Is accounting and introverts or an extroverts job

Tax is probably an area more suited to introverts than audit or corporate finance.

Yeah you try telling someone they need to pay a shedload of cash to HMRC without good interpersonal skills and see how well that goes

I don't have good interpersonal skills and got shouted at on the phone by the client when I asked them for some information that would increase their tax bill haha

Just out of interest, how did you react to that?

I would personally describe myself as naturally introverted, but I try and improve my interactions with people by experience. However, handling conflict is very much a weakness of mine.

Depends on what you define by accountancy. If its external audit at a Big Four then you have to have people skills because much of your job will involve talking to client staff and getting info from them, often times in situations where they don't really want you to be there.

I work in Big Four audit right now and there's someone I work with who is very anti social with poor communication skills and this fact was reflected in their performance review whereby they were rated more poorly than others (hence resulting in no promotion and no increase in salary).

How did he get the job in the first place? I thought everyone who worked at Big 4 were social and extrovert.

You don't have to be very social and an extrovert per se, but you do need to be able to talk to people.

As to how this person got the job? Beats the hell out of me.

Is being an accountant boring as most people say it is? What kind of people are accountants?

I've always thought it was more an introverted job.

My old maths teacher was an accountant and said all the others he worked with were introverted, and he wanted a more sociable jobs - hence the teaching

You're probably quite like me then.

I was asking the client for some information that would make his tax bill increase, and he didn't want to give it to me. He was saying stuff along the lines of 'Well who will know if I don't tell you- how is HMRC going to know if I don't tell you' (not what you tell an accountant, obviously not heard of money laundering!!) He kept asking why he had to give it to me and I didn't really know, so all I could really say is 'They are the rules set by HMRC'. And we didn't get anywhere so I just asked once more for the information, he declined so I referred him to the partner in charge of that client.

Looking back, I think I should have either told him the tax charge is pro-rated so he would only pay a tiny bit of tax, and if he gives me the info I can tell him how much the tax will increase over the phone, or I should have tried to be more on his side, by saying something like (he kept saying as accountants we should be helping to reduce his tax bill) 'Well there are certain rules that we can bend to help save you tax, and there are others that we can't. However if you give me a few hours I will ask around to see if there is any way we can deal with this for you'. At which point I would end the call and just pass it to the partner.

But to be honest I don't think there is much more I could have done, apart from being a bit more 'on his side'.

People skills have very little to do with being an introvert or extrovert. I know introverts that are really good with people and extroverts who are terrible. I could make a case that introverts often have better people skills because they are more naturally good listeners.