Why Is It So Hard to Find an Accountant?

I received an email from a friend with a link to an article in Business Insider. The title of the article follows: "A shortage of accountants is pushing the industry to reboot its image to win over young talent: 'You have to sell them.'"

The awfully long title is pretty much all the substance in the article. It lacks any real usefulness when it comes to asking what really caused this problem. If you do a search for "accountant shortage," you will find pages of these articles.

My friend sent me the article because he knows that I earned my bachelor's in accounting and finance. He also knows the trouble I had finding work, even after passing the CPA examination in 1983. I could not get an interview.

The job market was very bad at the time. I attributed the fact that I couldn't land an interview for two years to that bad job market. I decided to make the best of it by making myself the ideal job candidate.

My high school accounting teacher told the class that the biggest demand for jobs for decades to come would be accountants with a strong computer background. Also, computer programmers with a knowledge of accounting. So I returned to college in 1983 and completed the equivalent of another bachelor's degree in computer science by the end of the summer of 1984.

In the rare instances when I could talk to a person during my job search, I would explain why I returned to college. "I took advantage of a bad job market to do what my accounting teacher said in high school and get a strong background in computers to go with my accounting degree."

THE AUTHOR HAD THIS EXPERIENCE:

Most of the responses I received were ridiculous. The most memorable was: "Don't you know what you want to do? You got a degree in accounting, and then you go back for one in computers?" Another: "Why would we hire you if you're not sure what you want to do?"

I recall seeing job ads that I immediately responded to with the understanding that they can't possibly find anyone with my qualifications. Many jobs read ACCOUNTANT: Required B.S. in accounting or computer science, with one year of accounting or computer programming. I still could not get called in for an interview.

This was in the mid-1980s. Most people were terrified of needing computer skills or having to learn them on the job. Computer use was not ubiquitous then as it is now.

Yep. I found a local ‘Tax Services’ place in town about 10 years ago..

Several years in, I found they started farming our tax returns (costing me PLENTY as mistakes were made).
Now, all they care about there is wanting to invest all of your money.

Sad.

Lost my tax accountant last year...he decided to do only business accounts. It takes fewer clients to make the same or more money.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

that's exactly what my accountant told me a couple weeks ago.

math could be the culprit??

plus most of the kids growing up want to become tik tok influencers anyway

I am in the process of ditching the accountant I've been using for one of my businesses. He's the third accountant I've used in the last five years. Simple reasons:

1. Exorbitant fees for work that is one step above bookkeeping.

2. Requires mastery of one unique area of accounting, which this accountant has not demonstrated to my satisfaction.

I'll go one step further and say that my own experience with accountants I've dealt with in my small business world tells me that the entire profession is highly overrated.

Actually the issues described by the author have been happening in numerous other fields.
In the accounting profession there are additional/other issues.
Many excellent accountants are lousy at supervising/managing other people. And the AICPA has a long history of marginalizing “small operators”; politics prevails in the efforts to glorify the efforts/accomplishments of women and minorities.
What has happened in most other professions and careers Has happened in accounting as well. Well, the exceptions might include:
Garbage trucks
Oil rigs and oil wells
Maritime shipping
Long haul trucking
The world is a messed up place.

As someone who entered the profession in 1979 and is still working in it, this has not been my experience. Not at all. The problem with public accounting is the tradition of leveraging and churning low paid recent grads so that a relative few at the partner level can make big. It’s all about efficiency. That’s why the PCAOB announced findings today that 1/3 of 2022 audits contain errors.

COVID started the trend of remote in public accounting and now it’s near impossible to directly reach an accountant and bad client service is the new norm.

And no, I can’t make ends meet charging you $300 for a tax return.

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