Is a Career in Accounting Right for You?

What an Accountant Actually Does

Picture a staff accountant at a mid-sized firm during a month-end close. By 8:30am you have pulled the prior month's bank statements and started the bank reconciliation in the general ledger system — QuickBooks, Sage Intacct or NetSuite, depending on the client — matching cleared checks and deposits line by line until the difference is zero. Mid-morning you post accrual journal entries for expenses incurred but not yet invoiced, then review the accounts payable aging to see which vendor balances a client disputes.

After lunch the work shifts from building numbers to checking them. You examine a draft financial statement for accuracy and for compliance with the rules it is prepared under, tracing a revenue figure back to signed contracts (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). On a tax engagement the same afternoon might instead go to computing taxes owed and preparing a return, then confirming payments were made on time (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).

Audit work has a different rhythm: you inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency and the use of accepted accounting procedures, and flag potential fraud risks such as journal entries posted by someone who also approves payments (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).

Most days end with a written note. You explain a variance to a controller in plain language, because a number nobody understands does not get acted on.

Most accountants and auditors work full time, with overtime typical around quarterly audits and tax season (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).

Signs This Career Might Fit You

• You like finishing a reconciliation to zero. A bank reconciliation that is off by $43.80 is not done; you have to find the duplicated entry, not round it away.
• You can hold a long chain of reasoning. Tracing a revenue balance from the trial balance back through the subledger to a signed customer contract takes analytical and critical-thinking skills, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025) lists among the key qualities for the job.
• You notice small inconsistencies. Spotting that an invoice date falls after the period end, or that a vendor address matches an employee address, is how fraud risk gets identified (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).
• You can explain a number to someone who dislikes numbers. Communication skills matter when you tell a business owner why their profit looks high but their cash is gone (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).
• You work well against hard external deadlines. Tax filing dates and audit report deadlines do not move because your week was busy.
• You are comfortable organizing many files at once. A single audit may mean tracking dozens of open requests across several client contacts, which is why organizational skills appear among the qualities named by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025).
• You will keep studying after graduation. CPA licensure means passing a national exam and meeting state requirements on top of a degree (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).

Signs This Career Might Not Fit You

• You resent seasonal overtime. Most accountants and auditors work full time, with overtime typical during quarterly audits and tax season (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025) — that can mean weeks of evenings and Saturdays at a desk while friends have free weekends.
• Sitting at two monitors for most of the day feels unbearable. Much of the work happens in spreadsheets and ledger software, not moving between rooms or sites.
• You prefer open-ended creative problems. Preparing a tax return means applying rules to facts and getting the payment in on time (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025), not inventing a new approach each time.
• Checking other people's work feels petty to you. Audit means telling a client their accounting procedures are not being followed, then documenting it.
• You want to stop studying once you have a degree. All states require 150 semester hours of college coursework for CPA licensure — 30 hours more than a usual four-year bachelor's degree (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).
• You dislike being responsible for an exact answer. If a filing is wrong, your name and your firm's name are on it.

A Day in the Life

A close week or a busy-season day at a public accounting firm. Hours stretch longer around quarterly audits and tax season (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).

How to Get Started

1. Test the work before you commit (2-8 weeks). Build a small set of books in Excel or QuickBooks for a family business or club: record transactions, reconcile a bank statement, produce a simple profit and loss. If reconciling to zero feels satisfying rather than tedious, that is a real signal.
2. Earn a bachelor's degree in accounting or a related field (about 4 years). Accountants and auditors typically need one; some employers prefer a master's degree in accounting or an MBA with an accounting concentration (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). Take the audit, tax and accounting information systems courses, not just the minimum.
3. Do an internship and target a first title (one summer, roughly 8-12 weeks). Aim for staff accountant, audit associate, tax associate, accounts payable specialist or junior auditor. Internships in public accounting are often the direct route to a graduate offer.
4. Decide on the CPA path and check your jurisdiction's rules (1-2 months of research, before you finish coursework). Candidates must be found eligible by one of 55 U.S. jurisdictions — the 50 states plus 5 U.S. territories — each with its own Board of Accountancy setting requirements (Becker, efficientlearning.com). Any accountant who files a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission must be a licensed CPA (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).
5. Complete 150 semester hours (an extra 1 year, or less if you load up as an undergraduate). All states require 150 semester hours of college coursework for licensure, which is 30 hours more than a usual four-year bachelor's degree (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).
6. Pass the Uniform CPA Examination (commonly 12-18 months of study and sittings). It has four parts: three Core sections — Auditing and Attestation, Financial Accounting and Reporting, and Taxation and Regulation — plus one Discipline section you choose, all to be passed within a rolling 30-month window (New York State Education Department). A passing score is 75 or higher on each section (Texas State Board of Public Accountancy).
7. Log supervised experience and apply for the license (1-2 years). Most jurisdictions require one to two years of relevant work experience supervised and verified by a licensed CPA (Becker, efficientlearning.com); CPAs are licensed by their state's Board of Accountancy (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). Check current pay ranges for your state and job title in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data before you negotiate.