Accounting offers those in the profession a highly structured career path. Practitioners are shown where to go and be at different times and stages of their careers.
On average, it takes an accountant three to four years to become a qualified chartered professional accountant (CPA). In a CPA firm, someone who performs and contributes can be promoted in six years to the rank of manager, leading others to manage assignments and clients. It takes nine years to become a senior manager, in charge of large client portfolios and teams, and 12 to 15 years to achieve partnership status with an international firm.
'The profession also offers lots of challenges to those who are dedicated,' says Vivian Sun Kwai-yu, a past president of CPA Australia and now a learning and education director at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
'I still very much enjoy my job and profession after all these years. It is a lifelong learning process. The profession encourages me to gain new knowledge and expertise all the time.
'There is no short cut,' she adds. 'We move on and leave behind what we have learnt, and share the knowledge and expertise with others.'
Ms Sun says it is an advantage to possess some basic knowledge of accounting before entering the profession. Candidates who do not have an accounting degree could follow any of the conversion courses in accounting offered by local and overseas academic institutes.