Student Perception of the Accounting Profession Compared to the Reality of Audit Professionals

It appears that students have an overall negative perception of accountants due to the negative connotations associated with the profession. The overarching stereotype of an accountant appears to be one of a professional that lacks soft skills but is known to excel at hard skills. After personally working in audit, I do not believe auditors lack the soft skills that stereotypes portray but, in fact, believe they excel at these along with hard skills. It is for this reason that I surveyed undergraduate students at Arizona State University to understand their perceptions of the accounting profession. I also surveyed audit professionals at both EY LLP and the Arizona State Office of the Auditor General to understand the importance of specific traits that a professional auditor would exhibit in their daily job function. After conducting a statistical analysis, I found that the only trait where there was a statistically significant deviation between students' perceptions and professional auditors' realities was with the importance of communication in the profession. Students, on average, rated the importance of communication lower than professional auditors rated this. I also found that there was only a statistically significant deviation in the importance of creativity and volunteerism in students' future industries compared to the importance of these traits in audit, and that there were 10 other traits that did not have a statistically significant deviation. Although this is the case, students, on average, said they would not be willing to take a job in the accounting profession. Yet, it was found that students, on average, have an overall positive opinion about the accounting profession. Although the results disagree in some regards to my hypotheses, this research shows that the importance of communication should be emphasized more in introductory accounting courses. It also can be used to inform students that there is little difference in the importance of specific traits they will exhibit in their future jobs compared to the importance of those in audit.