mistake by becoming an accountant in the first place.
Accounting may well be today's best route to a successful business career. Unlike many other professions today (law and teaching, for example), the demand for accountants appears to be growing, and not shrinking. Employment for accountants is projected to grow 10% from 2016 to 2026, faster than average for all occupations.
These are encouraging statistics. Other reasons that go beyond statistics support the view that accounting is an excellent field to be in these days. Major corporations are concerned with financial planning and are relying more and more on their own financial personnel and on their public accounting firms to help them make key decisions.
According to a Fortune Magazine survey, nearly 25% of the 800 highest paid CEOs in the United States have financial backgrounds. So, the opportunities in accounting are there, and they are growing.
HOW THE PROFESSION HAS CHANGED
At the root of these broadened opportunities in accounting are a number of dramatic changes that have occurred in the profession over the past quarter-century—changes you surely know about. Gone are the days, for instance, when the major public accounting firms confined their activities to pure accounting and based their practices almost entirely on auditing. Today, it is the rare medium-sized or larger public accounting firm that does not have its own tax and management advisory services (MAS) department, relying more and more on fees from these services.
Gone, too, are the days when CPA firms loathed advertising their services or competing directly with one another for major accounts. What is happening in accounting is similar to what has happened, to a great extent, in the investment industry, in banking, and in law. The traditional, leisurely—some would call it "gentlemanly"—way of doing business has given way to a more aggressive, more openly competitive business style. Accounting firms today are relying more and more on advertising agencies and, in some instances, public relations firms, and you hear much more talk than you used to in these companies about "marketing." Symbolizing the change has been a noticeable increase in allegations that some of the larger public accounting firms engage in "low balling" (underbidding) in order to get new clients.
Not everyone is pleased that the profession has become so competitive that the power in many firms lies not with the most skilled accountants, but with accountants who can bring in the most business. Increased competition among the big CPA firms, noted Englishman, Anthony Hilton, in an article that appeared in the June 1982 issue of Management Accounting, has become an "undignified scramble—a quite open effort to steal clients." This view is shared by more than a few American accountants.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR ACCOUNTANTS TODAY
What it all means, then, is that while career prospects for accountants have never been better, there are new demands on accountants who hope to become more successful. It is not enough in accounting to be a competent, or even better than competent, technician—not if your ambition is to reach the upper echelons of the profession. With rare exceptions, the accountants today who are moving ahead quickly are men and women whose skills go well beyond the basic tools of the trade. They are good business people, good managers, good communicators, and, in many cases, good "sales people." "They are men and women who," in the words of Donald C. Agnew, southwestern managing partner for the CPA firm of KMG Main Hurdman (Peat Marwick Main & Co.) "are able to translate accounting knowledge into business knowledge and are able to channel their capacity for leadership into productive results." Or, as Malcolm Forbes says, "what is really in high demand in accounting is intelligence—the ability to not only produce the numbers but to dig out the meaning of them. An intelligent accountant has an unlimited future."
William Morgan, a CPA with Peat Marwick, stresses, for instance, that accountants who want to get ahead in the profession must have certain personality traits that were not as critical before. "The need today," he says, "is for individuals who are aggressive, inquisitive and highly motivated." Patrick Lamkin Southerland, a CPA who heads the Robert Half Washington, D.C. franchise, points out that the higher you move up the ladder in accounting, the more important non-accounting skills become. "Particularly," says Southerland, "the ability to interact with people throughout the company—the ability to not only analyze what it is happening throughout a company, but to present to the company in a politically astute way."
Michael Goldstein, national managing partner of professional services with Laventhol & Horwath, stresses the selling aspect of accounting today. "The accountant in the past," he says, "was able to go off into a corner to work and work and would still be able to keep clients. No more. The field today is much more competitive and selling is a major part of what you have to do to succeed."
What these people are saying, in short, is that the era of the "green shade" accountant is well behind us. If you want to get ahead in accounting, you must recognize that being technically proficient is only half the battle. The rest has to do with the ability to advise, to manage, and to play a direct role in a company's growth.
WHAT YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON TO SUCCEED
What you need to focus on is not so much how "good" an accountant you are, but how effectively you are now structuring and managing your career; how you handle yourself on the job; how you deal with the people you work for and work with; how you communicate, delegate, and manage; and how you market and promote yourself or your firm.
To generate the highest level of career success out of your accounting background and knowledge, your level of expertise must extend beyond the balance sheet and the profit and loss statement. To reach these levels, you have to think of yourself as a businessperson first, and as an accountant second.
The importance of technical skills, knowledge, business acumen and managerial expertise should not be downplayed. However, in order to set your self apart from the rest, you need to think and perform beyond the normal spheres of accounting. Accountants who can manage effectively, communicate effectively—in short, are able to function more as executives and business people than just as financial specialists.
What are the skills that underlie these functions? How do they relate to accounting? How do you develop them? These are just some of the questions to help you find your focus.
Rest assured, there is no great mystery to becoming successful in accounting. People at the top of the profession today are there because they knew how to get there, which with the proper skillset and discipline, is possible for anyone willing to put in the work.
