Management Accounting Practices and the Role of Management Accountant - Essay Example

? Career Plan and Number School Department Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 2 DISCUSSION ANALYSIS 1 2.1 Career Planning Methodology 1 2.1.1 Self-assessment. 1 2.1.2 Exploring and choosing a career. 2 2.1.3 Planning the course of the career 2 2.1.4 Taking action. 3 2.2 Describing Audit as a Professional Field 3 2.3 Differences between Possible Career Paths in Accounting 4 2.4 Challenges of Career Progression 5 3 CONCLUSION 5 4 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE GRADUATES 6 REFERENCE 7 1 INTRODUCTION My field of professional interest is finance. After pursuing this professional interest, I would like to work as an accountant in a medium sized or a large organization. As my dream job, accounting has five possible job specializations and career paths that would enable me to fulfill my professional interest in finance. These career paths include audit accounting, budget analysis, financial accounting, management accounting, and tax accounting. This essay discusses the career planning methodology and the process of developing a successful professional career. 2 DISCUSSION ANALYSIS 2.1 Career Planning Methodology Making a choice on a career is a very challenging undertaking. It entails more that making up one’s mind about what they want to do in life in order to earn a living. It involves selecting a profession in which one is competent in, a profession that one is interested in undertaking, and a profession that will provide one with employment opportunities and career development. As such, the career planning process has four main steps that individuals must consider to ensure that they end up following their professional interest. These steps include self-assessment, exploring and choosing career, planning the course of the career, and taking action through job application. 2.1.1 Self-assessment. In the self-assessment stage, an individual requires to have a deeper understanding of themselves in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, interests, work related values, type of personality, preferred working environment, career development needs and so forth. Other than personal assessment, an individual can ask their close friends, their parents, their teachers among other people about how they perceive them and what career options would fit them perfectly. This assessment provides an individual with a deeper understanding of self before venturing into the process of choosing careers. This is particularly significant in aiding one to choose the career that best fits their personality. 2.1.2 Exploring and choosing a career. Based on the results obtained after self-assessment, this step enables one to choose an occupation that best suits their personality and skills. In this step, one also explores different careers and the opportunities available in each of these careers to identify the ones that interest them the most. After a thorough research of the labor market, one should start eliminating the careers that do not interest them while still looking for more information on the available careers that interest them. This will eventually narrow down to a single career. This step should also take into consideration the subjects that one is studying in school to ensure that they are in line with their career of choice. 2.1.3 Planning the course of the career After selecting a career of choice, an individual should use this step to set out different career goals they intend to attain and the time required to attain these goals. This stage also includes the acquisition of the necessary career qualifications. In this stage, it is advisable to ask other professionals in the particular career about the required qualifications and the time required attaining these qualifications. One should also check on job advertisements and the required qualifications cross checking them with personal qualifications to determine whether one is still on the right track. Equally, it is important to check out the responsibilities of professionals in this career. This stage helps one to understand the requirements of this career and map the process of attaining these qualifications. 2.1.4 Taking action. The final step entails taking the right course of action to succeed in the chosen career. This involves seeking the necessary qualifications through studying and the acquisition of the necessary skills through training. Once one has the necessary qualifications, one should start applying for available vacancies that relate to their career choice in different organizations. To succeed in this step, one must know how to write an application, have professional curriculum vitae and the supporting documents. 2.2 Describing Audit as a Professional Field An auditor is an accountant who checks accounting ledgers and financial statement in an organization. There are two types of auditors; internal auditors and external auditors. Internal auditors are usually employees of the organization they audit. On the other hand, external auditors work directly with the government through its institutions and they check accounting ledgers and financial statements of different public and private companies to ensure they operate under government regulations. When working for a large accounting firm such as Ernst & Young, an auditor begins their career development as a staff auditor for up to a maximum of three years. They get promotion to a senior level auditing post for another three years after which they get a promotion to become an audit manager. After three years of being an audit manager, one gets a promotion to be a senior audit manager for three years before becoming an Ernst & Young partner. Figure 1: Auditing career path in Ernst & Young 2.3 Differences between Possible Career Paths in Accounting In accounting, there are five possible career paths including audit accounting, budget analysis, financial accounting, management accounting, and tax accounting. Audit accounting involves checking accounting ledgers and financial statement in an organization. Internal auditors are usually employees of the organization they audit while external auditors are government agents who audit public and private companies to ensure they operate under government regulations. Budget analysts are accountants who specialize in developing and managing the financial plans of an organization to ensure that these plans are in line with the proposed financial figures. Financial accountants are responsible for preparing financial statements from general ledgers in an organization. They also take part in the process of making important financial decisions in the organization. Management accounting entails documenting and reporting of financial records in an organization. It helps organizational managers in making financial decisions in the organization (Wiwik, 2013). Least but not last, tax accounting entails preparing tax statements and formulating tax strategies within an organization. 2.4 Challenges of Career Progression Progressing in any career entails overcoming numerous challenges that hinder numerous individuals from attaining their career goals. Accounting is no exception; the main challenges faced by accountants in career progression include: 1. Some companies that employ accountants lack clear and formal career development frameworks. This challenges the process of identifying the existing skills gap between the current career path and the desired career path of the accountants. 2. Many organizations offer the required resources and opportunities for career development; however, lack of motivation and clearly defined career goals among accountants challenges their career progression. 3 CONCLUSION This essay aimed at discussing the career planning methodology and the process of developing a successful professional career. The essay established that a career planning methodology has four main stages that include self-assessment, exploring and choosing career, planning the course of the career, and taking action through job application. All these steps guide individuals in identifying and developing their careers to the desired levels. The career of focus in the essay was accounting. The essay established that accounting has four main career paths including audit accounting, budget analysis, financial accounting, management accounting, and tax accounting. Lack of career development frameworks in organizations and lack of motivation and clearly defined career goals are the main challenges faced by accountants in career progression. Overall, clearly defined career goals enable one to have a career objective hence mapping out a plan to accomplish this objective. 4 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE GRADUATES To ensure that they succeed in the quest of attaining their career goals, future graduates should put the following recommendations into practice. 1. Perform a self-assessment to establish personal strengths, weaknesses, interests, and work related values to ensure that they have a deeper understanding of self before venturing in career selection. 2. Have adequate information specific to different careers and consult widely before selecting their careers to ensure that they understand and select the careers that match their qualities. 3. Select careers whose requirements match their personal attributes and that provide plenty of opportunities for career development. This will ensure that they enjoy their work hence increasing their working motivation. Equally, a career that has career development opportunities will enable them to attain their desired career goals. 4. Be motivated, have personal and career discipline, and have clearly defined career goals. Motivation enables one to work hard with the aim of attaining a particular career goal. Discipline is important as it ensures that one respects their work and is respectful to their colleagues (whether senior or junior) at the workplace. Finally yet importantly, clearly defined career goals enable one to have a career objective hence mapping out a plan to accomplish this objective. REFERENCE Wiwik, C. S., 2013. Management accounting practices and the role of management accountant. Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, 2(2), pp. 616-626. Read More