Any Accountants out there? I need some advice?

Question

I am an Art History major. While I am really passionate about art, the job market sucks.

I've been considering accounting. I've been working as an accounting clerk this summer, and it's been allright. I'm good at it because I'm a fast worker yet I'm also very meticulous, and I am very ethical. The thing is, I'm afraid that accounting is going to be so monotonous. I don't know if I want to spend the rest of my life dealing with numbers and in front of a computer all day.

Any accountants out there, please tell me what it's like! If I decide to go into Accounting, I'd have to transfer out of my current college because it doesn't offer an Accounting major, so this is a big deal for me. I need to know for sure whether this is right for me.

Answer 1

My first job - accounting assistant: It was exciting in the first year, but after that it gets boring because you're doing the same thing over and over again.

Right now - Staff and Tax accountant: It's a lot more fun and challenging. You get to know a lot of people's personal life.

Future - I want to be a forensic accountant, which is the most exciting and very rewarding job in accounting.

If you want your life to be fun, don't be just an accounting clerk or assistant ... try some other higher level accounting work. There are so many different things you can do in accounting field. If this is what you want, be sure to finish your degree and get a CPA ... then you will be loving life and making lots of $$$. Also, you could open a CPA firm and get many artist, or art dealer as your clients. That way you won't be too far apart from art.

Answer 2

I am an accounting major about to complete my degree.

While I cannot tell you about the career aspect yet, I can tell you about what my education was like. Professional accounting is nothing like bookkeeping, trust me. The topics are very technical, complex and in many respects challenging.

Once you get beyond your survey classes (Accounting "101" type) you move into the intermediate classes which deal with very complex and scary sounding items such as stock options, financial statement formation, deferred taxes, process costing, activity based costing and the list goes on!

It's not just numbers and spreadsheets though. In the financial accounting classes you research accounting standards which I found fascinating.

In addition, you will probably have to take other business classes such as marketing, management, finance, statistics and communication classes. This is a very technically complex topic!

This will be a major career move for you. Whatever you choose, I wish you good luck.

I know every school is different, but I posted my course catalog so you can see what the program is like. My school has a very hard core accounting program, so this may be a tad overkill from what your school offers. Good luck!

Business program starts at pg. 105
Accounting at pg. 107

Answer 3

If you don't want to be in front of a computer all day, then accounting is definitely not for you. I am a cost accountant. And I don't find my job "monotonous" at all, BUT, I do spend most of my time with the computer. Ironically, I was a Graphic Design major, until I decided I wanted to stay in my small town, and there was NO market for that at all.

Answer 4

Why don't you try bookkeeping in support your art? Bookkeepers earn good money. You can try signing up with an employment agency or temp agency - you could get a different assignment every week or every month - that would break up the monotony a bit. Also, you could work part-time around your school studies - and pay for your art major. If you're passionate about art, you shouldn't give it up. If, after, you've gotten your art degree it's not for you - then you can transfer to another school.

Answer 5

Some accounting jobs deal a lot with people and are not boring. Other are just boring computer jobs as you guessed. So it depends.