Shamia Salley
December 7, 1999
English 111-14
Getting The CPA's Job Right: What Does It Take?
The career or profession that I might be interested in, but not quite sure yet, is accounting because I took the course in high school and I really enjoyed it. Although I am not big on math, I didn’t have a problem with adding and subtracting numbers while I was in this course. The more I think about being a Certified Public Accountant, or CPA, the more I want to go ahead and study to be one because I think it would be fun.
In the sources that I researched, which were online, I discovered that some of the entry-level qualifications to be a CPA were you needed to have an education. Some positions require that you have some experience in accounting. Also, a person should have a degree in business and be able to enter into that type of field. Jobs for accounting are available anywhere, although there were few businesses for accounting in Virginia. Most jobs are located in the western or central part of the United States. The pay scales that I noticed for an entry-level position as an accountant started off between $30,000 and $40,000, the first year. I think this salary is for CPAs, and it may be different for someone who is just working in an accounting firm. The actual duties of an accountant require preparing worksheets, analyzing transactions, doing bank reconciliations, and other tasks that require filling out forms and calculating numbers. These tasks may be different for someone who works for an accountant, like they may be responsible for bookkeeping, and then there is an account manager, which is someone who is responsible for marketing campaigns for the company. The duties all depend on the type of job someone has in dealing with accounting.
The job that I would ultimately like to have is one as a Certified Public Accountant. The way this position might differ from the entry-level jobs in my field is that I would probably be making more money. To make myself qualified for this "ultimate" goal, I would need to go to school and learn about this position; that way when I do enter into this field, I would what it’s all about. Another way for me to make myself qualified is to have a degree in Business, to show employers that I’ve been taught all about it. I guess the best way for me to be qualified is to know what I am doing and how to do it.
I was not able to visit any businesses that were related to accounting or any other business fields, but I was able to talk to a relative of mine who happened to have done some work in the field of accounting. She knew enough about the communication skills in that type of business. Most people in the field of accounting communicate through journals. A journal is a form that businesses use to keep track of the funds in the business. These journals help each person see how the business is doing, in relation to other businesses. Journals help keep all the company’s funds in balance and make sure that funds are not going into one part of the business more than another part. The primary audience for this type of communication is other accountants. They help each other out and look over each other’s work to make sure there are not any mistakes. When you are dealing with numbers, you have check over everything because if someone happens to add or subtract wrong, it could make a big difference. In dealing with journals and worksheets, there is no short way to do it. A journal has to be detailed and exact. A journal needs to have the date of when the money was spent or received, where or who the money went to or was received from, and how much. Each accountant needs to see where the money from the company is going. Every penny that is spent has to be recorded! You can’t get around that. Like it was stated in the beginning, one mathematical error can mean a whole lot to a business.
The type of oral communication required in this business is with other people. My relative does income taxes, so people would come in and ask her to file their income taxes and then she would tell them what is going on with their income and then show them. Being that she does this type of job, the type of presentations that she makes are to the clients that come in.
In this type of business, she needs to know how to work a computer and use it to do different tasks. A computer makes it easier to calculate numbers and enter data easily; that way if there is a mistake she won’t have to start all over again. In other cases, some business, like Accounting, use the computer to make presentations to other co-workers using PowerPoint. My aunt uses Excel, because it already has the chart on the screen. She has an interesting job, but if I decide to go into the field of Accounting, I want to be able to do everything that deals with accounting and not limit myself to just one task.
Works Cited
"Business Administration." Business Careers.com. Laste updated 10 Nov 98 <http://www.businesscareers.com/jobs.
Saunders, Brenda. Personal Interview. 5 Nov 99.
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