Tips for Pursuing a Career in Accounting

Having a great job positively impacts various areas of your life. It opens doors to financial stability both now and in the future, and also improves your mental wellbeing. It’s no wonder, then, that a great deal of focus goes into making smart choices about the career path you want to embark upon.

Increasingly, accountancy is seeing attention as a path that offers vocational and lifestyle benefits. There is often a great deal of accessibility and stability in this field; our society is filled with complex financial elements and experts are always in demand. Indeed, accountancy and finance were recently reported to have the second-highest occupational growth in the Philippines.

However, as with many other professional fields, accountancy is subject to a certain amount of development, challenges, and competition. Your successful career trajectory depends on your commitment and approach.

We’re going to run down a few of the primary areas that can impact your journey toward accountancy and beyond.

Keep Learning

Make no mistake, being an accountant requires you to have a certain skill set. While the range of abilities employers expect from their finance professionals can vary, most will require a combination of high-quality technical and communication skills. There are of course the obvious elements, such as technical accountancy abilities and utilization of relevant software. You’ll also need to develop high ethical standards. Not to mention those who are most effective in this field develop an approach to problem-solving that helps them to navigate their employer or clients’ finances through regulations and legislation. 

Much of this is introduced during your initial accountancy education. Both technical knowledge and ethical standards are explored and tested in university courses and preparation to pass the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam. However, it’s important to remember this isn’t a static situation. In order to remain both effective in your profession and attractive to employers, you also need to commit to frequent refreshers and upskilling.

Seek out seminars and certifications; the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants maintains a list of accredited providers to ensure classes meet professional standards. If applicable, talk to your employer about subsidizing your development, as it will also benefit their operations.

Beyond basic skills, it might even be worth your time to consider pursuing education in a specialty area. Accountancy is a wide-ranging field, and you can focus on such areas as forensic accounting if you’re interested in pursuing fraud investigation or auditing, or environmental accounting if you want to have an impact on sustainability.

Build Experience

There’s no denying that accountancy has a reputation for being a dry field. However, it’s important to remember it can be a gateway to some interesting and exciting opportunities. The more you’re able to pursue the varied roles and environments accountancy has to offer, the more experiences you gain that qualify you as an agile contributor to a business. This makes you attractive to clients and potential employers. As such, you need to pursue experience. 

International experiences in particular are increasingly valuable. The opening of the global marketplace means many businesses have multinational branches and are in need of financial experts who have a history of collaborating with workers from a variety of cultures. As such, it’s worth pursuing work opportunities abroad.

Aside from learning internationally relevant technical skills, international experience also helps you build abilities in intercultural communication. You forge relationships that have a meaningful exchange of values, learn respect for varied backgrounds, and prioritize the shared experience between diverse colleagues. You’ll also have to be open to adopting methods that help you develop this approach, through education, making mistakes, and just asking when you’re not sure about a cultural issue. If you return to the Philippines, you’ll do so with international experience that has practical applications.

You don’t just need to move abroad to gain diverse experiences. You should also be seeking to build and ply your trade in a variety of industries and business models. The accounting challenges of a small local business will be different from those of a large corporation, and each provides you with valuable insights. Take opportunities and consider what can help you to bring value to your career, clients, and employers.

Network Effectively

As you’re building your skills and experience, you need to also understand that being an accountant is not a solo endeavor. Not only will you be working alongside a diverse range of colleagues in other positions, but accountancy is an industry populated by thousands of like-minded professionals. These will play an important role not only in your day-to-day activities but also in helping you progress through your career to the next rewarding position. In short, you need to get networking.

This can be slightly daunting. Especially due to the fact that, as accountancy is one of the most popular jobs in the Philippines, other financial professionals can feel like your competition. You need to adjust your thinking here. Seek to build relationships with those who are facing similar challenges as you are. Yes, there may be times they’ll be up for the same jobs as you, but they can also alert you to other positions you may be interested in, and even give you advice on entering their field of specialization. 

You can pursue this online through social media groups on LinkedIn or Facebook. But don’t neglect the potential of industry seminars and conventions. If you’re a freelancer, coworking spaces can also be a valuable source of face-to-face contact. Whichever approach you use, remember not to approach it as something purely transactional. Seek to build genuine, mutually supportive relationships — this helps you to share potential jobs with one another, but also get through the tough times together.

Conclusion

Accountancy continues to be among the most popular professions in the Philippines and across the world. Your best chance to succeed in this industry can depend on your commitment to continued education, and building diverse experiences. Remember that your experience will be enhanced by not taking the path alone — a shared journey will always be more valuable.