Introduction
I didn’t really choose accounting to begin with. When I was in high school I wanted to be a vet, but as time went on, I discovered that I have the right skills to be an accountant and not to be a vet. Here is my story and how I decided upon accounting as my career of choice.
As a woman, I was always told that I was predisposed to being bad at math. This may be why I always tried harder at math because it did not want to be pigeon holed as just another woman who cannot count. The better I became at math, the more organized I became. I later discovered that I had a very good attention span. This may be due to repeatedly applying myself or it may just be a nature/nurture thing that I happen to have. Being good at math and having a good attention span are two big factors that make for a very good accountant. The other factor is organization, but I will get to that.
All accountants are boring
It is hard to deny that a lot of accountants are boring people. They do a job that a lot of people would find very boring, and it does rub off on a person. Another thing may also be that a lot of mildly autistic people take up accountancy because of its perfect boundaries, its structure and its repetitive organization. Accountancy is one of the fields where there is a rule for everything, and where grey areas are ones that accountants create as oppose to what they are exposed to. This sort of job is one that appeals to mildly autistic people as they thrive on the structure and rules, and they are also very good at getting a job done from start to finish (no matter how large).
You should also take into account that a lot of people I have met are perceived as boring because they have hobbies and interests that speak to their highly organized mind and methods. They are train spotters and philatelists, which may seem boring to some, but to people who like structure, concentration and organization then it is perfect.
I am organized because I have to be
Maybe I learned my organizational skills on my own, or maybe it was because the people around me were so unorganized when I was a child. If I did not remember to remind my mother to sign a consent form, then I did not go on the school trips. If I did not remind my mother to buy me new blazers, then I went to school in the ones that were too small from last year. That is a nurture argument, or it is true that my grandparents are very organized with their money and their life. The nature argument may be that I inherited a gene that allows the part of the brain that controls organization to flourish a little.
Conclusion
I am organized, I am good at math and I have a great attention span. It has made me a great accountant and is the reason I chose accountancy above all other professions.
