Accountant in The Eye of Accounting Graduates: Fallacy vs Reality

Abstract

Common stereotypes of the accounting profession as dull, monotonous and revolved around spreadsheets are somewhat misleading. Accountants are often mistaken as profit-seekers and are socially awkward. These misconceptions may create unfavourable impression towards the profession and at the same time diminish the interest to be one particularly, by accounting graduates. They might believe these as true as it has been culturally ingrained in the society for a long time. Accounting graduates expect to be accounting practitioners once they graduated. Hence, they might create their own preconceptions of the profession based on the years spent learning and obtaining knowledge in the accounting field. Employers may insist on hiring an ideal accounting graduates as to help the business grow and expand further. Hence, this study aims to review the literature on the perception of accounting graduates on their idea and opinion about the accounting profession. At the same time, analysis of literature that look deeper at the expectation set by employers before hiring accounting graduates is also included. This study is beneficial to help accounting graduates gain insights into the reality of the profession and understand the expectation being set to be an excellent accountant in the industry.