Accountancy may be perceived to be dull – but it ranked as the fourth most popular career choice in a poll of 48 different career options. The research, conducted by top twenty accountancy firm, Kingston Smith LLP, revealed accountancy to be a more popular career choice than teaching, HR, engineering, marketing, journalism, veterinary surgery, catering and hairdressing.

Yet accountancy still has an image problem when it is compared to other professional career choices. According to the research,* twice as many people wanted to go into law or medicine than accountancy. IT was the most popular career choice of all, selected by 19% of respondents.

According to Michael Snyder, senior partner at Kingston Smith LLP, "It is encouraging to see that accountancy ranked fourth in our poll of career options and was equally popular amongst men and women. However, we still have a long way to go to persuade people that accountancy can be an exciting career choice.

“Our research also indicated that the overriding personality trait associated with accountants is that we are boring. Almost half of the people polled thought this was the case, with 28% believing us to lack a sense of humour and only 4% perceiving accountants to be fun. Perceptions clearly need to be changed - the stereotypical views about accountants seem to be firmly set in people’s minds. However, accountants are at the heart of business and can play a key role in the strategic development of a business. As such, we need wider skills than just an aptitude for numbers. We need people skills to be able to get on with clients and colleagues as well as general business and management skills.”

Kingston Smith LLP is determined to change perceptions. The top 20 accountancy firm has set up a number of initiatives to encourage greater understanding about the reality of the profession and to attract people to a career in accountancy. Partners give talks about the accountancy profession at local schools, in the hope of inspiring young people to select accountancy as a career option. In addition to having a presence at university career fairs, Kingston Smith LLP holds a summer vacation scheme to allow a number of university students to spend some time working at the firm to gain an insight into the reality of the profession before committing to a career in this area.

The social side is also important to Kingston Smith LLP’s ethos – another challenge to the perception that accountants are boring and don’t have fun. The firm strongly believes that an active work social life helps with staff retention. As such, all employees are encouraged to finish work early on a Friday to enjoy drinks and food provided by the firm. There are also a host of social events throughout the year, including an Annual Spring Ball, wine tasting events, go karting, cricket teams and football teams. One day each year, the firm closes all its offices and employees spend the day volunteering throughout the community.

Michael Snyder concludes, "We are a people focused business. We need to get on well with clients - and we want to enjoy our work. As such, Kingston Smith has always been keen to challenge the stereotypes and attract interesting, well-rounded people into our firm. I am sure that if the research had been conducted amongst our student placements and employees, we certainly would not have been described as boring and lacking in humour! The industry still has a long way to go to challenge external perceptions but we hope to be able to contribute significantly towards this."