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Deciding to go into accounting wasn’t all that easy for me. That’s why it is so remarkable that I’m a CPA. I guess it’s the stigma surrounding the CPA personality that initially turned me off. I didn’t want to be “pigeon holed” by potential employers as a number cruncher.

I’ve always considered myself a bit of an accounting anomaly. By nature I’m not a detail person, but I do really like organization. I stopped liking math in 6^th grade and started liking wood shop instead.

In college I wanted the sexiest job alive. The talk in my circles lead me to believe strategy consulting was the fastest way to wealth and beauty, so after dressing up my resume I was off to Boston for interviews. I returned home dejected. Apparently in-your-head calculus is taught somewhere beyond 6^th grade.

If you decide to go into accounting you may notice an interesting pattern: You walk into a social gathering. You meet someone and begin to chat. You ask them what they do and it’s very interesting. Then they ask you what you do, which leads to an awkward pause. The only questions they can think to ask are “so you must be really good with a calculator” or “you must love math.” No matter what they ask, you respond glibly, “I never met a positive number I didn’t like!” Although your response is really not that funny, the other person will laugh long enough to clearly signal the end of their inquiry into the matter. You can then ask them again about their line of work.

Flash back to me two weeks before graduation seeking advice from Dr. Kay Stice during his office hours. I had narrowed my job decision down to two offers – neither of which was public accounting. “Go for it!” he said, and then in reverenced tone he added, “…but be sure to sit for the exam.” His words cut me like a knife – a word knife with little serrated vowels.

My wife and I spent the next two months on a tour bus in the Middle East. I had a lot of time to think. You can add to the list of great callings accepted on the Sinai peninsula my decision to take Dr. Stice’s advice seriously. I begin studying for the exam as soon as I returned home.

I went to work as a project manager for a software company. I remember one day walking past the board room feeling very interested in what must be going on in there and disappointed that I wasn’t invited. I realized that on my current path I would never be invited to help run the company and make strategic decisions. In my attempt to stay out of pigeon holes I had crawled right into one.

I passed the exam just in time to facilitate a job change – into public accounting. After my trip around the career block I must admit that coming to this profession felt like coming home.

There are a couple of surprising things I really like about my career. One is how much I like telling people I’m a CPA. It feels unusually good to belong to a respected profession. And while people don’t ask me much about my job, I get the feeling they automatically peg me as a respectable, trustworthy professional – not a bad stereotype afterall.

Another thing I really like about my career choice is that I’m running businesses as a member of the board, so to speak, of many closely held companies. Looking back I realize that rather than send me to the back office my credential has taken me to the front more quickly.

If you’re wondering if you should obtain the credential stop wondering. The fact that you’re wondering probably means you have other skills and opportunities besides number crunching. My experience is that the credential will only create greater opportunities. Never once have I sensed the CPA credential has pigeon holed me. Instead it has opened up many professional opportunities and relationships. The profession needs you.

Josh Rowley is a manager at Hawkins Cloward & Simister in Orem, UT.