An accountant lifestyle is not what you would expect.
Accountants work heavily with numbers, and must enjoy or be good with numbers to be successful in this career. However, there is more to being an accountant than just looking at digits, and there are certainly a lot of benefits.
Accountants are vital for any business, there are many different routes and responsibilities of an accountant, such as creating financial strategies to improve company performance, deal with taxes and find ways of saving money, financial reporting and more.
Salaries for accountants rise steeply throughout the length of the average career. The more qualifications accountants recruit, the better their earning potential, with – an experienced chartered accountant, for example, can command an impressive £250,000 a year*. Salaries can also be pushed higher simply due to the demand for accountants in almost every industry. It is one of the few professions that is rarely affected negatively by an economic downturn or upturn, and continues to grow steadily.
Because accounting is so fundamental to business practice, some accountants are lucky enough to choose their own lifestyle. Whether it be travelling all over the world or settling down in your home with comfortable surroundings, accountants have the opportunity to work for themselves and be their own boss. As accountants are always in demand, if you go freelance, you can pick and choose your workload and even choose your own office and workspace location from the Seychelles to Switzerland. Whether working in commercial business or corporate, education or charity, freelance accountants can choose exactly which industry to work in and dictate when and what work they want to do.
For those of you who prefer steady, more conventional working methods such as traditional work hours and hard-earned bonuses, accounting offers very lucrative career opportunities. Many strive to move up the career ladder like many other professions. With the accounting profession, there are many aspirational positions that are very attainable with experience; some accountants become high-level managers or leaders – (think Chief Financial Officer/CFO of a company, Directors and Head of Finance).
So, whether you want a traditional career or to be your own boss, accounting offers what many of us strive for after spending years living and struggling as a student: a dependable, lucrative career.