Employment

For some time now, the AICPA has maintained a website called Start Here, Go Places that emphasizes the fact that real-life accountants don’t all sit in boring, quite cubicles working on spreadsheets and methodically punching adding machine keys all day.  Those efforts are supported by a front-page Wall Street Journal article that details the importance of accounting/finance professionals to the fire-fighting efforts in California.  Managing/measuring costs are central aspects to nearly every industry and fighting wildfires is not exception.

Back at fire base camp, Mrs. Fork’s U.S. Forest Service team calculated the laundry bill. On Sept. 5, 1,914 pounds of clothes were washed, at a cost of $1 a pound, plus $2,150 a day for washers and dryers.

Mrs. Fork oversees a team of 13 who track every penny spent on the massive effort, from a rolling medical center ($2,900 a day), to an outdoor bank of 12 sinks ($2,600 a day). They also make sure every firefighter is paid. The bean counters live and work alongside firefighters in sprawling fire camps, sleeping in tents, waking before dawn and showering in a tractor-trailer.

“Long after the fire is out, you’ll still be dealing with the finance side,” said Station fire commander Mike Dietrich. “Bills have to be paid. And you have to figure out who’s paying.”

The variety available to people pursuing accounting work is seemingly endless.  If you are a person that “can’t imagine sitting at a desk all day,” an accounting career could still fit your lifestyle.

In Fighting Wildfires, They Also Serve Who Keep the Books — Mrs. Fork’s Band of Bean Counters Lives, Works In Firefighter Camps; ‘Mommy, Nana’s at a Fire’. Tamara Audi. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Sep 16, 2009. pg. A.1

• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125304485991513201.html
• http://tinyurl.com/ldw265