Accounting lecturer Dr Terri Trireksani explains what it’s like to be an accountant, and the kinds of jobs you can get in accounting.
What does an accountant do?
According to Dr Trireksani, an accountant’s job can best be conveyed by comparing it to coffee. Most avid coffee-drinkers will understand the rush of increased alertness and activity you feel once the caffeine kicks in from your morning coffee. Like caffeine entering the bloodstream and alerting the body to function, accountants are responsible for quickly and simply circulating information to managers, so they can make informed decisions best for the organisation.
“Accounting plays both roles: the stimulant and the bloodstream,” says Dr Trireksani.
“Like the synergy of caffeine in the bloodstream, accounting information systems speed up information within an organisation and constantly transport new information to separate departments, so they understand and act accordingly to the central goals and objectives of the organisation.”
Accountants are required to assist in making financial decisions, investment decisions and lending decisions. They are also responsible to serve corporate governance within their firm, ensuring a strong sense of ethics, transparency with providing information to outsiders, including investors, business partners and lenders, and a strong control system to detect variances.
What kind of job can you get in accounting?
From auditors, taxation accountants, forensic accountants, the list goes on. Accounting skills are also called for in other careers such as risk managers, project managers, financial investment advisers, actuaries or sustainability managers.
And while technology is beginning to take over the more clerical parts of an accounting job, computerisation can’t replace everything.
“Computerisation has helped to automate the technical bookkeeping tasks in accounting and also makes the process more streamline and accurate,” says Dr Trireksani.
“But many aspects of an organisation that require planning, controlling, monitoring and evaluation cannot simply be replaced by computerisation.”
How to become an accountant
If you’re interested in becoming an accountant, studying a degree in accounting will be the first step. A course in accounting typically takes three years to complete. Upon graduation, you will be job ready, working with real organisations on real projects. You can even pair your accounting career with Chartered Accounting (CA) program modules after you graduate if you choose to.
Murdoch Business School offers double majors to study alongside your accounting degree to boost your job prospects:
- Business Law
- Finance
- Hospitality and Tourism Management
- International Business
- Laws / Business
- Management
According to JobOutlook, there is a strong predicted future growth with accounting jobs. A career in accounting is a stable and continually growing job field, despite the emergence of new technologies.