Is career guidance sending the right message about accounting work? Comparing accounting with competing professions

Using U.S. Department of Labor O*NET occupation data, we test hypotheses, developed primarily from the occupational models upon which the American College Testing's (ACT) Profile career guidance is based, to examine how accounting compares with three competing professions: engineering, medicine, and law. Awareness of the differences in views about the accounting profession between the Profile system and current workers in the field may be useful in improving efforts to educate, recruit, and retain future accounting professionals. Findings indicate that the Profile system underestimates accountants' need for communication and interaction and analytical thinking abilities. Further, it overestimates their involvement in information processing and nonpersonal tasks. Additionally, we find that accounting is not an outlier profession; instead, it shares much in common with its competitors. Overall, results suggest that the leading occupational models, and the Profile system upon which they are based, may not provide a comprehensive picture of contemporary accounting work.