Certification as a CPA – Certified Public Accountant is a highly respected and sought-after accounting credential above that of other accounting roles that present vast opportunities to the recipient.
Many CPAs decide to follow corporate or public accounting as their career path. Visit https://www.topaccountingdegrees.org/lists/5-must-know-tips-for-accounting-students/ to learn tips for students pursuing accounting.
In a public accounting position, the experience can be diverse, with some following forensic accounting, tax work, auditing, or consulting or advisory services. Within the US, roughly 50,000 public accounting firms exist per AICPA – American Institute of CPAs.
Corporate or private accounting is another option for those who prefer working in a large organization. These CPAs will start their careers handling the business payroll, accounts payable, or financial reporting.
Regardless of whether you decide on a role in a public or private accounting position, these jobs require an individual capable of handling challenging tasks and working hard.
Business leaders managing these staff members value ambition and persistence, an individual who will give a project time and effort until completion. This could, however, describe the attributes expected of virtually any employee striving to succeed.
The specialized role of a CPA in Alpharetta trying to advance their career means further developing existing traits and soft skills and expanding on these in order to fast-track their professional success. What are these existent talents? Let’s review your secrets to success.
How to Expand Your Existent Skills to Progress in Your CPA Career?
A CPA – Certified Public Accountant has reached the epitome of their career, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement or advancement. For a specialized profession, you must further develop existing attributes and skills to take advantage of advancement opportunities.
Here are specific soft skills and personality traits to refine in order to put yourself on the fast track in your position as a CPA.
1. Up to date; current
Many people who pass the CPA exam are accomplished and ultimately find a role worthy of the achievement. That doesn’t give you a license to become stagnant. Instead, your license renders you an expert in accounting, taxation, auditing, and all related fields.
Changes are a constant, meaning you must remain current in each area to adequately display knowledge and expertise to your clients. When you are keenly aware of developments as they occur, it gives you an edge in the industry.
In that same vein, meeting the criteria for your continuing ed for your licensure is essential to ensure you exceed your client’s expectations with prompt and efficient results.
2. Comfort in numbers
Certified public accountant is a pursuit for those who feel an unquestionable comfort in working with math and numbers in general. It’s an attribute that comes in handy when working with a public accounting organization since a substantial portion of the position involves working with figures.
In refining this skill, great focus and patience will help when establishing a habit of checking and double-checking reports and statements that you prepare. Investing a few more minutes for a recheck, considering the potential for human error, is worth the effort.
The most minor error on a financial statement can have far-reaching consequences. It can lead to embarrassment in your role, not to mention the potential for losing credibility and trust if you present a report that contains incorrect details.
3. Privacy and discretion
A high probability exists that you will work in checking or preparing a business’s financial reports. Divulging the confidential details contained within these statements would be highly unethical, and this betrayal could have you facing legal repercussions.
In fact, an accounting firm that discloses a client’s data could face a considerable claim for damages, resulting in the loss of that individual’s career.
Successful accountants, or anyone in business for that matter, must develop their skills in maintaining the confidentiality of sensitive information. If vital details must be shared on a need-to-know basis, it’s wise to follow that philosophy.
However, ensuring this is valid is essential because the worst-case scenario involves exposing management to legal consequences for inadvertently revealing client data to unauthorized third parties.
4. Think outside the box
Typically, you would consider CPAs more literate, articulate, and a thinker, not so much creative. Creative individuals are associated more with the arts. However, accountants must also use creativity in their roles. Certified public accountants will likely not be able to find a viable solution to the issues they encounter on the job in a textbook.
This means they need to conjure a solution from their imagination, almost like working a puzzle, to find their way out, albeit while still operating within the accepted accounting structures and applicable regulations.
When you become talented with out-of-the-box thinking in various aspects of your work, it will prove you to be an asset that organizations will vie to bring on board.
5. Part of the team
Certified Public Accountants shouldn’t be isolated from the department or the others in the company. You want to develop team-player skills. Often, those new to an organization are added as members of an auditing or accounting department.
This requires close interaction with colleagues to strategize the workload and ensure that your part is performed efficiently and competently. The higher you progress in the hierarchy; you will again be team-tested to see how you handle leadership skills.
Instead of seeing how you handle the workload, you will manage a team of staff members. CPAs with solid leadership skills are invaluable, particularly those pursuing senior-level roles. Go here to learn how CPAs and EA – EA-enrolled agents compare.
Final Thought
A CPA – Certified Public Accountant certification is a highly sought and respected qualification that takes precedence over others in the accounting industry. Business leaders seeing this credential are assured of extensive knowledge and expertise when performing the necessary functions of their professional roles.
That isn’t to say that CPAs can remain stagnant from the point of passing the CPA exam. Regardless of your status, it would be best if you always strived to develop your skills and expertise further in order to continue to progress in your career and have an edge over others with your same credentials.
