Accountant Job Description: Overview, Education & Training Requirements, Job Outlook and Salary
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Job Overview: An accountant is responsible for analyzing financial information and preparing financial reports to determine, maintain or improve assets, liabilities, tax liability, profit and loss, or other financial activities within a company.
Education, Training and Knowledge Requirements: Accountants should possess a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and has successfully completed CPA exams. Most companies hire accountants with at least 3 years proven accounting experience. Knowledge of budgeting, finance, accounting, cost control principles and financial software applications are often required.
Skills & Abilities: Accountants should be highly skilled in mathematics, economics and accounting with experience in financial data reporting and financial market analysis. It is also important to have a strong grasp of the English language, excellent customer service, superb verbal and written communication skills, and knowledge of accounting computer programs or applications, legal procedures and government policies, administrative procedures and principles of personnel recruitment.
Accountants should be able to read and understand financial information presented in writing, form general rules or conclusions from these pieces of information and relay these details clearly to subordinates and other members of his/her organization.
Skills of an accountant should include high level of mathematical problem-solving and reasoning, critical thinking, active listening, excellent logic and reasoning, proper judgment and decision-making, deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. He/she should be able to monitor performance levels of a finance team, identify measures of performance and provide accurate systems analysis to be able to analyze and implement necessary changes.
Duties: Examples of duties an accountant will be faced on the job include preparing, examining and analyzing accounting records and other financial reports to assess completeness, accuracy and conformance to procedural standards and the law. He/she is responsible for computing taxes owed, preparing tax returns, analyzing business operations, trends, revenues, costs, financial obligations and commitments, as well as future expenses revenues of projects. An accountant usually reports to the management about any financial information about the organization.
Other tasks of accountants include establishing tables of accounts and assigning entries to proper accounts, developing, maintaining and analyzing budgets and periodic reports, then comparing budgeted costs to actual costs. Accountants may also perform others tasks as assigned.
Earnings & Job Outlook: Employment of accountants is expected to grow faster than average from 2008 to 2018. Job opportunities for future accountants should be favorable since the need to replace those who retire or shift to other occupations would produce thousands of openings annually. Accountants who have professional certification would receive better prospects.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers published a salary survey, which detailed annual wages of accountants. In July 2009, accountants with a bachelor’s degree receive $48,993 a year, while those with a master’s degree were given starting offers of $49,786 annually.
Gypsy Santiago is a professional resume writer and career search strategy/career branding coach with years of experience in assisting job seekers prepare for the job market. She helps create career-targeted resumes, provides useful tips about career transition, offers future career ideas and guide jobseekers about effective job search techniques.
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Word Count: 488 Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 Time: 7:22 AM
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