Advancing your career starts with defining where you’re going and how to get there. By setting accounting career goals, you have a clear path to follow and won’t stay immobile in your career growth.
These tips will help you define your accounting career goals—so you can start achieving them!
How to define your accounting career goals
Many professionals don’t know what they want—or even how to begin learning more about their options—and therefore stay stagnant in their careers. Put in the self-reflection now to ensure that you don’t stunt your career potential.
Recognize your knowledge and strengths
Knowing your own interests, strengths, and even areas that need improvement is vital to planning your accounting career goals. Ask yourself questions like:
- What am I good at?
- What subjects do I enjoy most?
- What tasks are most interesting to me?
- What do I want to avoid doing?
- What skill do I want to develop?
Choose your top priorities
It’s important to be aware of what you want from your job outside of the work itself. Consider things like salary, job flexibility, opportunities to travel, time for personal life and family, etc.
Consider a field of specialization
Within the accounting profession, there are a surprising number of paths that you can take and areas of specialization where you can focus your skills. Three of the biggest fields that provide these career opportunities are:
General accounting
General accounting includes jobs at both private businesses and accounting firms, with services ranging from record keeping and financial reporting to strategy development and risk mitigation. A CPA license and/or CMA certification are invaluable to advance within this field if this path is a part of your accounting career goals.
Tax
Tax professionals prepare and file taxes, help clients remain compliant, and represent them before the IRS. A CPA license or EA credential are essential for tax service providers.
Audit
Auditing includes jobs working at a firm, government, or private company, tasked with providing independent assessment of financial records and reports to ensure accuracy and compliance. A CPA license and/or CIA certification will advance your auditing career exponentially.
When defining your accounting career goals, learn more about what accountants do in each field, which of these areas best fit your interests and skillsets, and what job and growth opportunities exist within each area.
Consider your dream team in your accounting career goals
Even if the job is great and the pay is high, your management and team members will make or break your work experience. When planning your accounting career goals, it’s important to keep in mind the type of team that you want (or don’t want) to join.
Aspects to consider include:
- Company culture and values
- Management style
- Team size
- Team values
- Working styles and personalities
- Communication
Where do you want to work?
Location can be a deciding factor in your job selection and should be included in your accounting career goals.
- Where do you want to work? Close to family? In a big city or small town?
- Would you mind a long commute?
- Do you want to work in-office? Remotely? Hybrid?
Answer these questions and decide if this is a high priority for you.
Examples of accounting career goals
Everyone’s long-term plan will look different and include individually defined priorities.
But one example of someone’s accounting career goals may look like this:
Within the next five years, I want to:
- Earn a CPA license
- Work at a Big 4 firm
- Specialize in tax accounting
- Manage a team of tax specialists
- Make at least $100,000 annually
- Work in a hybrid capacity based in NYC
- Work max 50 hours per week to save time for hobbies and family
Start setting your accounting career goals
Once your accounting career goals are established, you can get to work on a plan to reach them! Start by creating a single-page outline of your goals and reference that page to remind yourself of your priorities.
You can also gain more skills to strengthen your career with Becker’s Thrive courses, designed to answer questions, give first-hand insight, and boost confidence in your professional growth.
Start learning “How to play offense in your career and set yourself up for your next role” today!
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