Accounting is a very popular career amongst college graduates today because it opens a lot of doors for you and you don’t need a mathematics or accounting degree to apply for a position in the field. When you get into accounting, you have a few different avenues that you can take. If you’re after the big money then you could look into jobs with large accounting firms or government agencies. This will involve working on larger accounts and once you progress to the top you’ll be getting a big salary.
This is perfect for some people but others would prefer to go down the self-employed route. The opportunities for earning are going to be less if you are self-employed because you’ll be dealing with smaller scale accounting duties. Mostly it will involve helping people with their accounts on a personal level rather than running the books for huge companies. The upside is that you’ll be working for yourself so you’ll have a lot more flexibility.
Whichever avenue you decide to take, you’re going to run into the same issue; there is a huge amount of competition. The way to get ahead is to make sure that you’re more experienced than your peers. That can be difficult when nobody will take a chance on you and give you a job, but there are some other ways to get experience.
Friends And Family
Relying on others to help you get work isn’t ideal but it might be your only option. If you have family or friends that have a business, offer to do their accounts for them at a reduced rate. You can use a paystub template to sort out their payroll for them and try free accounting software for everything else. Handling these small accounts should be well within your skill range if you do some research beforehand and then when you are interviewing for jobs, you have real world experience to fall back on.
Internships
Internships are pretty contentious these days; people that are struggling to break into a field often have to do unpaid internships to get the experience they need to get a paid position. Whether you agree with this or not, that’s the way things work in a lot of industries and accounting is no exception. When you’re trying to get an internship, don’t wait around for one to come up. Instead, you should be proactive and approach local businesses. They will be happy to get a bit of extra help for free and it gives you professional experience that will help you get a leg up on the competition.
Assistant Positions
You might not have the experience that you need to get an accounting position straightaway but accounts departments always have the need for assistant positions that don’t require that experience. You’re more likely to be able to get one of those and although you won’t be dealing with accounts straight away, you could get promoted if you learn on the job and make your ambitions known to your superiors.
