Finance and records
What does an Accountant do?
Keeping the numbers right, and being able to show they are right.
What the day is like
- Indoors, under a roof.
- A screen and a keyboard.
- Right or wrong, to a standard.
- The same shape each day.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $83,680 a year, median
- Accountants and Auditors, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
- Several years, and usually a formal qualification.
- Jobs
- +5% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks growing slowly
What is good about it
- You answer for your own work rather than for other people, which suits more people than admit it.
What people find hard about it
- Deadline seasons
- Detailed checking
- Clients who bring the shoebox in late
Qualification takes years of exams alongside work.
Will machines take this job?
What machines will do to this work. Bookkeeping and reconciliation are among the most automated tasks measured; signing off on figures is not.
How to find out whether it suits you
Prepare one real set of accounts under supervision, start to finish.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.