Related Career Categories

• Accounting Manager
• Auditor
• Bookkeeper
• Business Accountant
• Controller
• CPA
• Financial Investigator
• Government Accountant
• Not-For-Profit Accountant
• Tax Accountant
• Tax Preparer

School and Career Surprises: Tips From People on the Job

Career: "I was surprised to discover how little practical application that most of the classes I took during my undergraduate education were to my career. Classes which taught skills such as using a ten-key adding machine, computer skills, and soft skills such as professional interaction and time management would have been more useful on a day to day basis."

Career: "I am surprised how disorganized a major company can be. No one keeps track of their own schedule and always relies on other people do it. Insane."

School: "I was surprised with how much the teacher was willing to work with me in making up assignments. I was also surprised to find that my professor also taught accounting at Towson University."

Career: "I was surprised to learn that there is a large amount of communication required between myself and my clients for me to do my work properly. I was also surprised to learn that each bookkeeping job takes more time than the scenarios did in school."

Best & Worst Things About This Career

"I love the people and Girl Scouting. I was a scout as a girl, and still am! Sometimes I have the chance to volunteer at a Girl Scout event, and I enjoy the children. They remind me of why we do what we do! I hate tax time and audit time. I like doing my job, but having someone come in and look over my shoulder for a week checking over a year's worth of work is not pleasant. Cookie sale time is a HUGE sale. We have more than 15,000 girls selling cookies, and all of the tracking of bank deposits and cases of cookies is a huge undertaking."

"The best part of my job is that all of the employees are like friends and family. Because we are a small private company, we have a casual atmosphere and an office dog who greets visitors like a receptionist. It's a fun place to work. There is not really any part of my job that I dislike. If I had to pick a worst part, I guess it would be at month-end when I have a lot of reports to run and more things to do so that I can close out the month for bookkeeping purposes."

"I have complete autonomy over my hours. Also all of my part-time jobs are within a couple of miles of my home. Some negative aspects are doing personal jobs that are out of my comfort zone. I have had to tackle many jobs that I have had no experience with. Many require research online to figure out -- great learning experience, though, I suppose. Working on PC's when I'm used to Macs has been challenging as well."

Tips for Succeeding in This Career

"Get up-to-date training on Excel spreadsheets, or any other kind of accounting software to be used at your place of employment. Take classes to get an understanding of basic accounting. Take customer service training. Have good typing and basic computer skills."

"I would recommend this type of job for anyone who doesn't mind working indoors and is comfortable with a 9 to 5 schedule. Not having to work weekends is a plus for me. You need to be organized and detail-oriented. I spend a lot of my time making and labeling folders and have a precise filing system, so I can find anything on a moment's notice. Taking a lot of business courses helped a whole lot."

"Don't be afraid to start at the bottom. My first job after college was an entry-level billing clerk job. I worked extremely hard and was promoted to manager within a few years. At the first convention we had, I got the award called "nose to the grindstone" for sitting at my desk for hours without moving. I was reconciling accounts which I found very satisfying and I still enjoy the reconciliation aspect of my jobs today."