And as businesses grow, so grows accounting. In fact, it expands each time a new store, a factory, a filling station is built. In marketing terms: the demand exceeds the supply. This might change, but right now there are more jobs for accountants than there are qualified people to fill them. Which is perhaps why today so many people are going into the field. And all kinds of people. Years ago, accounting was a Man's Field (with women "keeping the books" and fetching the coffee). Today all that has changed, and accounting is a field that is open to everybody. Of course, this is the way it should always have been, but for many reasons women were not always given the opportunities they should have had in the field until rather recently. Naturally, as in other areas of business, all minorities (and majorities) are welcome in accounting. As long as you can add. Or at least run an adding machine. Or at least one of the amazing new calculators. And, if all else fails, you can always rely on your trusty computer.
Because this is the computer age. One hundred years ago, the paper and pencil were enough (you've seen movies depicting those days when quilled pens were dipped into inkwells). Today, commercial and financial data have become so increasingly complicated that computers have taken their place behind the accountant. True, the computer might not have its own swivel chair or an office with a view, but it can be recognized by its flash of light and its high-energy flipping of thousands of punched cards a minute.
If you ever get a chance, visit the accounting department of a large store. You won't see any quill pens. What you will see are dozens of accountants who are behind the scenes, and who analyze figures and advise management on what should and shouldn't be done. Many stores have branches, and at each newly built outlet a new set of bookkeepers and accountants are needed. Every time you see a new store going up, you're always seeing new accountants getting new work.
Because of the importance of the job and the great responsibility surrounding it, accountants are often quite well paid. It is one of those jobs in which if you rise to the top-and there is no reason not to want to-you will have some prestige and, perhaps even more important, some freedom of choice.
Freedom of choice. That's important. Many fields are inflexible and offer only a certain set of opportunities. But in accounting there are all kinds of spaces and places for a person to fit into. Briefly, an accountant can live nearly anywhere (where there is a business, that is) and can work in a varied number of positions. There is also more freedom in ways of living. At one time an accountant was a very "staid and proper business-now" but today that too is changing. There is much more choice in personal life-style in the field of business these days.
Also, many accountants aren't merely accountants. Some are so valued by their firms and companies that they are made officers and managers.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. On the following pages you will get a taste of accounting, what it is like, how you should prepare to become an accountant, what opportunities there are, and what to expect when you get there. For some, it's a long and hard road to travel. For others, it's worth all the work and study that's necessary. But, hopefully, by the end of this book you'll have some inkling if the idea of accounting appeals to you.
For some, accounting - the taste of money - just isn't their taste of honey. For others, it's the only profession in the world. It's a field that not only requires a gift for handling figures, but also integrity and imagination and analytical ability. It might be for you.
