Accounting and Finance Personal Statement Example 9

‘What makes financial literacy and aptitude more powerful than money itself?’ Robert T. Kiyosaki in his book Rich Dad Poor Dad addresses a striking question, which commonly is unheard of. Knowing the detrimental effects on the financially ignorant triggered me to delve into personal finance and financial consultancy.

Reading about the costs of financial ignorance and the massive gains of being financially literate is insightful in the world of monetary measures, this, as a result, lead me to research more about the discipline and eventually choose to study it at an academic level at university.

How accounting acts as an integral, uppermost aspect of any corporation by communicating business results is what’s intriguing.

It is wildly fascinating how a balance sheet, seemingly simple on the outside is in reality able to capture the complexities of a company by downsizing it as a whole into numerals.

In order to gain some firsthand information on the accounting workforce, I undertook a week-long internship at the United Arab Bank's financial department, which involved shadowing a financial officer and an internal auditor. Seeing how auditing particularly was investigative in its nature sparked my interest. It felt like tackling a puzzle or a manoeuvre to connect the dots to a big, detailed picture.

I learnt how every component of a balance sheet is intricate, and linked with every other financial aspect. In its strategic ways, it is intellectually stimulating to see how it encompasses the aspect of planning and implementing strategies in favour of protecting the organisations assets by preventing potential business risks and frauds.

Academically, my subject choices largely offer transferable skills. Maths is of the utmost importance in gaining analytical skills, and identifying trends which are vital for any field of study. From Chemistry, I learn how to derive formulas and apply logic. As for Psychology, it aids me in approaching problems holistically, and teaches me to exercise critical and conceptual thinking, both of which are essential for tackling accounting problems.

I was heavily involved in the school’s leadership board as I've been a prefect for two years and a member of the student council in the past. As of now, I'm a prefect and a member of the careers committee. Collectively, these positions have provided me with competencies in numerous managerial aspects where I learnt interpersonal and communication mechanisms. I've learnt to work effectively and collaborate with students of different ages and conduct.

Seeing why discipline is stressed upon especially in schools made me realise its vital impact on people in a formal setting.

Aside from academics, I’ve participated in an elocution competition, and I was a member of the school's debating society last year where I took part in an interschool debating competition. It trained me to be more mentally agile by offering arguments and resolutions on the spot, training me to have a clear, vivid mental framework as well as coping well under pressure.

That’s a key skill in this field, seeing that it revolves on the intangible. As for my outside interests, having always had a keen eye for creativity, it lead me in partaking a two month art course at a local institute as well as run a photo diary Flickr account for 4 years documenting my photography.

My artistic endeavours greatly enhance my attention to detail thus, equipping me with the ability to approach complex concepts in an inventive way and in greater depth. Additionally, I’m an avid reader and so I took the initiative to volunteer at a library for a month. It allowed me to work independently and administer customer service.

Having a strong sense of enquiry in the ever so fascinating world of accounting only means that it’s most appropriate to study it in one of the world’s leading financial centres; London. Hopefully, I will be of a vital contribution to the student union seeing that I’ve come from a range of experiences.