what’s the single most important factor affecting career paths in the profession today?
• cpas are more than just accountants – they’re finance people and business and individuals planners. image is the most important factor affecting the profession. if we are respected and held important to business & individual financial success more young folks will join us and more folks will use us. if, however, cpas are not viewed as essential to the business & individual community the profession will shrink. personally, i believe the public sees the value of the cpa but the profession must keep pushing its importance to the public.
• fast changing technical and compliance requirements.
• keep your options open. i’m not promoting job hopping, but the simple truth is the best way to move up is often to move on. hold a high standard for going to another employer, but don’t shy away from a better carreer opportunity.
• client service.
• balance between work and life
• compexity of issues are such that financial statements no longer make sense to the uninformed. the approach shold be to make it understandable so even a grandmother can understand it. we’ve lost our way.
• willingness to put in the hard work to gain experience and talent to work with clients.
• ethics
• time constraints, knowledge and interests.
• ability to understand people.
• good people skills
• niches. today the expected technical knowledge level and the standard cpas are held to requires most of us to pick one or a few areas to specialize in and just sort of keep a working knowledge of other areas.
• being in the right place at the right time to get a start
• salaries
• low morale due to lesser pay in comparison to the amount of skills needed to succeed in this profession.
• compatibility with life style and family issues.
• relationships
• compensation
• employer choices.
• overwork and stress
• toeing the line and billing long hours
• i don’t know
• appropriate skills
• finding the right niche.
• desire to constantly learning and upgrading skills.
• working experience with strong oversight support in the firm.
• personal preferences of the individuals. (for example: are you willing to work long hours or do you want a good work/life balance? what are you individual interests/strengths?)
• this is as true as it was 35 years ago–the willingness to devote a lot of time and effort to the job.
• in the traditional cpa firm, opportunities for advancement are limited. the market place affects career paths.
• having a plan that is reasonable and flexible.
• regulatory changes in the wake of accounting scandals
• work / life balance
• one’s ability to communicate
• new laws that are affecting our profession. i feel that these new laws do not take into consideration the small practitoners who handle closely-held companies. these companies needs are not being addressed properly. the demands of the lawmakers and our own professional organizations leave our clientele asking why do i need that? makes our fees seem unreasonable.
• a given cpa’s ability to tolerate stress will dictate their path.
• work/life balances
• connections. develop good, professional relationships and keep your integrity intact.
• knowing when to move
• drive
• building and maintaining connections
• staying abreast of changes and developing good work habits.
• salaries
• work / life balance
• staying technically current. and, know what choices there are.
• i don’t know. i will be interested to see the results of this question.
• retaining good staff and keeping them from jumping to the corporate world.
• ability to influence and lead others.
• a good balance between work and life
• networking
• knowledger of specific technical areas.
• work/life balance
• do not know
• work enjoyment
• staff & career path development
• i believe it is being able to adapt quickly to change.
• there is no single factor but sox is a major issue.
• passion
• work/life balance
• your attitude.