Professional goals Essay Example for Free

Professional goals Essay Career or profession is a term used to refer to a person’s course or advancement in life. Career involves remunerative work as well as formal education. It also involves consecutive circumstances that make up an individual’s work life and involve commitment to a field of knowledge and skills like human resource management. Some of the career activities that an individual may engage in include; sporting career, musical career, teaching, wrestling career, doctor, nurse, engineering, editor, business manager, accounting, journalist, lawyer e. . c. This essay however involves a discussion on accounting career. Most jobs in accounting career require at least degree in bachelor of accounting or a bachelor’s degree in any other interrelated field. In federal government, beginners in accounting and auditing places necessitate at least four years of college education including twenty four semester hours in accounting and auditing or a corresponding arrangement of education and knowledge (Angus 387). There is however an added advantage for people seeking jobs in accounting career and have acquired a masters degree in accounting or degree of masters in business administration with awareness in accounting, professional recognition through certification or licensure, propensity in accounting and auditing computer software and specialized expertise in accounting. The reason for selecting accounting as my career is that the jobs found in the accounting career are enjoyable, interesting and entertaining to perform. The work may be much and tiring but does not involve boredom as it involves doing interesting activities such as calculating financial statements. It is enjoyable doing accounting activities being my dream career. The pace of work of an accountant depends on the position and responsibilities one has to perform. Generally the work standard for several accountants and auditors is forty hours per week, nevertheless an accountant or an auditor may work for more hours especially if he or she is self employed or if there are many clients. In this situation the pace of work must be very fast. Persons who work within the accounting career have a very good starting salary. For example in most cases the top ten percent of accountants and auditors do earn from 76000 US dollars and above, the middle half of the occupation earn between 29000 and 49000 US dollars while those who are at the bottom earns between 15000 and 23000 US dollars. The directors in the accounting career on the other hand earn between 56000 and 91000 US dollars. There is however a slight difference in the salary ranges between the accountants in urban areas and those in rural areas. Generally the salary for people in the accounting career ranges from 15000 to 91000 US dollars depending on the nature of your work (Eisenbeis Robert 879). The most identifiable challenge faced in this profession is that the accounting career now requires the accountants to perform more technical tasks including implementing, controlling and auditing computer systems and networks as well as developing a business’s technology plans. In addition, accountants take the role of personal advisors i. e. besides giving customers accounting and tax help, they also assist them come up with their personal budgets, handle their assets and investments, plan for retirement and identify and reduce the clients disclosure to risks. Another problem experienced in this profession is that it at times involves a lot of work that at times an accountant is forced to transfer some work to do at home. This however may easily dealt with since it involved only time adjustment and some program change. Accountants usually carry on many activities other than just preparing financial statements and recording business transactions. The additional responsibilities for an accountant include calculating computing costs, calculating efficiency gains for new technologies, participating in the setup for achievements and unions and developing it systems to trail financial performance, tax policy and employee benefit management. As a management accountant working in a big company my responsibilities included having a say in decisions concerning capital budgeting and business analysis. The major activities that I had to engage in included analyzing costs and contracts, participating in efforts to reduce expenses, contributing to major business decisions and working together with marketing and financial managers to establish new businesses (Luck Christopher 78). In management accounting there are several decisions to be made that are major to the business operations. The most difficult decisions to make in this case were those relating to capital budgeting. The management accountant finds it difficult to make decisions on purchases, payments and the amount of capital to be allocated for any expenditure that has to be made. When first considering the accounting career, I thought it was just about gaining a qualification and becoming an accountant. It is true however that one can acquire a degree in accounting and become a general accountant, but this remains only one of the alternatives that an individual may follow in his or her pursuit of accounting career. Other than pursuing a degree in bachelor of accounting, there are several other specialist areas one may pursue. Some of the specialist areas are information systems, computer operations, taxation, and management policy. My strength in this career is that I got a full qualification from my bachelor’s degree in accounting with an added advantage of having professional recognition through certification and licensure, proficiency in accounting and auditing computer software and a specialized expertise in accounting. In addition I had the work experience which I had acquired during summers when I was pursuing my degree. My weakness in this career is that accountants are now required to take the role of personal advisors to clients which I am not very comfortable with. Conclusion Accounting is indeed a very fulfilling and accomplishing career. It is a career that anybody interested in achieving may enjoy undertaking. Even though, the entry in the accounting career requires high academic qualification, it is also well paying which and therefore gives enough satisfaction.