Accountants are dynamic, interesting, highly intelligent, hard-working individuals.
– Alexa Loo
The field of Accounting and Finance is a wide space with many career opportunities to work in all sorts of industries and businesses globally. They have gathered a huge excitement among several youths and are highly chosen this career prospects because their value gets on enhancing based on the market requirements.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects a 6.9 percent employment growth for accountants between 2020 and 2030. In that period, an estimated 96,000 job opportunities will be present. Many aspirants are choosing the accounting programs as they give innumerable opportunities in several industries, followed by attractive salary, many job roles and many more benefits.
In this article, let’s have at the skills that are required to excel one’s career in accounting and finance.
Skills for Accountants to be Successful in their job
A profession in accounting is one of the best career choices, which are chosen by many individuals. About 135,000 openings for accountants, auditors, and finance professionals are estimated every year, on average, over the decade. It is very crucial to have sound knowledge of accounting, who is interested in growing in their exciting careers path as a chartered management accountant. To achieve this, the individuals should have a certain set of skills and several more essential aspects to consider. The following are a few sets of skills.
· Better knowledge of practical accounting
One of the major and high-demand skills is that contextual awareness to know the best response to an available situation. For example, AI possesses the ability to process thousands of documents within less time and also identify quantitative trends, but AI cannot make recommendations yet based on these useful insights. An expert chartered management accountant will be skilled enough with insights in analytics and AI, alongside an understanding of accountancy practices and knowledge of their organizations will be able to complete this gap.
· Doing accounting programs in tech and analytics to stay up-to-date
Doing the basic accounting programs is necessary for a career in this major field. One can set themselves apart by taking up a qualification that offers them enough understanding of the latest technologies and the ways it is emerging in the accounting field. Gaining knowledge on a few very good subjects like big data, cloud computing, and mobile applications will be a great boost. This is also very useful for budding accountants to maximize their skills in terms of data analytics. Looking out for these programs in specialized areas will be a better boost to one’s employability after graduation.
· Understanding the basic concepts
To excel in a career in accounting and finance, one of the best ways is to be well-versed with problem-solving skills that play an essential role. Thus, an individual cannot simply know the definitions and strive to score better in exams. Instead, the students are required to have a good understanding of the basic concepts so that they can get betters ideas and rules. This will be helpful in numerically solving anything that is given to them. This will mainly translate into skills that will help to know better the clients’ demands once they go out of campus and faces real-world challenges in the field of accounting as a profession.
· Should have a curious mindset
Curiosity is an essential trait in any dynamic environment as it develops a tendency to ask questions, know the ongoing challenges on a deeper level, and challenge assumptions. Because technology innovation is not necessarily the main part of the chartered management accountant’s role, one can easily miss essential changes in the tech landscape. Curiosity is very useful to solve this issue by empowering accountants to understand the latest technologies as opportunities to enhance their work.
· Business and Communication Skills
The role of a management accountant is more related to decision-making, strategy, and planning, there will be a major requirement for communication and business skills. Apart from this being able to look at quantitative data through a strategic lens, communicating recommendations play a vital role. Communication skills are very important to employers who require accounting professionals with a collaborative personality, with better executive presence, conflict management, and adaptability.
· Better networking
Being a successful accountant is the essential goal of any individual who are on the path of career in accounting and finance. To achieve this, the aspirants are required to invest time in networking. This means they must attend career expo events that are held by the university, connect with recruiters, and actively participate in the gatherings, which are hosted by the organizations.
Finance Manager by profession, Finance blogger by passion. https://www.cima.institute/
