Question

Discussion 1
Discussion: Accounting and You. One question that students frequently ask is “how will the study of accounting help me?”
Discuss how you see accounting helping you in your current or future position. (Consider careers in management, sales, business operations, finance, business ownership.)
Discuss how a basic understanding of accounting may help you in your personal life and provide an example

Answer 1

I'm a web developer. In the future, I'd like to be a project manager. Because my current line of work doesn't exactly follow what I want to do in the future, I need to learn more about business. Instead of attempting to acquire an MBA, I'm preparing myself by following the Personal MBA reading list. I read "Accounting Made Simple" by Mike Piper.

Why do I think accounting will help me? Because it's an aspect of business that is tied into everything: just as an employee, accounting affects payroll (affecting my paycheck), balance sheets (my reimbursements for expenses), and summarizes profits (my bonuses, chances for a raise, and my department's budget).

After reading Accounting Made Simple, I was able to fully digest the implications of the Annual Report posted by the company. From a programmer's perspective, it's the equivalent of decoding a message and running your own analysis on the data, instead of being spoon-fed by sloppy comments.