You're not good at math? No worries you can still be an accountant
I’m pretty sure you’ve already heard the usual connotation or belief by the majority of people inside our society that one should be good in mathematics if so he/she enrolled or graduated in accountancy or commerce in its old name. Is it true or is it just a typical belief which is a product of our society’s stereotypes? In this article I would like to discuss with you the truth about accountancy hoping that some of you might consider taking it as your college course.
Before we continue please bear in mind that whatever the author will discuss below is purely based from experience with some additional ideas from other accounting students.
Accounting stereotype/s
There are several accounting stereotypes out in our society that lingers our minds leading some people to avoid taking this course, somehow these stereotypes becomes stronger and it seems true especially in the Philippines where licensure examination results are too low for the past few years. Well, I can’t blame others for avoiding the course because of fear of failing the examination after studying for 5 years at most. However, as an accounting student, I don’t think that these stereotypes are true although I somehow agree that the course is boring but when you really love it and you feel that you belong in this field then I think you can always find a way to enjoy the subjects, right?
So, here are some of the accounting stereotypes that we have;
· Accounting is flooded with mathematical subjects so, one can take accountancy provided that he/she is good at numbers – well, this belief is a big hoax, I can personally prove that to you. The truth is, you just need to familiarize the four fundamental operation in math, and you don’t need to be as brilliant as Einstein or Newton nor to become as wise as Pythagoras to become an accountant or to take accountancy course. What you need is a wide and deep analytical skills to understand each problem. You’ll also need a wide mental space to hoard every fundamentals and laws in accounting, furthermore, make sure you have lots of time to spare in reading and familiarizing journals and books in accounting because remember, reading with comprehension is a powerful weapon in learning. You will also have to be adaptive because accounting standards frequently change so, it is also advisable not to be satisfied with just understanding the existing laws and standards, be sure to have loads of time to study the current trends (accounting standards). In the old corporation code- a corporation can have 50 years in life but is always subject to renewal but the revised corporation code- a corporation now has a perpetual existence (can exist for as long as it could). Lastly, and perhaps the most important for all accounting students is the need for calculator, and you can also add computer software that is specifically designed for accounting purposes, this is the reason why you don’t need to be excellent in math but rather be excellent in understanding or comprehending situations and problems after that, use the calculator to compute the numbers for you. Mind you, if you’re just good at math but you have a poor reading comprehension you will not arrive at the correct answer, trust me I’ve long experienced that.
· Accountants are number crunching all day- Well, this is not true either, although I can vouch that entry level accountant do maintain financial records but there software for that, you just need to input the data needed and voilà. You’ll just need to analyze and make reports based on the data presented in the software.
· Accountant are expert in tax and they love it – this is nonsense, I’ve known many accounting students and accountants who hates tax because tax is complicated and there are a lot of computation you’ll make plus tax returns need to be submitted every April per year. For example, think about science and biology, science is the general term and biology is a branch of science hence if you are a biologist your expertise is in biology but you have a basic knowledge or somehow average knowledge about chemistry, physics and other branches of science because it is a part of your field. Same goes with taxation, becoming CPA doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good in tax because one still need expertise in this field so to consider you as an expert. Hence, not all accountants are good in everything about accounting.
There are still lots of accounting stereotype out there you can search them online and you can try to ask someone if it’s true or not but one thing for sure, if you love what you are doing then you don’t have to listen or pay attention to negative connotation of other people, we have our own unique tastes after all.
The good thing is, when you take accounting related courses, you will not worry about seeking job opportunities because job will seek for you, there are lots of industries where accountants are needed just make sure you accept the job you are good with.