Accounting is one of the best career choices for young people today and for the future. A qualification in accounting will open the door to great opportunities and a huge variety of business careers. With an accounting background you have more potential than virtually any other professional - in terms of long-term employment and salary prospects, rewards and job security, travel and working overseas, challenges and job satisfaction.

You may not realise how different accounting roles today are from the stereotypical image of accountants as "bean counters". Read about what accounting roles are really like today, and will be like in the future.

As a graduate of the Bachelor of Accounting program you will have the pick of the best accounting-related roles within many of Australia's biggest and best employers. From here you can set your sights on becoming a leader in business.

With a few years of graduate accounting experience behind you, you'll next have the opportunity to broaden your qualifications. This might mean post-graduate study, or a stint working overseas, or perhaps branching into a different role in a related area of business.

Remember, when you consider longer-term career opportunities for accounting graduates you need to consider both:

1. accounting roles; and
2. other roles in business open to accounting graduates.

1. Some common accounting roles:

1. Financial accounting - providing detailed information in the form of formal reports to people outside of a business, such as investors, creditors and the Government;
2. Management accounting - providing detailed information to management on how the business is performing;
3. Auditing - the independent examination of a business's financial statements, upon which external decision-makers such as investors, creditors and the Government rely;
4. Tax accounting - to ensure compliance with the tax laws while minimising taxes paid by business;
5. Corporate restructuring - working with newly acquired, merged or reconstructed businesses
6. Insolvency - managing the affairs of businesses in financial trouble, as appointed by the business's creditors or a court;
7. Budgeting and planning - setting detailed plans for achieving a businesses goals; and
8. Cost accounting - analysing the specific costs of a business in order to achieve greater profitability.

2. Other roles in business open to accounting graduates:

1. Finance - business investment and financing decision-making
2. Management consulting - providing advice and planning services on how to better run businesses;
3. Information system design - developing systems (usually computerised) to handle an organisation's information needs;
4. Banking - including aspects such as managing risk, foreign exchange, economics and regulation;
5. Insurance - including aspects such as managing risk, pricing of insurance products and statutory controls;
6. Government - financial management of public sector organisations at all levels;
7. Stockbroking and funds management;
8. Financial planning and superannuation.

Business managers consistently rate accounting as the most important business subject to learn. Graduates with an accounting qualification are better able to understand the workings of business and able to make the better decisions. Increasingly, accountants are themselves becoming the decision-makers.

Read more about the salaries and positions accounting graduates can expect to attain.

You can find out more about accounting careers from the major professional accounting bodies, who are also long-time supporters of the Bachelor of Accounting program:

CPA Australia
Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia

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