Accountants who are self-employed, too, often take on contract accounting jobs. With this type of setup, the accounting jobs you do are not for one particular company on an ongoing basis, such as if you are an in-house accountant for a single company. Instead, you contract with various clients to take care of their accounting needs for them; hence, the term, "contract accounting job." It's basically another way to say that you are "freelancing" as a self-employed accountant who doesn't just work for one client on an ongoing and continual basis.
Getting your first accounting job
Once you've gone to school and gotten your bachelor's degree in accounting or related field, you may want to take your CPA certification exam right away. This will give you a distinct advantage over someone who does not have his or her certification.
There are several ways you can find your first accounting job. You can often get an entry-level accounting job by contacting your school's career placement service. You can't just walk in and get a job, no, but your school should have contacts that you can send your resume to.
The Internet, too, is a rich resource for entry-level accounting jobs and for more supervisory accounting jobs, too. Simply going to your favorite search engine and typing in "entry-level accounting job" and your location should find you a list of jobs to peruse; choose the best ones that look like they're a good fit, construct your cover letter carefully for each company, and send your resume to as many as you can. A lot of these places have online submission forms, too, and that's a perfectly acceptable way to send your resume into prospective employers.
Your resume
A word about your resume; get that in order, too. You won't have a lot of job related experience, probably, when you get your first accounting job, but you can emphasize any experience you had with any internships or accounting-related work you did while you were in school. If you worked in retail or in some job where you had to handle a lot of money responsibly, you can put that on your resume, too. As you get more experienced, your resume is going to change because you can simply focus on accounting-related experience. For this first one post-college, though, make sure you include any money management experience you had on your resume, specifically spelled out as such.
How should you construct your resume? It's a good idea to list your name and contact information first, followed by your educational background (including any certifications such as that for CPA), followed by a brief skill set listed in bulleted format just so that your prospective employers can see what you can do at a glance. Finally, at the end of your resume, including a phrase something to the effect of, "References available upon request." It's not necessary to include references right on your resume because you'll want to save that space for specific information. However, be prepared to send professional references whenever they're requested by a prospective employer. That means, not your mother or father, best friend, etc., but people you've worked with who know that you're a good employee.
The interview
When you begin to be contacted for interviews, make sure that you'll be prepared; dress professionally (no jeans or T-shirt), and be prepared to answer any job-related questions honestly. Remember that you're here to fulfill a need for the employer, and you want to make sure that comes across. However, he should also "interview" the employer, too, in some respects. Basically, you're here to fulfill a need for them, and you should approach it such that you want them to know you're going to take care of that need. Therefore, when the interviewer asks you if you have any questions, you can approach it from that focus if you like. The questions you ask the interviewer should be in regard to how you can best help this company succeed.
Keeping a job once you've got it
Once you do get a job, it's really pretty simple when it comes to keeping it. Basically, show up and do your job well. If you're good at accounting and you like what you do, that's not going to be that hard.
Conclusion
Getting your first job in accounting can be quite daunting. However, entry-level jobs are pretty plentiful and should be relatively easy to get if you have gotten a good education and know what you're doing. Keeping a job is a matter of being professional, showing up, and doing the job right. As you move along in your career, you may want new challenges. However, every job you have should be treated as though it's the most important one you've had, because it is.
