It’s not easy choosing a career. When you don’t have a particular passion, it’s even tougher. It can help to look at the broader picture and decide on the quality of life you’d like, then search for careers that might satisfy those lifestyle needs.
For many of us, stability and financial security are desirable lifestyle qualities. Align those to personal traits such as organisation, attention to detail, interest in finance or numbers in general, and accounting could be a good match.
Future Stability
There will always be a need for professional accounting as every business on the planet, regardless of size, must control its money and manage its financial affairs.
Trends come and go, new technology ushers in new ways of doing business, and methods that seemed entrenched and established fade away. With an accountancy qualification, you’re in the best position possible to keep pace with the changing world and have skills always in demand.
When you’re searching for career options that guarantee future employment stability and reliability, accountancy is one of the most trustworthy choices. On top of that, it’s flexible, well paid, and respected.
Growth Pathways
Professional bodies and organisations help you stay up to date with business accountancy needs through ongoing personal development and training.
Accountancy tends to have a logical career development pathway, although like others the fields within the broader profession are varied.
Newly qualified, you’ll probably start on one of the lower rungs as a finance junior or accounts assistant. Further study will take you to higher levels, with correspondingly more responsibility and rewards.
It’s a career option that’s also open to those wishing to change their profession, and you don’t necessarily need a bachelor’s degree to gain entry. You can even study accounting online if you have family or other commitments to consider.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Industry Diversity and Choice
Name any industry or business sector and it has a need for professional accounting.
Once you have the basic qualification under your belt and you understand how accounting works, you can work in whichever field excites your passion. From fashion to politics, manufacturing or farming, arts and culture or entertainment, every sector has a need for good accountants.
You can also choose to specialise in one or more disciplines, such as cost accounting, tax accounting, forensic accounting, or auditing. There are more, too. It means you can keep your career interesting throughout your working life.
And if you wish to travel, the global accounting need makes this possible too whether you work at an overseas branch of a UK company or travel independently to take up foreign opportunities.
Transferable Skills
We mentioned earlier that accountancy is an accessible profession for career changers as well as those just starting out.
Transferable skills, sometimes also called soft skills, are easily overlooked since they’re often skills acquired through life experience rather than being formally taught. There’s more information on identifying skills here, and you probably already have many of the skills accountants need. They include:
Organisation – any area of life can get chaotic without a few organisation skills, even just getting the kids up and outside the school gates on time and with all they need for the day. Accountants need a high level of organisation since chaotic finances can cripple otherwise healthy businesses.
Self-motivation – accountants enjoy a high degree of autonomy in their work. If you can keep yourself on track despite distractions, you already possess an important characteristic for working in accounts. Deadlines in accountancy are often a legal imperative, so self-motivation and time management skills are critical.
Problem solving – before you can find a solution, you need to recognise there’s a problem. Accountants must be vigilant, observant, accurate and meticulous so they can minimise financial risks and avoid errors.
These are just a few of the transferable skills you can probably recognise in yourself if you honestly evaluate your day to day life, regardless of your current profession. Don’t disregard them.
Enterprise Options
For many people, traditional employment is the preferred way forward. For others, the dream is to own their own business or company, whether on a personal or national scale.
Accountancy is one of the few professions that open doors to both.
You can start your own accountancy firm and employ similarly qualified people to work alongside you, offering independent accountancy services. You can work as a freelance accountant or bookkeeper, helping other small business owners keep their finances on track, their books up to date and legal, and their tax returns submitted on time.
When you’re looking for financial stability with good earning potential throughout your working life, and you’d like diverse options to develop your career path, accountancy is one of the strongest contenders.
