FACT:
In the workplace, Latinos make up 4% or less of the employees at accounting firms.
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Numbers add up to accounting careers for Latinas
By Ana Campoy
Literally translated, contador, the Spanish word for accountant, means counter. But if you ask Latinas in the profession today, accounting is anything but mechanical.
Although accounting has never been just about number crunching, computers and software have largely reduced the tedious aspects of the job, and made it more flexible. The corporate scandals of the past years, and the new regulations that resulted from them, have also broadened the role of accountants and increased their importance within organizations.
The result: a career that is challenging and accommodating, as well as gratifying.
“What we do is valuable to the economy," says Carolina Polanco, an internal auditor at a large television and radio network based in New York. "If we don't do a good job, it could affect a bunch of people.”
With demand for accountants on the rise, the profession is also a path likely to lead to a well-paying job, people in the industry say.
What it amounts to
A good salary is surely a factor that attracts high school graduates to an accounting major, but for Polanco, who graduated from Fordham University in 2002, it was a business decision.
“I always wanted to be in business ... and accounting allows you to know almost everything about a company,” she says.
For example, at her current job at the radio and television network, Polanco travels all over the country verifying that internal operations are functioning effectively so that financial risks are minimized.
This allows her to understand exactly how the company makes its money, knowledge she says could help her be part of the team that runs it in the future.
"I would like to go up in the ranks and try to help the company with strategic planning," she says.
Other accountants work with many different companies, helping them identify risks and comply with regulations.
That is part of what Sandra Alamo does. She is senior manager at Ernst & Young's business risk services group in Orange County, Calif. Among her team’s duties are collecting information about the accounting process from face to face interviews and documents, testing how the company's controls work, and analyzing the results.
"You definitely need more than a calculator and a pencil," she says.
Flexible jobs
Because any organization that handles money needs an accountant, people who choose it as a career can work in any industry, as well as in the nonprofit realm.
Today's technology also means accountants can work from virtually anywhere, and more efficiently than ever before, says Daniel Hobson, manager of minority initiatives at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Software programs have replaced many of the calculations previously done by hand, and clients now send their files through the Internet, reducing chores and making jobs more flexible, he adds.
Alamo, for example, has in the past taken advantage of the option to work 80% of the regular work week. She saw her paycheck shrink by 20%, but she was able to spend more time with her children.
Accounting firms are offering other options to help workers better juggle work and family responsibilities. At Ernst & Young, says Alamo, working mothers who are nursing are provided with a private room and a breast pump. Pumps are also made available to spouses of the male workforce, she says. If a family's regular daycare arrangement doesn't pan out for a day, it can make use of a network of daycare providers preselected by the company.
Those types of programs help companies retain trained employees at a time when demand for accountants outstrips supply.
Accountants wanted
Through the 1990s, the number of college graduates who majored in accounting dropped or barely grew. AICPA's Hobson attributes much of this trend to brisk growth in technology and consulting business, which veered students to majors such as computer science and finance.
But in the past years, accounting is regaining some of the lost ground in colleges and in the corporate world. The collapse of Enron and other corporate scandals, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) that was passed in 2002 in response to the wrongdoing, created a heavy demand for accountants.
"There have been tremendous opportunities created," says Rita Hood, executive director of the North American division of AGN International Inc., an organization that represents regional and local accounting firms. "Our member firms have gotten a lot of work they weren't doing before."
As a result, more students are enrolling in accounting programs. The number of graduates with bachelor's degrees in accounting grew by 9% in 2004, the latest data from an AICPA survey among universities shows.
Despite the increased supply, the demand for accountants is not likely to subside soon.
According to another AICPA survey, this one among its member firms, the number of accountant hires will have grown between 10% and 19% from 2004 to 2009, depending on the size of the firm. In contrast, firms expect to hire only 5% to 7% additional non-accounting graduates over the same period.
And those who get jobs in accounting can expect to be paid well. Accountants with fewer than three years of experience earn between $30,000 to $60,000, depending on the job and size of the firm, according to data compiled by Robert Half Finance and Accounting, a service that recruits employees for accounting departments.
"For any student majoring in accounting, his or her road is paved in gold," says Hood.
A tough business
But while accountants have risen to prominence because of SOX, they also carry more responsibility on their shoulders. The legislation, which introduced new standards, as well as criminal penalties for those who didn’t follow them, has considerably added to the workload of accountants.
Angela Citizen, an accountant at a firm in Tucson, Ariz., says SOX has meant 50- to 60-hour weeks for the team in charge of implementing the new rules. And while Citizen says that SOX is “absolutely necessary” to restore the public’s trust, the scandals that made the legislation imperative have given rise to a fear among many of her colleagues that, even though they're perfectly honest, they could lose their jobs if top executives make questionable decisions.
As a result, "accountants who do not agree with management’s decisions are now speaking up louder than ever, in some cases they even resign, because of this fear," says Citizen.
Latino accountants also face the burden of making inroads in an industry where they are poorly represented. Of all the accounting graduates in 2004, only 6% were Latinos, according to the AICPA survey. In the workplace, Latinos make up 4% or less of the employees at accounting firms.
And although there are plenty of open spots, landing a good job still requires good grades and a stellar résumé, says Alamo, who is involved in her firm's recruiting efforts and is the immediate past president and a board member of the chapter of Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting in Orange County.
The good news is that firms such as Ernst & Young and organizations such as AICPA are making serious efforts to hire Latino students and help them prosper within their organizations by creating Latino networks, offering scholarships and going to campuses to recruit.
In Alamo's experience, this seems to be working. Through her activities, she has identified several Latino students that would be excellent candidates for her firm.
"The students see you have a brown face, and they feel more comfortable to approach you," she says.
Tu conexión*
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants minority initiatives:
www.aicpa.org/MediaCenter/Minority_Initiatives.htm
Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting: www.alpfa.org
StartHereGoPlaces.com, business and accounting careers: Startheregoplaces.com
* All links are provided for informational reasons only; inclusion on this list does not imply endorsement of these organizations, their philosophies or their sponsors.
