Employment in the accounting field is strong, and it’s likely to remain that way; according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, accountants and auditors are expected to undergo rapid growth in employment between now and the year 2018. But accounting students, recent graduates, and anyone else planning the transition to a new accounting career should obtain practical skills in advance to maximize their chances of landing a good job. Learning to use accounting software is critical for reaching this goal.
To find out which tech skills are in the highest demand, I’ve gone over five hundred randomly selected accounting job postings from Monster.com, Career Builder, Craigslist, Simply Hired, and Accounting Jobs Today to see which software systems employers mentioned the most. I’ve discovered some valuable lessons for those looking to build up their accounting software skill set.
Key Takeaways
There’s no doubt that you simply must know Microsoft Excel to be marketable for a job in accounting. But the more sophisticated software – including deeper accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software systems – are a little less obvious. These are the key research findings that will help you get a job:
- When finding your first job, look for a company that uses a “big name,” widely-used accounting system like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics or Oracle. That will improve your odds of getting hired next time you’re in the market for a new position.
- More and more companies are focused on business intelligence – the tools that analyze financial data to uncover business trends and opportunities. Try to gain experience in Business Objects, Crystal Reports, Cognos, etc.
- If you’re looking to work in a big corporation, you should learn systems like SAP and Oracle. If mid-size companies are your preference, learn Sage and Microsoft Dynamics. Quickbooks skills are always in demand, but especially by smaller companies.
- As the Microsoft Dynamics products converge, knowing any one of these systems will give you transferable skills across the entire Dynamics product line. For now, Dynamics GP appears to be in highest demand.
- Don’t get too comfortable with PeopleSoft or JD Edwards; although they are often mentioned by employers, they’re likely to decline in use as Oracle migrates to its Fusion apps. But it’ll take a while, so skills with these systems are still valuable.
Hunter Richards is a blogger for Software Advice, an online resource with reviews and comparisons of business accounting software. The original article is located here, along with some handy pie charts that break down the most-demanded software systems by vendor and individual product.
