“Folks often go into finance thinking I'm going to get rich, and I might be able to have this fast-paced lifestyle in a big city, whereas they tend to think accountants are the ones wearing pocket protectors and green eye shades,” says Daniel Ames, Ph.D., associate dean of Bryant’s College of Business and chair of the Accounting department.
But here’s a little secret: those willing to put up with the occasional digs know that accounting is a secure and in-demand profession, especially in the current job market.
“The accounting profession has been experiencing a shortage of accountants for quite some time, and in fact a couple of years ago there were four or five hundred companies that had a material weakness in their reported financial statements simply because they didn't have the in-house expertise to avoid it,” said Ames, citing a report in the Wall Street Journal. “In other words, they couldn’t put together all of the disclosures required by law in an acceptable way because they couldn’t find enough accounting expertise.”
An August 2025 study published in The CPA Journal the profession, which in turn has contributed to 33 percent fewer students taking to CPA exam in 2021 as compared to 2016, and 30 percent fewer candidates passing the final section of their CPA exam.
In her Accounting honors project thesis, Raegan Rapoza ’25 surveyed students, faculty, and staff from several universities and found that “the profession does not (enjoy) the highly respected reputation that it once did, and university accounting programs are one place where this issue is clearly seen.”
A challenging job market, however, makes this a great time to go into accounting, Ames contends. “Because of the long-term shortage of accountants, the opportunity has never been stronger for students coming out of Bryant than it is right now,” says Ames.
“Because of the long-term shortage of accountants, the opportunity has never been stronger for students coming out of Bryant than it is right now."
Enrollment of Accounting majors has risen in the last two years at Bryant, as has the number of students enrolling with dual Accounting/Finance majors.
“Historically speaking, you tend to see ebbs and flows between accounting and finance,” he adds. “When the economy is good, you see more people in finance. When there's uncertainty or declines in the marketplace, you tend to see more folks choose accounting.”
RELATED ARTICLE: For this alum, Bryant's newest sports facility is a field house of dreams
High demand often means good starting salaries and prospects for growth for new accountants. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median average salary for accountants and auditors was $81,680 in 2024.
The accounting profession is particularly resilient to economic trends, notes Ames. While jobs in finance tend to rise and fall alongside the economy, for example, “there's a significant percentage of accounting that's done in response to legal requirements that are in place regardless of what's going on in the economy,” he says.
Ames says the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which established financial record keeping and reporting requirements for corporations, “has been referred to as a lifetime employment act for accountants.
“Every public company has to have Security and Exchange Commission filings that include financial statements, so you need accounting expertise,” Ames says. “Any company of any size needs accountants.”
“Any company of any size needs accountants.”
Likewise, while artificial intelligence can be a useful tool for accountants, it cannot do the job of accountants, either practically or from a compliance perspective.
“AI can really give you a great first cut, and can handle a lot of routine tasks, but you still need a human in the loop. Even leveraging AI effectively, an expert is still necessary to review the work,” Ames explains. “The accountant’s or auditor’s role is still critical. You trust but verify.”
Accounting may have a humdrum image: “There aren't very many TV shows about accounting, whereas Hollywood portrays finance as exciting, fast-paced and often glamorous,” laments Ames.
But Ames contends that his chosen profession can also be exciting in its own way. “Forensic accounting is one of the areas that folks find the most interesting,” Ames, a certified fraud examiner, says.
The job of a forensic accountant involves a lot of sleuthing to track fraud, he explains. “You're evaluating cases identified as suspicious and comparing records looking at whether transactions are fraudulent,” he says. “If so, you’re coming up with evidence, interviewing folks, and you may end up testifying as part of a prosecution, depending on your role.”
RELATED ARTICLE: At Bryant, PwC institute immerses high schoolers from diverse backgrounds in accounting
Accounting majors also get an overview of corporate finances that can come in handy in any number of related professions, including finance, Ames says.
“The more you understand what's going on with a company's financials, the more adept you're going to be at evaluating the health of a company,” he says. “There are all kinds of uses for that: Is this a company I want to invest in? Is this a company I want to loan money to? Is this a company I want to do business with? Is this a company I want to work for?”
“The more you understand what's going on with a company's financials, the more adept you're going to be at evaluating the health of a company."
Ames adds that accounting skills are especially critical for entrepreneurs as they build their own companies -- another example of the profession being more dynamic that it might seem at a casual glance.
“Just like anybody else, I want an exciting job,” says Ames. “Fortunately, I have one.”