On March 4, Yahoo! posted an online education article, “Top Careers for People Haters,” which unfortunately included accountants. While the following response is from one CPA in New Jersey, there are thousands of accountants (and their clients) across the U.S. who no doubt share his sentiments.
Greetings,
As an accountant, I found the Yahoo! online education, "Top Careers for People Haters," both amusing and inaccurate. I strongly disagree with the inclusion of accountant on this list and only wonder what accountants the author, Amy Chang, has encountered so as to form such an erroneous impression.
Yes, accountants review and analyze numbers, but that is only a small piece of the puzzle. The people we work with and the clients we work for are people with whom we have to interact daily. Regular in-person meetings are an integral part of our process for conducting a financial statement review or audit. We also meet personally with our clients at least quarterly to inquire about their business and personal situations to find out how we can best plan to manage their tax liabilities and save them money. Contrary to your portrayal of accountants as not being people-oriented, we’re actually just the opposite: we’re social animals. We have to be if a client is going to be comfortable opening up to us about financial planning for such personal things as marriage, having children, retirement.
On any given day, the level of personal interaction I experience in my position is nothing short of mind blowing. Interpersonal skills play an important role in managing professional staff, reporting to principals, communicating with clients and networking with prospective clients. I simply could not be successful if I was a people hater. On the contrary, if I was a people hater, I would have been out of a job long ago.
Young accountants and accounting students today are participating in internships, joining professional societies and supplementing their studies with a variety of non-business courses – all of which entail not just leveraging people skills, but actually liking people.
Sincerely,
Eddie L. Rivera, CPA, MST
Sax Macy Fromm & Co., PC
Clifton, NJ
Not a People Hater