Overview

When does a guy decide to become an accountant?

When he realizes he doesn't have the charisma to succeed as an undertaker.

Anonymous (and rightly so)

Although the accounting profession is the target of constant jokes, and accounting trails the list of topics most people outside the field want to think about, accountants and accounting are nonetheless the mainstay of modern business. And many accountants leave the stereotype in broken shards; they're lively and passionate people, and they have a lot of fun both off the job and on it. Of course, I'm biased some of my best friends are accountants, and I actually took Accounting 101 as an elective in college. But I'm right, too.

Without accounting, it would be impossible for companies to function. It is absolutely critical that managers know where they are and where they have been that is, what their company owns and owes, what it spends (and on what), and what money is coming in and from what source. That makes attention to detail incredibly valuable to companies when selecting accountants to generate the numbers and auditors to verify them.

Integrity is also vital. For investors to plunk down their hard-earned money, a company's numbers need to be free of gimmicks. Investors want to know the real story.