My interest in business originated at very young age, because I was influenced by my father who has been working in the real estate industry as an analyst for many years. So when it was time to choose a profession, which I should study in college, and then at the university, I knew in advance that I wanted to become an accountant. What is accounting? It is a well-established system that takes into account all the information about the property and the variety of operations of the company, organizes it, and expresses it in the monetary equivalent. The property of the company is the main object of accounting, but all other operations of the company and its obligations also are carried out in varying degrees. When my parents and friends found out about my decision, they were glad, because to be an accountant is a financially stable and promising job. However, at first they drew my attention to irregular working hours, huge financial liability, and also it is required to gain a high qualification. Sometimes my father would take me to his workplace and make it possible to understand how the financial system of the company function, how accurate you need to be in the calculations and that you must acquire the talent to anticipate and calculate profit and loss. Thanks to this experience, I found out that accountant job is not limited within the world of assets, liabilities, transactions and balances. A true professional is obliged to be well-known in everything that relates to the activities of the organization where he or she works, a well-trained worker is always interested in economics, politics, track changes in legislation, and constantly improve useful skills and qualification.
Well, behind the years of training, I finally received my bachelor degree in accounting, and started the career as a staff accountant. My undergraduate studies have given me a real insight on how the business world operates and what I need to do to get success in the field of accounting. At my first work I have quite primitive responsibilities: I help to prepare the financial statements, provide the clients with auditing and taxing inspect financial accounts, and so on. My boss often gives me the chance to make a contribution in the solution of the issue. I have a hunch that he is checking if I can handle some higher-level responsibilities. For some reasons, I often feel that the things I learned in undergraduate school were just the parts of fundamental knowledge, so I realize that I want to further my learning in the business. It is well-known that world’s financial environment is full of changes. Here is much competition at today’s labor-market, so if you have got a goal to get a desired job, it is necessary to have experience in the accounting department, gain the proper education, obtain a lot of useful skills and, of course, follow the correct ethical principles.
That’s the major reason I chose to continue my higher education. Applying for the Master program, I aspire for gaining useful skills and knowledge in accounting in order to prepare and pass the Certified Public Accountant exam. I learned that it is quite difficult to pass this exam, and many of my companions tried and failed. In some cases, there is a bigger chance to pass the CPA exam from second or even third time than for the first one. There are four sections in the exam: Auditing and attestation, Financial accounting and reporting, Regulation, Business environment and Concepts. There is a scale from 0 to 99 for each part of the exam, and you must score at least 75 points in every part. AUD and FAR last for about four hours each, and REG and BEC take up to three hours. You can take these parts in your own order, however, when you pass the one exam, the remaining parts should be taken in eighteen months (Dallegro). I think that computerized exams much better than usual. When you answer to the computer program, you can be sure that your knowledge is really assessed objectively – you know, or you do not know. And when you are sitting in front of the examiner, you can get nervous and confused, because his estimation can affect your appearance, clothing, ethnicity, and even his own mood. So, I really hope the CPA program will help me to increase my chances and develop my skills in order to become a professional accountant. In my turn, I expect to improve my cooperating, communicative, and calculative abilities so that in virtue of hardworking I will be able to get a Master degree and pass the CPA exam.
After these great achievements I should be thinking about moving up the career ladder. My main ambition for the future is to become a professional accountant after I finish my master’s degree because accountants play an important role in today’s business society. Accountants are not limited by any industry because businesses of all sizes need to record their financial transactions and manage their financial data. To compare with other jobs, accounting is a job that is relatively more financially stable. It goes without saying that the accountants need such personal qualities as: composure, the ability to handle stress, attention, logical thinking, perseverance, responsibility, punctuality, ability to defend their point of view, and honesty. Accountant in the company is a financially responsible person, who is accountable not only to the head of department or enterprise. All firms face to auditing regularly, and it is also needed to meet with representatives of the tax authorities from time to time. Proper allocation of tax – one of the most important elements of the work, because the violators take serious sanctions, including imprisonment.
I am a little bit proud of the fact that I have already begun my career path and in the next five years I will probably be working as an ordinary accountant. Maybe, the circumstances would force me to pass through several work places to gain more experience in accounting and see what kind of knowledge and skills are needed in different companies. I believe that accumulated working experience will enhance my own value and in the next decade of my career I will have the opportunity to grow up to the chief accountant. There are some really helpful skills I would like to develop in the next few years so that my professional abilities could improve. At first, I need to form good organizational capabilities to get my dream job. It is valuable for me to learn more about time-management so that I could do everything in time, highlight the main priorities, and link hundreds of different tasks at the same time (Topan). As I know, every company, no matter how many employers it has, sets the checkpoints and deadlines to every department. Every fixed time period the head of the department checks day-to-day efficiency of the workers and makes reports for the executives. I have to keep pace with the given time frames so that I could be an example to my coworkers, and afterwards to my subordinates.
At this moment I have got two good mentors, they are my boss and my father. But someday I expect to become a mentor myself. I hope that when twenty years of my career will pass, I will become a head of the financial department of a large enterprise. It is obvious that justifying such ambitions will not be easy, and it is needed to become true professional with great experience and all the leadership qualities. Most likely, that I would have to develop a willingness to take risks, because without it the work of my department would stand still. With each passing year it becomes more difficult to be competitive, so you need to take risks and grow. You also need to be proactive, to lead a team, to be fair and prudent.
As an international student, I certainly feel the competitive atmosphere between me and other students. I want to show to my fellow students that I tend to be a serious opponent in completing for the best position, so I show the diligence of mine at every lesson to get excellent grades. I don’t think that someone would give me condescension in the reason I am a foreign student, however, I would never accept this kind of attitude. I choose to treat other people on equal rights no matter what ethnicity they have. In today’s world everyone tends to be equal toward other, especially in the professional way. When you come to the interview, an employer sees in front of himself or herself just a worker with some education, experience and useful skills, and that’s all. It is really valuable tendency in the professional and ethical way.
Still, it tends to be really difficult to build a successful career among the American employees. I have been in many competitive situations while living and studying in the USA, so I have the ability to stand up for myself and prove to others that I am not worse than they. It is difficult to stand out in such a populous country, and I understand that I need to enrich my knowledge and improve my abilities day by day. Therefore it is so significant to me to gain the best education and qualification in accounting. However, it is also needed to have right ethical principles and good behavior to become a responsible and honest professional. Every minute that you spend in the collectivity you should treat others in the way you want them to treat you, and you should make a matter of conscience too.
I feel like responsibility is the most important value in the code of professional conduct. Responsibility accounting is the foundation concept of accounting performance. However, I think it is the most difficult element. A person who has responsibility is able to take things easy when the tasks just get behind the deadline. On the other hand, a good accountant should be reliable and accurate when facing complex missions. Comparing with self-esteem, self-confidence, dedication, responsibility is the most crucial component to have a successful career life, since responsibility can make other weakness almost invisible. In real life, no matter what happens, we should still hold a responsible attitude. With a sense of responsibility, others will trust me and believe in my success so that I will have a chance to become successful. Besides, the sense of responsibility will help me to obtain a larger goal in life and keep myself on the right way to achieve. In career life, the responsibility is an important criterion to measure if the person is mature or not. Responsibility is also a habit and a very important quality. It is a required characteristic of an outstanding person. I have got great ambitions to become an indispensable employee, so I have to work hard on myself, ignore the irrational desires and do not commit useless actions.
Another important element for being a successful accountant is integrity. Most of the classic accounting scandals are caused by the leaders who usually lack of integrity. For example, there were many cases of corporate financial scandals as Toshiba, BCCI, Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, HealthSouth, Olympus etc. The accountants of these companies were guilty for keeping huge debts off the balance sheets, transferring money through unapproved loans and fraudulent stock sales, and misrepresenting the earnings. To become a successful accountant, I should avoid such dishonest actions and perform all professional responsibilities within the highest sense of honesty. In my opinion, integrity means thinking and doing things followed by strong moral principles at all times. As I grow up, I started to build on my own integrity. And I am actually willing to live by fair standards and sincere beliefs even when no one is watching. When working in the company, my integrity should let me pointing out unethical issues and give me the ability to judge whether it’s right or wrong action to do, or I should change my mind. I have got an opinion, which is based on my observations: all the unethical and dishonest decisions are based on being greedy. Unethical leaders choose to receive the personal benefit by giving up the moral standards they used to have, and it is definitely wrong. In other words, integrity will let me be a reliable person and honest professional. If I am able to show the integrity at work, my workmates will feel trust towards me because they know and feel my ability to perform the correct actions. Also, I noticed that only persistent people with leadership skills can gain the respect among the coworkers. This leads to acceptance of my opinion among them even if the majority thinks otherwise.
I am sure that a good accountant should also adhere to professional ethical standards, keep up with time and new tendencies. A professional should always trace that he gradually improves his skills and competence throughout his career. Competence is the accumulation of diligence in improving the best qualities and skills of the accountant. As the proverb says, “no pain no gain”, and for me it means that you should go through the most tough periods of your life with dignity, complete the most difficult tasks, make friends with those who are considered as enemies, survive the ups and downs and help others to survive the same, and give all your strength and energy to the company. It is also important to say that competence is closely related to diligence. Competence is an individual psychological characteristic of people’s ability to solve problems. It has direct effect on efficiency and the most important internal factors for successful completion of the task.
When I am at work, I always tend to set goals and try to complete them efficiently and effectively. I am inspired to work conscientiously such well-known inventors as, for example, Thomas Edison. He and other numerous great men hit monumental achievements in the world history and definitely changed it. How did they do that? Almost all of them believed that there was no absolute genius and they were more diligent and persistent then others. Edison spent his whole life in inventions, devoting himself entirely to science and discoveries. He had as much as 1000 inventions. Many people think he was just a genius, but he said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety percent of perspirations.” (“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration”) His philosophy was about the hardworking and achieving the result by all means of mind and knowledge, so he became an example for many ambitious people including me. Once I get my further education and become a qualified accountant, I will continue to strive for new knowledge and experience; I will practice to obtain appropriate skills. As a future professional accountant, I should acquire good communication skills to talk to my clients, good writing skills to write reliable and accurate reports, improve my professional knowledge to do auditing or tax project, develop the ability to control self emotion, be good at cooperating, and also acquire the individual critical thinking. To sum up, to become a competent accountant I have to develop all the skills that can help me to be a professional.
Works Cited
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” 14 December 2012. Web. 9 July 2016. < www.quoteinvestigator.com>.
Dallegro, J. A. “How to become a CPA.” 10 November 2014. Web. 9 July 2016. <www.investopedia.com>.
Topan, R. “6 skills you need to succeed in accounting.” 8 September 2014. Web. 9 July 2016. <www.talentegg.ca>.
