What kind of advice can you give to someone that wants to become an accountant?

Im an accounting major and i am wondering is there any advice on how to properly pursue in this career. Im at a point in life where i have no idea what i am doing and i just want to know if i am going in the right trackWhat kind of advice can you give to someone that wants to become an accountant?
If you own a degree - or any alternative qualification - then you'll already be ahead of the crowd when it comes to searching for professions. My pal has a degree and he wasn't certain what direction to go with it, but he found some good instruction on the website in the resource box below which guided him to decide that he wanted to be a lab assistant. There is plenty of guidance on the website regarding alternative professions.What kind of advice can you give to someone that wants to become an accountant?
Becoming a CPA is a great way to earn a living, so you're definitely on the right track!





First off, decide if you'd rather specialize in audit or tax. Audit is good if you eventually want to work as a Controller, VP of Finance or CFO of a company. Tax is good if you eventually want to be self employed. However, these two career tracks aren't set in stone - I was an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers, but I am now self-employed doing tax and bookkeeping work for clients.





Accounting firms will try to meet the top recruits at your university. Attend these recruiting events and be prepared to ask a lot of questions to the employees representing the firms. Each firm has it's own culture, and it will be important for you to see where you'd best fit in.





And of course, keep up your grades, especially if you intend to work for one of the Big 4 firms. But even if you don't, study hard because the CPA exam is very difficult. I took a course called the Becker CPA Review which helped tremendously. I passed all 4 parts the first time I sat for the exam.
I'm a CPA, but kind of stumbled into it, so my recommendations are what I should have done. First off, you've taken the first step by majoring in accounting. You need to ace as many of your accounting courses as possible. If there is an accounting club at your school, join it and attend their meetings. A lot of times they have outside speakers, like a local CPA who you can ask career planning questions to. My state's CPA society has a special student membership, but I'm not sure what programs they have. Call up your state CPA society and ask. They will be very happy to talk with you. Until recently, there was a severe staffing problems at CPA firms and a lot of promotion of the profession to college students. I would try to get an internship at a local CPA firm before you graduate so that you can get some idea of what public accounting is like. When your college has recruiting fairs, see if any CPA firms are present and not busy so you can talk to them as well. The best path to a career in accounting is via a few years experience in one of the big 4 firms, but they can afford to be picky about applicants, so apply at the regional firms as well. Once you get into a firm, join the audit staff. You will get broad exposure to a lot of different businesses and industries. Once you've spent a few years in audit, you'll have enough experience with a number of accounting systems that you can make the transition to a corporate job. At that point, it will depend upon your abilities. My first accounting job was as a jr. accountant doing account reconciliations and I'm now director of finance. It's a great profession. Good luck!