valor wrote: HelloC This post might be a little long so let me apologize before I@start.  Here is my story. I graduated with a degree in Political Science and am currently living in Taiwan teaching English and studying Chinese.  I've been in Taiwan for 1 year, and staying another.  I'll be 24 when I go back to America, most likely with no job prospects, 15k in the bank, and decent Chinese.  Anyways I've been complaining to my wife that I have no idea what I'll do when I go home, all I can do is teach but I don't want to do that.  I'm very good with money and numbers, I handle all the money in our relationship, I know exactly how much money I have in my bank account here and at home, and I know exactly how much my wife has in hers.  I know how much money we have in the house ect.  The other day I noticed about 15 USD were missing from our money drawer at home, so I asked her what she bought and why she needed it.  She lashed back saying "Why don't you be an accountant cheapo".  So now I think I may really enjoy being an accountant.  The idea sounds fun, but so does teaching until you are actually doing it.  But I'm really interested in trying this out.  Before I start spending money to take accounting classes when I go back home I'd like to know if it is easy for someone with no accounting experience to get an internship or job as an assistant, just to test the waters.  Has anyone gone this route before?  That is gotten into accounting without an actual accounting degree?  What is your story or experience.  Any advice would be appreciated.

First off, I would like to tell you that in my opinion, personal finances is nothing like accounting for businesses.

First thing you should do is consider going for a Master's in Accounting or going back to undergraduate school. I recommend undergraduate school because you will need to take the famous weedout class called Intermediate Financial Accounting & Reporting I. If you take Intro to Accounting, you may not get an accurate feel of what accounting is really like. Once you hit "FAR I", you can then decide if you would like to continue studying accounting. You may need to take at least one accounting course to get the feel. And, you may have a hard time finding someone to hire you when you know absolutely nothing about accounting.

Accounting is a love it or hate it type of profession. Make sure before you try to go after a CPA, that you want to do this because you will have to make many sacrifices that you may not want to. Anyway, in most states if not all, you can't even sit for the exam without a certain amount of credit hours in accounting.

I can tell you this, if you love this work, it can be extremely rewarding if you're one of those intellectual type persons who is stimulated by probing numbers and how they work. Just doing it for the money won't work because the CPA requires much more than motivation for money. It requires a love for the craft. I call it a craft because it takes time to become really good at it.

Oh yeah, and if you decide to pursue the CPA after you take those accounting courses, I would get some public accounting experience and apply to the FBI or the Secret Service. They love to hire people with a foreign language.

I would have to agree with Cflas08.

Intermediate Accounting 1 marks the point where my accounting class dropped from 17 to six.  (I went to a relatively small school)

Accounting is definitely love it or hate it, and you will definitely have to make sacrifices as many of us studying for the exam currently will attest to.

Personal finance and accounting for business are very different worlds, but the profession does offer some overlap depending on the firm you work for. 

Whatever route you choose, best of luck to you when you return!