After completing your accounting degree, you must be asking yourself, “What should I do next?”
Well, we don’t judge you; not everyone is cut out to be an accountant. Are you unsure what to do next? Don’t be because we’re here to help clarify stuff for you.
Following are a few things you need to understand before choosing a career in accounting. Read on before we get to the good stuff.
What is the Salary Range?
Accounting majors generally earn a healthy living. In the U.S. alone, the median for accounting and its respective branches was over $70,000.
With the growing global economy, we expect this number to rise. Plus, in the current pandemic-stricken world, this job is pretty flexible.
The General Outlook
The new and current accounting students will be excited to know that the outlook for this field is strong and shows no sign of decline anytime soon.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that by 2028 there could be over a million accountants in the U.S.! If you’re looking to secure your career, be sure to be one of them!
Jobs Offered in the Field of Accounting
Let us give you an insight into the current job market and what opportunities you can avail. After analyzing thousands of people with accounting degrees, we’ve highlighted the most progressive and financially rewarding jobs for accountants.
But first, before asking how long does it take to get an accounting degree? Focus on seeing yourself in a senior position leading junior accountants.
With that established, let’s start with the good stuff.
Book Keeper
This job is a great starting point for your career. It comes with an adequate salary (though it depends on your place of employment), and it provides you with the experience to move on to more demanding jobs.
Book Keepers’ primary objective is to maintain the accurate financial records of their company/store. They do this by tracking income, overdue accounts, expenses, pending invoices, etc.
You may have the chance to work with a company, or you could easily take on clients as a freelancer. In this job, you do most of the work independently.
If you find yourself in a larger scale project, then there may be other accountants that you’ll need to consult.
Staff Accountant
So this is a step above bookkeeping. However, there are some similarities to bookkeeping tasks you’ll be expected to perform, like making ledger entries, writing financial statements, and reconciling accounts.
In addition, you may need to assist senior accountants in auditing or perhaps processing accounts payable/ receivable.
You could also be consulted with advice on how to reduce costs. This is another excellent entry-level role if you’ve just graduated.
As a plus point, its requirement doesn’t push you to earn your CPA but opens you to various opportunities in the field.
Internal Auditor
You may know that auditors usually work for government agencies. These are generally external auditors.
On the other hand, some companies hire internal auditors to look at the processes objectively, financial accounts, and statements.
There’s more to an auditor, though. Companies often hire them to find inefficiencies and provide advice on how to improve them.
As is with nearly all accounting occupations, it requires you to have a keen eye that can spot details as you’ll be working with enormous amounts of data.
Cost Accountant
Keeping an eye on the expenses a company makes is the job of a cost accountant; to do that and confirm that nothing is out of place, you’ll need to check every cost concerning labor, shipping, production, materials, administration, etc.
Your job is to help different departments squeeze as much as they can out of their given budget by weighing cost and value.
A cost accountant’s work is essential in setting the value for a company’s product or service.
Financial Analyst
The business of buying and selling is the playing field for a financial analyst. Their job is to keep their eyes and ears open and keep a check on the financial market, to recognize and predict trends as quickly as possible.
This helps a company make business decisions on how to decrease risk while simultaneously increasing profit. The key to excelling at this job is to have a keen understanding of financial statements.
Analysts work either in the buyers or sellers of investments. Neither side is that different.
According to BLS, financial analysts earned a median of $83,660 in 2020. Analysts are likely to have a stable career as the BLS predicts analyst jobs will grow by 6% in the next decade because technological advancements enable better analysis.
Accounting Manager
This is a more senior position and one you may want to consider once you’ve been in the field for several years. This job is an excellent combination of the more significant issues as well as focusing on minute details.
As the manager, you’ll be in charge of hiring, training, directing, and motivating a team of junior accountants. Not only will you have to remain vigilant at all times, but you’ll also be responsible for a group of relatively inexperienced accountants as well.
Since you’ll also have the position of a senior accountant, you’ll be handling high-level tasks like preparing annual budgets, tracking long-term financial data, and developing policies and procedures.
You will be required to keep in constant communication with other department managers, so this role is ideal for someone with a combination of soft and hard skills.
Plus, finance managers earned a median of $134,180 in 2020, according to BLS data, and are in high demand, with more than 17% job growth expected by 2030.
The Takeaway
As you can see, there are a variety of jobs to choose from, depending on your experience and skill level.
After you graduate, you can select which field excites you more. Pursue a career of interest because even when it gets monotonous, you’ll see it through successfully.
