Accountant

What is this job like? Back to Top Back to Top

Accountants and auditors keep track of a company's money. The company's managers and people outside the company read their reports. Managers look at the accountants' reports to see how well their companies are doing. Governments use the reports to tell how much tax a company should pay. Some people read them to decide if they want to do business with the company. Others use them to decide if they want to lend money to the company or not.

There are four kinds of accountants.

* Public accountants work for public accounting companies. They do accounting, auditing, tax, and consulting work. Some have their own businesses. They do many different kinds of accounting for people outside the company.
* Management accountants keep track of the money spent and made by the companies for which they work.
* Internal auditors make sure that a company's accounting records are right. They check the records to see that no one in the company is stealing. They also check to see that no one in the company is wasting the company's money.
* Government accountants and auditors make sure that government accounting records are right. They also check the records of people doing business with the government.

Accountants and auditors work in offices. They generally work a standard 40-hour week, but some work 50 hours a week or more. Tax accountants often work long hours during the tax season, from January to April. Accountants working for the government and public companies travel to audit other companies or branches of their own company.
How do you get ready? Back to Top Back to Top

Most accountants have a college degree in accounting. Public accountants have to take a special test as well, resulting in a certification. Public accountants also must have a special license from the State in which they live. Some employers want accountants who have a master's degree in business or accounting. Most employers want accountants who know quite a bit about computers. Previous experience in a summer or part-time internship is also a plus.

People who want to be accountants should be good at math, and have good analytical skills. They also should be able to write well, so that they can tell others about their findings.
How much does this job pay? Back to Top Back to Top

The middle half of all accountants earned between $42,520 and $71,960 a year in 2006. The lowest-paid 10 percent earned less than $34,470. The highest-paid 10 percent earned more than $94,050 a year. Earnings of accountants depend on how long they have been working.
How many jobs are there? Back to Top Back to Top

There were 1.3 million accountants and auditors in 2006. Most of them worked in cities, because that is where the large companies tend to be.
What about the future? Back to Top Back to Top

Employment of accountants and auditors is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2016.

Accountants have good job opportunities. This is because there will be new and changing laws that will increase the need for accountants; also, there will be more private companies that will need accountants. Accountants who have a lot of special skills, such as certified public accountants (CPAs) and certified management accountants, should have the easiest time finding a job.

Balloon boy incident raises more questions, officials say

(CNN) -- Authorities plan to ask new questions of the family at the center of the balloon drama that captured the world's attention Thursday, as a comment in a CNN interview and other concerns raised speculation that the incident may have been staged.
Parents Mayumi and Richard Heene discuss the upheaval in their lives Friday on CNN's "American Morning."

Parents Mayumi and Richard Heene discuss the upheaval in their lives Friday on CNN's "American Morning."
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"We feel it's incumbent on us as an agency to attempt to re-interview them and establish whether this is in fact a hoax or actual event," Larimer County Sheriff James Alderden said at a news conference Friday. "We believe at this time that it's a real event."

Investigators with expertise in spotting deceptive behavior interviewed the family Thursday and believe they were not lying, Alderden said.

His office is being flooded with calls and messages from people insisting it must be, and putting "a lot of pressure" on authorities to charge Richard and Mayumi Heene, he said.

The sheriff's office said it was conducting background checks on the Heenes.

A giant Mylar balloon took off from the backyard of the Heenes' northern Colorado home Thursday. The couple said they were terrified their 6-year-old son Falcon may have been on it. They couldn't find him.

In audio from 911 calls released Friday, the parents sounded emotional and desperate.

When the balloon finally landed, Falcon was not on board. Later, he came out from hiding in an attic over the home's garage.

"I'm feeling very, very grateful that Falcon is among us," Richard Heene told CNN's "American Morning" on Friday. "We went through so many emotions yesterday."

On CNN's "Larry King Live" Thursday night, the Heene parents asked Falcon why he had not come out from hiding when they were calling for him. "You guys said we did this for the show," he said. Video Watch the boy's remarks »

The family chases storms and takes videos of some. The Heenes also were featured in March on the ABC program "Wife Swap."

After the Hollywood gossip Web site TMZ.com reported that the Heenes had been "pitching a reality show about the wacky family," one of the networks mentioned, TLC, which produces "Jon and Kate plus 8," said "they approached us months ago, and we passed."

Two other production companies, Reality Real and RDF, which produces "Wife Swap," did not immediately respond to CNN's queries.

They family had a video camera recording as the balloon took off Thursday. Alderden said that was because the family planned an experiment in which the balloon was to rise 20 feet off the ground.