It Doesn't Matter That You Can Calculate Depreciation

Every semester, my Accounting students ask me what specific Accounting skills offer the best job prospects.

I tell them the skills employers REALLY NEED have NOTHING to do with Accounting.

I tell them that in my experience--as a former accountant--the best jobs go to the people who are really good at the following:

Finding great people.
This means having the humility to decide to surround yourself with people who are smarter and more experienced than you.  This decision, ironically, makes you smarter.

LEADING great people.  Not MANAGING great people.  A monkey can boss people  around.  Only a LEADER can inspire the group to follow him / her and help the team discover strengths and talents they didn't know they possessed.

Managing Projects. 
This means taking a room full of people from different departments and organizations  (i.e. people you have no authority to FIRE) and getting them to work together and complete a project that is  a)  on time and    b) on budget

Speaking with Passion
This means having the guts to look your boss in the eye and ALWAYS tell him or her the absolute truth --no matter how scary and unpopular the truth may be--and offer an honest and insightful recommendation. 

So here is the deal:

Learning to calculate depreciation is an important skill.

Learning to amortize a bond premium is an important skill.

Learning to produce a statement of cash flows is an important skill.

But these are skills that are not unique.

Which means they lack value.

On the other hand...

Finding great people.

Leading great people.

Managing big projects.

And speaking with passion.

Are absolutely unique skills.

And are skills that many are AFRAID to develop.

But they are the skills that are FAR more valuable to a company and shareholder value than contemplating the FIFO vs. LIFO inventory valuation methods.

So next semester, please, go ahead and purchase that textbook for Intermediate Accounting to advance your academic growth.

But let me encourage you to also develop the skills that will REALLY make a difference.

A difference to you subordinates, your peers and your future boss.

The skills that can't be found in the chapter discussing depreciation.

AMJ