Accounting: the cool career

Media release                                                                                                   

26 January 2010

Accounting: the cool career

Secondary school and university students should consider accounting and finance as a career that offers them excitement, variety - and a world of opportunity.

As teenagers start returning to school and university study, Megan Alexander, New Zealand general manager of finance and accounting recruiting specialists Robert Half International, is urging them to put aside any ideas of accountants as people who just sit in front of computers manipulating spreadsheets.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," she says. "Rather than simply being bean counters, today's accountants work in a variety of exciting and dynamic roles that are frequently at the very heart of their business.

"They work with every organisation, from large multinational, to small accounting practice, from government department to charity, sports club and school," Ms Alexander said. "Finance and accounting is a crucial part of every organisation, no matter what its core focus, which offers possibly the widest choice of working environments."

Ms Alexander, who is herself a chartered accountant, says finance and accounting professionals obviously do need technical skill, but employers are increasingly looking for employees who are also "people people".

"Accounting and finance professionals often have to work with everyone in the organisation, from the CEO to the receptionist. They need to be able to explain financial issues in everyday language, to explain the impact of certain decisions on the business, to work in multi-disciplinary teams on crucial projects.

"Few other professions can match the variety of work available, or the number of caereer options. It is, quite honestly, a cool career."
One young accountant who agrees that he has chosen an exciting and interesting career is Ash Matuschka, 23, a senior auditor with Ernst & Young.

Ash, whose hobbies outside work include racing inflatable rescue boats and surf-lifesaving ("that's my other, unpaid, job", he says), never considered accounting as a career when he was a child or a young teen. But at university he chose to do a business degree "because I thought I wanted to go into business".

He decided to major in marketing and accounting and, by his second year, had become increasingly interested in becoming a chartered accountant. He went straight from Auckland University to Ernst & Young, where he has been for three years, and has just completed his final professional exam to become a chartered accountant.

Now, he says, he has a fascinating job that takes him into a wide variety of organisations - all the way from listed companies to small charities - and involves working with "all the different people in all the different roles" as he gets to understand each business.

Although most people understand his job involves checking financial statements and providing opinions on whether they are correct or not, he says to do that auditors really need to understand every aspect of the business. And that involves talking to people all the time.

"If you were not a people person in this job, you just wouldn't be able to do it.

"A chartered accountant is expected to be more than just someone who can look at numbers," he says. "There's an emphasis on problem-solving and communication."

Ash says he's not too sure what his future career holds. "I don't know where it's taking me, but I know that I've put myself in a good position to be able to walk through a lot of doors."

Ms Alexander says Ash is not unusual - most new young accountants find a world of opportunities opening up to them. "It is a great qualification to travel on - good finance and accounting professionals are always in demand throughout the world.

"Indeed, there's such a demand for skilled professionals, and so many young professionals wanting to travel with their career that Robert Half has set up a website specifically to help those who want to work in other countries."

By going to www.financejobsabroad.com, finance and accounting professionals can check out the requirements for working and living in 18 countries as diverse as the United Kingdom, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Brazil.

"Young people who want a job that will, literally take them places, should seriously consider a career in finance and accounting," she says.

Ends

© Scoop Media