But when you ask accountants who actually work in accounting firms or other related fields, you will be surprised by the answer you hear-communication skills. This sounds incredible, because in our view, communication is the most basic ability of human beings, and it is not particularly worth mentioning. But not only accountants say so, countless research reports have pointed out that professional accountants should be able to do a good job in a team environment and achieve their work goals with efficient writing and dialogue skills, which involves how to better communicate with colleagues and customers. Accordingly, this ability is not only a demonstration of personal ability, but also a demand for professional ability.
This means that excellent communication skills have become a professional "soft skill" in the field of accounting work, which is increasingly valued and demanded by employers.
"soft skills" VS "hard skills"
The CFO forum on LinkedIn has a topic discussion: What soft skills do most CFOs need most in their work? In many discussions, voice is communication ability. Something similar, Tom? Holder and his team also conducted a survey among American certified public accountants, among which communication ability ranked first again. The so-called communication is to be able to convey meaningful information properly, including letting the other party clearly understand their own ideas and act according to their own ideas.
This is especially important for accountants who have just joined the work. Of course, if you want to succeed in the workplace, your "hard skills" are essential at any time. If you want to get promotion and development, then you must get American CPA certificate, and at the same time you must have practical working ability and be able to apply theoretical knowledge to practical work. However, if you want to stand out as soon as possible and show your superiority among many accountants, then you must cultivate and improve your "soft skills".
George who works at Ernst & Young? Based on his own personal experience, trowbridge made the following suggestions for newcomers who have just entered and are about to enter the accounting field. If you want to be a successful accountant, you must first be able to successfully establish relationships with all kinds of customers, and make this relationship constantly consolidate and develop. You must be able to listen to customers, make clear their needs, tell them the services you will provide accurately and clearly, and let them know what benefits you can bring to them and what needs you can meet. Only in this way can you establish a long-term cooperative relationship with customers and you can be regarded as an excellent professional accountant.
"Communication skills seem ordinary and simple, but they are very important for young accountants." Trowbridge said, "Unfortunately, many young accountants lack this point, or it is easy to ignore it."
Ernst & Young, as one of the four major accounting firms, naturally never lacks powerful newcomers to join. But it is not so easy to make achievements in a short time. Trowbridge gave such an example, Andrew? Joseph is a newcomer who joined the company the year before last. His school performance can be regarded as the best among the newcomers at that time, and he got a high-scoring American CPA certificate in a very short time. It can be said that his personal "hard skills" are impeccable. But it happened that such a seemingly promising newcomer failed to persist in the company. The reason is that he lacks the necessary communication skills of an accountant, and misunderstanding with customers at work leads to the evolution and escalation of the situation, and the two sides are arguing endlessly. Although the matter was finally settled, Joseph proudly chose to leave the company.
How do new accountants stand out?
If you have decided to become a professional accountant in the accounting field, you should learn to show your communication skills from the time you fill out your resume. Although a high GPA will be a bright spot in your resume, what really makes you stand out is whether you have excellent communication skills and let your audience understand you well.
And when you get a job, become an accountant, and want to stand out among your colleagues, what should you do? What can help you is the communication skills mentioned repeatedly in this article. Accounting is a service industry, and its core lies in the interaction with customers, which brings more benefits. What you do is to serve customers. A "customer" may be someone outside the company or someone inside the company. The quality service you can provide is not only the accuracy of technology, but also the customer experience. If your customers think that your service can't meet their expectations, then they may never come back, and the customer relationship you want to establish will break down.
Therefore, don't just pay attention to your own accounting skills, but also pay attention to improving your communication skills, which can be strengthened by taking some courses and joining clubs. You may find it difficult to master accounting rules, but they won't leave you far behind. As long as you are willing to learn, you can learn to master them, but if you ignore the important "soft skills" in your work, you may be left far behind by your colleagues.
Want to be a successful CPA? Then you need more than an American CPA certificate. It's not too late to prepare from now on!