Study show that people think that data analysts and accountants are boring
journals.sagepub.com
journals.sagepub.com
I've known quite a few accountants over the years. Some fit this typical stereotype rather well, and others have been a bit more "dynamic".
However, they are notable in that nearly all of them have been some of the nicest people I've ever met, with very high levels of integrity and authenticity. Very level headed, high attention to detail, professional, knowledgeable and kind.
Obviously the profession does attract a certain type, but despite any negative stereotypes, in my experience their traits overall seem to be overwhelmingly positive.
I cannot say the same however for software developers (of which I'm one). Far more variability there!
I guess this is partly because there is perhaps a higher barrier to entry to become even a "junior" accountant, whereas any random blundering idiot who dropped out of school can become a software developer (n=1 proof: me)
:-p
I couldn't help chuckle at this one.
When I was in college, engineering was known as "pre-accounting" --- those who couldn't handle the math went into accounting.
This is not to say accountants aren't nice people but the math involved is what my engineering professors disparaging referred to as "kindergarten" algebra so the barrier to entry is really not very high.
Can't say whether or not it's easier than an exams to become an accountant. Bear in mind though that one needs to keep taking exams to maintain CPA status, whereas in law, we have no such requirement. Just have to keep doing (usually bullshit) CLEs.
In any event, any kind of licensure is more than we have to become devs, which I think is the main point.
edit: I see your point in another comment that one need not be a CPA to be an accountant, and that's fair enough.
Nope, not in the USA.
Most states have "continuing education" reporting requirements which can be self study in many cases. Take an approved on-line class every 2 years and you're good in most states.
Also bear in mind that most accountants (at least in the USA) don't have any license or certification. Try practicing law like that.
Total BS to show you're still involved and interested in accounting. The idea behind the requirement is to keep accountants up to date on new tax laws.
As I said above, report your results (pass/fail) from an on-line class once every 2 years and you're good in most states. A lot of states will accept self study. This is nothing like the CPA test.
Note: I have a CPA in my extended family.
Software Engineering as an academic topic can be very difficult; as a career, because of various factors over the last 30 years, it's anything but.
Accounting as an academic topic is fundamentally very simple (it's mostly about giving precise names to money movements); as a career, because of rigorous qualification paths in most countries, it's anything but.
LOL!
Here is are the requirements to take a CPA exam in the USA.
US Citizen, 18 years old with a valid SSN
120 hrs of college credit or a bachelor's degree.
Whereas I dropped out of school at 17 after being on track to fail my A Level in Maths and yet I recently built an ERP system for a $100m revenue company. No one checked my (lack of) qualifications! (Nor did my lacking certain bits of paper impede my ability to do a good job)
I’m not as bad at maths as that failed A Level would have indicated, but I doubt I would have easily sailed through accountancy training/qualifications. Not for lack of intelligence but for lacking in other areas.
So raw “math ability” is only one element here and just focussing on that could risk minimising all the other skills required to be a good accountant (including organisation and people skills).
No, they don't. Only about half the accountants in the USA are licensed CPAs. And you don't need a college degree to become one in many states.
Lots of lawyers are licensed CPAs without any accounting degree.
However for companies over a certain size it would be very rare, at least in the UK, to employ someone without formal recognised accounting qualifications.
And for certain accounting practices (auditing accounts for example) then there are actually legal requirements around having qualifications from a recognised body.
So you’re partly right, but for all intents and purposes in the UK at least, there are de facto qualification requirements for working as an accountant. (I would say for anything more than just preparing simple accounts for sole traders or individuals).
This accepted minimum qualification level is not matched in the software development field. Even if “a degree” is listed as required, this can often be sidestepped by being able to prove one’s track record.
My comparison between software development and accounting was somewhat tongue-in-check anyway. I was really just trying to stand up for the accountants :)
I don't think ANY state requires a degree or CPA license to be employed in a job that may have the word accountant in its title; however, there are certain kinds of roles, with certain responsibilities, that generally require a degree, and sometimes a CPA license.
Sounds like some accountant made a really bad choice in accounting software --- probably went with the most cost effective option.
However I’m not affected by cognitive biases, so this probably doesn’t apply to me. /s
Studies show that I too am boring.
- anything that I don't understand
- anything that forces me to think
Talk about the analytics of, say, how and why spouses cheat, and you'll be able to get anyone's attention easily.
- even if I learned it, nobody in my social circle would care
Twenty years later I got a subscription to the New Yorker and they ran a regular business column (https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/james-surowiecki) . Almost every one was super interesting. Decision making under uncertainty, leveraged buyouts, and all kinds of stuff that was worth thinking about.
These days, someone here turned me on to Matt Levine's newsletter (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/authors/ARbTQlRLRjE/matthe...). I never thought that finance could regularly be laugh out loud fun. Who knew?
I'm a college professor. I sometimes tell the Business folks that they could do with a lesson in marketing. They smile, a little, and change the subject. I think they are so flooded with folks that it is not really of interest. Too bad.
I think they actually want to actively discourage people. They understand supply and demand.
eg I mostly do large private equity stuff - mostly offshore. Confidentiality aside the average person has zero chance of following any sort of cross jurisdiction finance stuff. Or worse they read some clickbait write up on Panama paper or whatever by a journalist that also doesn’t know anything about the topic aside from outrage sells newspapers.
So I mostly just don’t say anything. Add 8 hours of sleep and you don’t have many hours of interesting left
I think the whole lonely geek thing has gotten better in the last decade, but it used to be really bad. Like the Lone Gunmen in the X-Files (really dating myself now).
If you're in that stereotype, either you end up finding a lucky niche that appreciates your talent (easier these days) or you can easily end up ostracized and terribly lonely, with fewer friends, mates, opportunities, etc., which can in turn lead to severe depression and other mental health consequences.
"I'm smart, I'm nice, why doesn't anyone like me"... used to be a common complaint of the geeky types. Thankfully it's a bit better these days.
Can't and don't. It's just a measurable fact of the human condition. I'm not sure why you thought I would.
Some people just are crashing bores.
Consider a continuum from Boring to Exciting. Now place these jobs on them:
- Firefighter
- Rocket Scientist
- Data Analyst
They are more boring, ergo, they are the boring jobs.
People don't seem to find being an Uber driver boring, because you talk to people all day. This sounds extremely boring and tiresome to me.
What is surprising from this shotty paper is that they conclude boring people are perceived as "less competent".
Seems counter-intuitive, considering accounting and taxes.
They did two different studies. One took a list of occupations, and asked the respondents “Joe is an accountant. How boring does that make him seem, 1-7?”
The other study then created a vignette combining attributes that were individually rated into a bigger description, then asked “how competent (skilled, hard-working) does this person seem?”
So the connection is boringness -> low competency, and not necessarily all data analyst -> boring.
Data analyst was down the list a bit on boringness - less than accounting, law, and a few others. Mathematics on the other hand had the lowest boringness rating of the occupations.
Have you met my constant companions, Dunning and Kruger?
I found their definition of boredom interesting:
> Boredom is often conceptualized as the adverse experience of wanting but being unable to pursue satisfactory activity. It is an unpleasant emotion characterized by low or mixed arousal, a lack of interest in the situation, the perception that time is passing slowly, failure to sustain attention, and a lack of perceived purpose. Boredom, an affective experience, signals that current (in)activity fails to offer a sense of meaningfulness and propels the pursuit of actions that, for example, offer a sense of purpose, novelty, or might temporarily distract from one’s immediate predicament.
And what might make people boring:
> [prior] results indicated that stereotypically boring people are characterized by negative egocentrism in interactions (e.g., lack of interest in the other person’s contributions and constant complaining) and banality (e.g., interest in a single topic only; repeating jokes); they talked less and shared relatively little subjective information.
> Our research shows that being perceived as boring likely conveys low competence and low warmth, being a social burden, thus causing avoidance by others.
Their table of stereotypical characteristics of boring people: https://journals.sagepub.com/na101/home/literatum/publisher/...
Their table of boring jobs: https://journals.sagepub.com/na101/home/literatum/publisher/...
Their table of boring hobbies: https://journals.sagepub.com/na101/home/literatum/publisher/...