Whether it's in public accounting, industry, or government, taking on your first accounting job is an exciting endeavor. Taking that leap from being a student to a full-time professional is a challenge that all accountants have gone through in their careers. Unfortunately, some people struggle at their first accounting job which can lead to significant ramifications for their career trajectory. Today, I'm going to share with you three reasons why people struggle at their first accounting job in the hopes that you don't make the same mistakes.
Not Knowing How to Use Excel
Over the course of my career, I've worked with many new hires and have had the privilege to watch them learn and grow in their careers. In my experience, the biggest leading indicator for a struggling new hire was their inability to use Microsoft Excel at a basic level. Excel is an essential tool for anyone in a financial career, and it is expected that you understand how to use it as an entry level employee. Unfortunately, many people trick themselves into thinking they are proficient at the program because they needed to use it once for a class in college. These people fail to understand the difference between that one assignment 3 years ago and problem solving using various functions in large data sets for many hours a day for weeks on end. If you need to brush up on your Excel skills, I strongly recommend watching YouTube videos that have practice problems that you can follow along with to gain mechanical expertise. For some of you reading this, taking that extra time to learn the program can make or break your first few months on the job.
Not Asking Questions or Following Instructions
The good thing about entry level accounting positions is that the tasks that are handed to you are relatively simple. For the most part, entry level roles take care of recording information on invoices, organizing documents, and setting up comparisons of financial data. The bad thing about these positions is that the variety and volume of these relatively simple tasks is not easily emulated through school. Many straight A and B students come into the profession thinking that they know everything and can rely on their memory and education for all the instructions given to them. Sometimes, these same students feel that they will appear dumb if they are asking questions, which could not be further from the truth. The reality is that taking detailed notes on instructions and asking questions to make sure everything is crystal clear will carry you through your first 18 months on the job. By creating habits around those two things early, the work will become easier, and you will be able to better learn the analytical skills needed for the next level.
Having Poor Communication Skills
Add your first job, you're going to rely on a lot of your co-workers to give you guidance and support. Something that is not talked about very often is how much communication factors into the job responsibilities of a first year accountant. Accountants are constantly sending emails, talking to clients, and working with different managers and coworkers to get things done. I have seen first year accountants struggle with communicating their priorities and status updates to managers, which made them incredibly difficult to work with. Remember, it's better to over communicate with the people you work with than to under communicate.
If you plan to start your first accounting job soon, pay attention to these three things and see how you can improve on them as quickly as possible. In my experience, most of the downsides of working with newer accountants come from these three areas and if you can learn the necessary lessons quickly you will be able to jumpstart your career!
