My Career Choices: Economist or Accountant
It is important when choosing a career path that one chooses carefully before committing to any life-altering plans. This is, in part, due to the increased need for qualifications and education before one is eligible to enter a specific career path meaning that if upon embarking on such a path, the individual finds that they do not like the choices they have made then they have wasted a lot of time, money and energy in pursuing it. Therefore, to avoid this fate, I will be exploring two particular career paths that are of interest to me and investigating what the work involves, the level of pay I can expect to receive, whether this may involve me having to relocate, whether it is expected of me to achieve a certain level in my degree and generally a vast array of other factors and information which is relevant to the two potential paths. The two careers which I will be discussing are Economist and Accountant.
Economist
The role of an economist is one which involves assessing the use of some of society’s most scarce resources such as land, labour, raw materials and machinery with a view to producing goods and services for current consumption and future production (Facts on File 143). Put concisely, an economist occupies their time by assessing what is needed and how it can be provided and focuses a great deal of their attention on answers to the following three questions:
What shall we produce?
How shall we produce it?
For whom shall we produce it?
(Facts on File 143). Often this work involves their researching and assessing the whole of society or just a particular section of that society in order to best answer the above three questions and decide which resources are the most required and will play a part in developing a forecast of future economic trends (MBA Today). Currently there are around 140,000 economists in employment in the United States of America (Facts on File 143), indicating that it is a strong career path but also one which requires high academic standards in order to access.
The work of an economist is often stressful as it universally recognised that no matter how rich the society is, it will never be able to produce enough resources for every member of it and it is the job of the economist to reduce that efficiently and aim to provide for everyone who needs something. In 1776, Economics was given its true propensity by Adam Smith who, in his book, Wealth of Nations, stated that “individuals, given the opportunity to trade freely, will not create chaos” (Smith 437) and so a concept known as ‘laissez-faire capitalism’ was born which discourages government trading restrictions (Facts on File 144). Economics is the only social science which has a Nobel Prize category (Facts on File 144), indicating its vital important to the smooth running of society. There is a broad spectrum of areas in which economists work and usually, they specialise in one area such as the environment, finance, labour, international affairs or agriculture and this specialism is usually adopted during their education as expertise in that field is expected (Facts on File 145).
The requirements for entering into a career as an economist are generally quite challenging. As a rule, it is expected that the individual will hold a master’s degree in a relevant subject as well as the potential for requiring a Doctor of Philosophy degree in order to be considered as a competitive candidate for the role (Career Overview). The career is generally one which requires strong, critical thinkers who can analyse and ask pertinent questions as well as being able to understand and critique the answers they receive. The likelihood of being employed in this sector is greatly improved by the individual holding an extremely strong and highly regarded academic background and currently, the employment rate for economists is set to grow based on the projected current growth with the most likely arena for employment being in the private sector (Career Overview).
The pay for an economist role differs depending on education and experience as shown by this graph here where the left hand side indicates a low of around $74,040 per annum, the middle section at its highest point indicates between $93,434 and $141,471 and the lowest edge on the right hand side indicates $165,847: the curve represents the number of people who receive this salary which demonstrates that the vast majority of economists earn around $114,698 as a median per year (1Salary), making the extra college education well worth the effort.
However, with a large salary comes large expectations and frequently, economists are often held to account for succeeding/failing to solve problems: the work is varied, stressful and involved meaning that it has heavy responsibilities which could be too much for some individuals. It would more than likely impact upon the individual’s personal life too meaning that they may need to choose to focus on their career as a priority.
The various economist jobs that are on offer tend to often involve relocation as there is only so much need for a certain number of economists per society and as such, the roles are often widespread on an international basis. On one job site, I saw adverts for economist positions in Oxford, UK; London, UK; Geneva, Switzerland; Paris, France; Copenhagen, Denmark; and numerous ones across the United States including Washington, San Francisco, Miami, Boston and Chicago to name but a few (Econ-Jobs.com). If I become serious about pursuing this career path, it is clear that I may need to properly consider relocation as I will need to go where the work is. However, this could be seen as a good or a bad consideration as my work could mean that I see a lot of the world and experience other cultures first hand, or it might mean that I spend a lot of time away from my friends and family. It is clear that work as an Economist is something which requires commitment and dedication in return for a strong salary and an often powerful position.
Accountant
The role of an accountant is primarily focused on working with and analysing numbers: “Accountants compile, analyse, verify, and prepare financial records including profit and loss statements, balance sheets, cost studies, and tax reports” (Facts on File 55). Often accountants specialise in particular fields such as agriculture or they may specialise in particular accounting specialities such as auditing, tax work, cost accounting, budgeting and control or systems and procedures (Facts in File 55). This means that accounting is a career path that offers plenty of room for people with a broad range of interests and specialisms although it is expected that the ideal accounting candidate will hold a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field as a minimal requirement. There are currently 976,000 accountants employed across the United States (Facts on File 55) meaning that it is a highly accessible and in-demand career path making it an excellent option for someone who may not wish to continue on to master’s degree level at college.
Accounting is generally viewed as being a career which can be applied to all businesses and areas of industry as everybody needs someone to ‘crunch the numbers.’ This was particularly the case after the introduction of income tax in 1913 and excess profits tax in 1917 as more people required help with processing their business’ figures (Facts on File 56). However, far from the boring image which accountants often stereotypically hold, the idea of the ‘bean counter’ is long gone as machines do most of the counting nowadays meaning the accounting is a career which is rich in analysis and interpretation of numbers – making it far more interesting than ever before. These days, there are also countless areas of accountancy that can be undertaken including: public, where the accountant performs tasks on a fee basis for individuals or other businesses; private, where the accountant handles only the figures at the firm which employs them; government, where the accountant works processing figures for the government; and many more including property, environment and forensic accountancy.
The accountancy pay scale is based on a variety of factors: the individual’s level of qualifications and their position in the company. Starting at the entry level position (as displayed in this graph), the lowest wage as shown on the left hand side is $36,344 and the highest end of this pay scale, as shown on the right, is $52,700 with the median wage, being earned on average by most people at this level, is $43,874.
However, a more senior accountant role such as lead accountant sees those numbers grow: by using the same graph as above, the lowest end of the pay scale is $59,312 and the highest end being $93,260 with the median wage, earned by the majority in this position, is $74,776 (1Salary). Within accountancy, there are various exams and practices that can be fulfilled in order to reach the next level of the accountancy pay scale, and often the pay can alter depending on who you work for too – the more responsible the role, the more money that you’re paid.
Because of the nature of the work, accountants are needed across the board and are, therefore, not frequently required to relocate for work – it would be the decision of the individual as to whether they chose to do so or not. Work is readily available across the board. Like most other high-paid jobs, the role can be demanding and stressful although this is likely to increase as the individual progresses in their career. Accountants are expected to undertake exams in order to progress and these can be extremely difficult and demanding to an individual who is less academically minded.
Conclusion
In summary, having completed this work, I now feel far more aware of what these two roles will involve and what I can expect to reap from my efforts. Whilst I am still unsure whether either of these roles is the career path that would best suit me, I now feel infinitely more informed and will continue to assess various roles in a similar way to ascertain whether I would be happy in such a role or not.
References
“Economics Careers, Jobs and Degree Information.” Careeroverview.com. Career Overview. 2011. Web. 6 August 2011.
“Economist Career.” Mba-today.com. MBA Today. N.d. Web. 6 August 2011.
“Economists Jobs.” Econ-Jobs.com. Econ-Jobs. N.d. Web. 6 August 2011.
“Salary Wizard.” 1Salary.com. Salary.com. 2011. Web. 6 August 2011.
Facts on File. Top Careers for Economics Graduates. New York: Checkmark Books, 2004. Print.
Smith, Adam. Wealth of Nations. Digireads.com: Digireads.com Publishing, 2009. E-book.
