Accounting Careers For Accounting Majors - Your Guide



There are a myriad of accounting careers for accounting majors but we’re often asked which one’s are the best. Now we‘re going to list out quite a few of the ones you’d expect but throw in a few that may surprise you.

But to answer your question about the best, you really need to think hard about your personality and what you want of an accountancy career.

So let’s roll out our top ten biggest and best known accounting careers for accounting majors:
  1. Auditing – for those of you who want to become a CPA (Certified Public Accountant), there’s a very big chance that you’re going to end up work for a public accounting firm. And whilst you’re studying for your CPA exam you’ll be out on client audits. It’s how we started and it’s a great way to learn

  2. Financial Reporting – embarking on this career means that you’ll probably be working in the accounting department of a private company or large public corporation. And Financial Reporting means you’ll be part of the Finance team responsible for preparing the financial statements of your entity

  3. Financial Control – led by the Financial Controller, these are the guys who make sure that a company’s transactions are properly recorded in the accounting systems (known as a General Ledger). The Financial Reporting team then takes that information and pulls the financial statements together.

    A vital part of any organization it also involves working with large systems that produce lots of accounting information, helping companies bring new products and business’s to life. We’re going to take a far closer look at what these teams do.

  4. Management Reporting – again you’ll be in the Finance team of a private entity/public corporation. Management Accountants will be working on providing analysis to the senior management of the entities which includes monthly performance, comparison to budgets & preparing forecasts

  5. Tax Accountant – we’ll skip the jokes about these guys but you’ll cut your teeth working in public accounting firms whilst you learn the ropes. And then the choice becomes yours – do you stay in the profession and provide advice to a range of clients. Or do you move to a public corporation and specialize in a particular industry.

  6. Financial Planning – these are relatively new accountancy based careers. But now regarded as one of the most exciting. It’s all about helping clients invest their money whether it’s for the short-term or for long-term retirement savings. To get far in this area, accountants who’ve passed their CPA definitely have an advantage.

  7. Forensic Accounting – we’ve covered these guys in more detail elsewhere but forensic accounting is a hugely popular accounting career. It’s all about investigations into frauds, contract disputes, divorces, insurance claims and if you’re really game maybe a job at the FBI. Good luck with that!

  8. Government Accounting – despite the attractiveness of the areas we’ve noted above accounting careers for accounting majors don’t have to follow a pure business focus. A huge amount of people opt to work in government many citing public duty as their main motivation. We say that’s fantastic. But you may be surprised to know that the work is absolutely no different to the private/corporate sector. Financial statements, budgets, forecasts, and management reports all need to be prepared.

  9. Environmental Accounting – as you’ll appreciate these accounting careers for accounting majors are the new kids on the block. The focus here is to help companies work out how they can provide cost effective environmental solution for running their business.

  10. Bookkeeping – don’t be fooled into thinking this career path is somewhat lesser than the other nine we’ve described. Bookkeepers are an absolute and invaluable foundation of the accounting profession. Working in small private companies & not-for-profits, the key role of these accountants is to ensure the organization’s financial records are properly maintained. You may have noticed that’s similar to the Financial Control guys we mention above. And you’d be right. Bookkeepers, also don’t prepare financial statements

So there you have our list of accounting careers for accounting majors. It’s by no mean exhaustive. For example, we didn’t cover internal auditing, strategic planning & management as well as consulting services. Don’t worry, we’ll be doing that soon.

Nor did we talk about Chief Financial Officers (CFO’s) or Financial Director’s. CFO’s are the absolute pinnacle of the accounting careers for accounting majors but the role actually encompasses managing many of the functions we’ve talked about above.



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