Is accounting a good field for one with social difficulties?

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I'm currently undecided on my major, as a junior in college. I need to make up my mind soon. One option I am looking at is accounting. Accounting has to do with a lot of numbers and close attention to detail. I'm not brilliant at math, but I can do the attention to detail.

However, accounting is a business degree, and I would be working in a business environment, and having to interact with a lot of people on a daily basis including clients and coworkers, so I am not exactly sure whether it would be a good major for someone with social difficulties.

Temple Grandin lists it as a job that is good for someone with AS/autism.

Has anyone heard whether accounting is a good field for one with social difficulties?

Well, using Monty Python's accountants as your typical accountant

YES...

You don't have to make eye contact, can speak monotone and so long as you find the subject fascinating who cares what anyone else things. Also there are lots of rules to follow.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMOmB1q8W4Y[/youtube]

Ya, my dad is a MBA/CPA.

It depends on where you want to work. Accounting is a good job for someone with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome of you want
to work in a small office or tucked away in the back room of some major business firm...but, as a Certified Public Accountant,
one deals with people providing them with Accounting services such as tax and financial advisement among other things.

I spent a summer on Wall Street in New York City after I took two semesters of Accounting and loved it! It was quite apparent to
me that most jobs on Wall Street require either an Accounting, Law or Economics Degree...and the ability to work in a fast paced, high stress environment to endure the madness of crowds.

Even though it was only a summer experience on Wall Street which brought me great fun as well as investment knowledge, it
made me question the validity of my AS diagnosis.

Based on the accountants I worked with at the bank years ago, heck yeah!

Since accounting would likely use your skills to a maximum with less social interaction than many jobs, thus minimizing your difficulties, there are two ways that you can look at this: it would likely be a comfortable field for you, but possibly limit your growth in developing social skills.

I am in my junior year in an accounting information systems bachelors program. There are tons of different types of jobs you can get once you have a CPA license (which takes a little more than a bachelors in most places). It just depends on how social you want to be.

If you want to "grow socially" you can become a common CPA or a Tax Accountant for a small firm where you will meet and deal with your customers. You will have to be able to mingle and act NT for short periods of time doing this, because there is a customer service factor involved. A proper working CPA is fast-paced and stressful (especially during tax season). They so a lot of socializing in order to drum up clients (and steal them from other firms)

If you like the CPA work but would like to be more anonymous, large firms let people disappear more. You will still have to deal with the ocassional customer, and your cubical co-workers.

You can also become an auditor. You basically go into a firm. Go over their books. Find everything they did wrong. Tell them to fix it, or show them what you found, they agree, or explain, you sign off, they sign off. and you leave. (there are also internal auditors for large companies that go around departments doing this)

Or work for a company doing their books. Paying their bills. Making sure they get paid on time. This is normally a low socializing job. High in organization. You get to keep track of everything the company does. Lots of paperwork.

I personally don't want to grow socially any more. It is too stressful. I am aiming for a job with the government, either IRS, FBI or DEA. I am aiming to sit in a tech environment (like in a basement somewhere) far away from ever seeing a client again, where I will never have to be correctly social again (well almost). (I work retail right now, if i have to be properly social to random human beings after I graduate I might just shoot one of them)

I have a degree in accounting. One of the benefits of being a socially awkward person, as wellas an accountant is that we're expected to be a bit odd. The expectation is already there, it's kind of an unfortunate stereotype, but like most stereotypes, somewhat grounded in fact.

So, if you're worried about coming across as strange in the business setting, don't worry too much, accountants are expected to be. The marketing and sales guys are the ones that have to be Mr. Friendly, we just have to be accurate.