Number Crunching Dork Image Doesn't Appeal to Teens

If it weren’t for the bowties and the pocket protectors, Livia Zambrano, 17, would consider becoming an accountant. But the number crunching dork image doesn’t appeal to her. Still, she likes the idea of serving her community like her “role model mom” who is a CPA.

“Seeing her perseverance and determination makes me as well want to take upon the challenge of becoming an accountant,” said Livia.

Livia attends Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School and she loves to run as a hobby. As a track runner, she wants to challenge herself in beating the time like taking upon the challenge of becoming an accountant.

Accounting is a field some teens are considering but they are having trouble with the “dork” image.

“I think on a typical day, they are on the computer all day long doing taxes for people,” said Cindy Wen, 17, who live in Chelsea.

It’s not true that accountants stare at numbers on the computer all day until their eyes go blind.

“I run around the firm daily, meet clients and file taxes,” said Xue Mei Gao, an accountant who worked at her firm in Mott Street for 5 years.

According to Gao, accounting tends to rank first among top employers with job offers for college graduating students. Teens are drawn to this field because accountants make a great deal of money.

“I think it is easy to make money in the accounting field because you just sit there and calculate taxes. Other professions require higher education and degrees that accountants don’t need in order to make a lot of money,” said Cindy.

“I wanna be a billionaire so fricking bad, as the “Billionaire” song by Travie McCoy says,” said Amanda Erakky, 17. “Who wouldn’t want a lot of money?”

According to the teens, they want to major in accounting but they are unprepared for their future career.

“At the moment, there is nothing I can really do to prepare for my future career,” said Amanda.

“Many teens have no idea what they want to do with their career until they have experienced so many other careers,” said Gao.

For Gao, she mentioned she worked as a McDonald employee, a bank teller, and a supermarket cashier when she was a teen. At the end, she chose accounting because it suits her the most.

There are many organizations out there that promote accounting to teens that are interested. Career Opportunities in Accounting Profession (COAP) is one of the programs that promote accounting and let teens experience what it feels like to be an accountant.

“After joining the COAP program, I had insight of two accounting firms which were very exciting to see accounting myths aren’t true and being an accountant is actually a really fun job,” said Livia, a member of COAP 2010.

“The COAP program was a great experience and it helped me learn that accounting is not about sitting at a desk and adding numbers but about being able to travel and meet new people,” said Daniel Rios, also a member of COAP 2010.

Accountant is not about being the smartest or fastest in calculating numbers but having leadership skills, technologically adept, strategic and critical thinking according to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), one of the largest accounting firms in United States.

According to Cindy Wong, a bookkeeper and an accountant who works at a day care, accountants have to know the basic skills in Microsoft office suites, have ability to interpret financial information and possess strong communication and listening skills.

Accounting is neither a solitary profession nor the image of dorks glued to their seats, crunching numbers, and squeezing their brains until they explode.

On the contrary, accountants do a lot of traveling to sites, work in different teams for different clients, and continue advanced learning and training.

“At first when I did not know that much about accounting, I thought it was an extremely boring and dull job,” said Livia. “But after being exposed to the career and having professionals tell me about their experiences, I believe the myths are all wrong”.