How to Become an Accountant

How do you pursue an accounting career path and succeed at it? Earning a degree is a place to start.

With a bachelor's degree, you can position yourself for one of the many different types of accounting careers. And should you decide to earn an advanced degree — such as a master's in accounting — you can broaden your job prospects and income opportunities even further.

Thanks to globalization, a strong economy and complex tax regulations, accounting is an in-demand field, with 5% job growth projected through 2035, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).* And in 2025, the median annual salary for accountants and auditors was $83,680, BLS reported.*

What Qualifications Do I Need to Be an Accountant?

A bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education for accountants, according to BLS.

Not sure if you’re ready to commit to a full degree program? Consider an associate degree in accounting or an undergraduate accounting certificate, which can help you meet the education requirements for entry-level positions like bookkeeping or lay the groundwork for further study.

Melinda Rodriguez ‘24 earned an associate degree in accounting from Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) while she was already working in a related role in the accounting field.

“It’s what I do in my day-to-day, so it definitely helped me grow in my career path,” she said of her associate program.

As a mother of three, Rodriguez said she needed to find a school that worked with her schedule, and SNHU was a match. “It just worked with my life,” she said, noting that she hopes to continue her education and earn industry certifications to support her continued growth in the field.

A degree can help you meet or work toward the credit hour requirements needed to earn professional industry designations, such as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or Certified Management Accountant (CMA) certification.

Completing certifications like these can help to enhance your job prospects, BLS noted.

How Do I Become a CPA?

In January 2024, a new CPA exam, known as the CPA Evolution, was launched.

Candidates can choose their main discipline for the exam, according to the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. The options are:

• Business Analysis and Reporting
• Information Systems and Controls
• Tax Compliance and Planning

However, under CPA Evolution, all candidates must also pass the three core sections:

• Auditing and Attestation
• Financial Accounting and Reporting
• Taxation and Regulation

"The CPA exam covers a wide range of subjects, all of which are important to accountants in an array of business and government sectors," said Eric Sumners, an auditor and adjunct faculty member at SNHU.

Read more: What is the CPA?

What Degree is Best for Accounting?

Whether you follow a traditional path as a public accountant or choose a specialty like financial accounting, you can’t go wrong with an accounting degree.

At the bachelor's level, you have a couple of options:

• Accounting degree: If becoming certified in the field is a goal of yours, a general accounting bachelor's degree can help you progress toward the requirements needed for CPA licensure. The degree can also help you if you're interested in tax accounting or auditing, to name just a couple of paths.
• Accounting and finance degree: This path is beneficial if you want to build foundations in both business areas and understand how you can help organizations achieve financial success.

Within these degree programs, there are often concentration options you can consider.

A bachelor's in accounting with a forensic accounting and fraud examination concentration, for instance, can prepare you to specialize in the field and detect and prevent financial fraud in organizations.

You might also consider a bachelor's in accounting and finance with a concentration in management accounting.

What Does an Accountant Do?

That’s changed a lot over the years, but an accountant's mission has not. “The overall purpose of accounting is to tell the financial story of an organization (or individual) to allow for informed decision-making,” said Mona Stephens, a CPA with a Master of Accountancy and an associate dean at SNHU.

But the bean counters of the past now use cutting-edge technology and data to tell stories with numbers.

“While the purpose of accounting hasn’t changed since I first became one, the tools we use and skill sets we need have changed,” she said. "Accountants now need to have good communication skills, technology skills and the ability to analyze large amounts of data.”

If you become an accountant, what you do will also depend on your role and where you work.

“Everyone’s career path is a bit different,” said Stephens. “It’s easier if you already know what you want to do. Do you want to go into public accounting, work within an organization as a management accountant, do taxes, work in government or a nonprofit, be an auditor?"

As for Stephens, she joined the field as a county auditor before moving into local government, where she spent 25 years.

What is Management Accounting?

Management accountants help company management with budgets, cost analysis and strategic planning. Management accounting often involves making recommendations to streamline operations and drive business decisions.

Management accounting is useful in many roles, such as entry-level accountant, auditor, accounting analyst, controller and even chief financial officer, according to Sumners. He said this concentration can help you gain decision-making and planning skills that are relevant in a variety of sectors, such as:

• Consulting
• Government
• Not-for-profit
• Retail
• Service

While you pursue your degree, you may also want to consider employment in the field to gain real-world experience, connect with professional associations and network with alumni via social media.

More Types of Accounting Jobs

CPAs and management accountants are only two types of accounting roles.

“Accounting is a great major because there are so many options,” Stephens said.

Here are just a few common titles:

• Auditors review an organization’s financial records. Within the auditing category are information technology auditors. Their job is to check the accuracy and sources of financial data in technology systems. Another type of auditor is the internal/external auditor, who ensures the proper use of financial resources and looks for ways to reduce waste.
• Financial accountants do the requisite financial reporting to prepare statements for shareholders, creditors, potential investors and the general public. Financial accounting has a hand in improving an organization’s fiscal position.
• Government accountants maintain and prepare government records or those of private businesses that interface with government entities.
• Public accountants audit and prepare tax returns for companies, government entities or individuals. Many work for large accounting firms and go on to open their own agencies. Some have specialties, such as forensic accounting.
• Tax accountants prepare taxes and do income taxation planning for individuals, corporations and partnerships.

“It’s a very exciting field,” said Bryan Bouchard '01 '04MBA, an assistant professor in the accountancy and taxation department at SNHU’s Manchester, New Hampshire, campus. “Despite the image one may have of accountants, it is a constantly changing field as rules and guidelines change all of the time. A good accountant never stops learning.”

Bouchard, who holds both a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Master of Science in Finance from SNHU, is a CMA and on the board for the New Hampshire chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants. He has taught accounting for over two decades.

Prospects are good no matter which type of accounting you pursue. However, “the growth areas now are in financial (data) analysis and regulatory compliance, in addition to staff accountants,” said Stephens. “And as the economy grows, opportunities for accountants naturally grow.”*

Other Jobs to Get With an Accounting Degree

If your ultimate goal is to work in a field indirectly related to accounting, an accounting degree can still help you get there.

Some adjacent roles include:

• Budget analyst
• Financial analyst
• Personal financial advisor

Read more: What Can I Do With an Accounting Degree Besides Accounting?

What Qualities Do I Need to Be an Accountant?

According to Stephens, the better your soft skills, the better your chances of success. And communication and teamwork are key. “It’s very important for accountants to be able to effectively communicate and work with non-accountants,” she said.

The best accountants also possess attention to detail, excellent organizational skills and critical thinking skills, BLS said. They also have a knack for solving problems.

Stephens summed it up this way: “My favorite part of the job is figuring out the story the numbers are trying to tell us and then telling that story to others, so we can make good decisions.”

Accounting is an ideal field to enter if you’re great with numbers. “You have to have analytical skills and be comfortable with numbers,” Bouchard said. “A good accountant is someone who pays close attention to detail.”

Stephens said if she were starting out in accounting today, she would take courses in data analytics. “Big data and technology are changing what we do, and newer technologies are doing many of the manual tasks we used to do," she said. "Now accountants add value by extracting and interpreting data, then helping others make useful decisions based on the data.”

Sumners also mentioned that it's a good idea to have an understanding of auditing.

"Knowledge of auditing concepts and evidence is an important skill even if you are not working as an auditor," he said.

He said that some roles, like management accountants, will regularly work with auditors.

*Cited job growth projections may not reflect local and/or short-term economic or job conditions and do not guarantee actual job growth. Actual salaries and/or earning potential may be the result of a combination of factors including, but not limited to: years of experience, industry of employment, geographic location, and worker skill.

Betty Egan is a freelance copywriter with 25+ years of experience across a diverse spectrum of industry sectors, including higher education. She lives and works remotely from the mountains of northern New Hampshire. Connect with her on LinkedIn.