What Type of Accountant Are You Based On Your Personality?

Imagine being a jefa helping your clients manage their finances or being sent across the country to observe a client’s inventory. You could even work for a team in a high-rise in the city of your dreams. Whether you are an entrepreneur, homebody, hustler, investigator, or socializer, there’s a career path in accounting that can fit your personality!

Now let’s break each personality down. 

The Entrepreneur

Key Characteristics: Go-getter, independent, creative, risk taker, and inventor

The Personality: Someone willing to take matters into their own hands. You don’t sit back and wait for someone else to do the job. You pursue your creativity while using the skill sets you’ve learned from hard work. 

The Job: Creating a business in one of the following fields: bookkeeping, tax preparation, financial planning, mortgage lending, or financial consulting. These jobs give you the financial freedom to start building something of your own doing, while also giving you financial security. Why? Because every person and business needs accounting services. 

Career Tip: You might think the number of accounting small businesses is oversaturated, but it’s not. There’s plenty of room for whatever business you want to create. What is important is finding the right niche to pursue. Do you want to become an accountant for construction companies or women-owned small businesses?  Or, you might even choose to pursue financial consulting for athletic sports teams!

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The Homebody

Key Characteristics: Introverted, simple, introspective, enjoys solitude and being online.

The Personality: You love to work behind the scenes. Your home is your sanctuary and remote work is your dream. 

The Job: Consider being an online business owner in bookkeeping or tax preparation, a financial analyst running financial reports for a corporation, or a data analyst reviewing financial data.

Career Tip: All industries have a finance or accounting department and remote work  has become the new normal. With the new flexibility of working from home, you can be in the comfort of your own home alongside your pets and with your delicious homemade cafecito. 

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The Hustler 

Key Characteristics: Extrovert, corporate climber, fast-paced, strategic 

The Personality: You want to reach the top of the corporate ladder. You are highly skilled at building teams and achieving company goals. You won’t go unnoticed. 

The Job: You might want to consider being a Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, VP in Accounting or Finance, Director, Controller, Account Manager, Lead Accountant or Financial Analyst. Many of these jobs grow into managerial roles and help make key financial decisions for the company.

Career Tip: Understanding your team’s processes, networking, and building relationships at your company will help you climb the ladder to your dream position. If you want to learn more about how to pursue a career in accounting, you can go to Accounting+ to find more resources! 

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The Investigator

Key Characteristics: Curious, analytical, data-driven, observer and problem solver.

The Personality: You stay cool under pressure because you are willing to observe and problem-solve situations with facts and data. 

The Job: These job types heavily tie to law enforcement, IRS tax laws, and other compliance regulators. For example, a forensic accountant investigates financial records and accounts to be used as evidence, while a fraud data analyst or examiner helps to detect potentially improper transactions.

• Examples: Forensic Accountant, Fraud Data Analyst, Risk Analyst, Credit Analyst, Tax Auditor, Financial Auditor, or Certified Fraud Examiner. 

Career Tip: You can network within your community to find jobs with local, state, and federal government agencies and banks. Another route you can take is to find corporate jobs on LinkedIn

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The Socializer

Key Characteristics: Talkative, friendly, trusting, outgoing and personable.

The Personality: Did someone say extrovert? You are the life of the party, so you love meeting new people and are not afraid to be front and center. 

The Job: Financial Consultant, Tax Consultant, Accounting or Finance Professor, Director of Fundraising. These jobs allow you to be social and be able to connect with different people from different backgrounds.

Career Tip: Public speaking and being personable will be key to succeeding in these roles. So don’t forget to smile! 

And there you have it! Accounting has at least five personalities with plenty of career paths and jobs to choose from. From being social and working in sales or even diving deep into the data to identify financial fraud, your options are endless and depend on what you feel is best for you! If you want to learn more, you can take an Accounting Personality Quiz to see what roles will be best for you at Accounting+.