Cost Accounting

You want a job. But you want a position that is extremely tedious, one that grinds you through the gears of humanity, one that reminds you that you are small. One that makes you...hurt.

Have you considered a job that involves cost accounting?

Cost accounting is a tedious process of examining every stage and input of a company's cost structure. So if you're studying the supply chain of an automobile supply chain, you're going to strenuously translate those costs into the analysis that improves the operations and profitability of the company.

You'll look deep into the variable costs of the products, exploring materials and other factors that impact the inputs into the supply chain.

You'll rigorously examine product line costs, which will include overhead costs, variable costs, and other costs, like distribution.

You'll probably assess the costs associated with every single employee, including benefits and salary.

You'll carve through customer, sales channel, and contract value.

Then you’ll spend days exploring how to reduce these costs and how to eliminate bottlenecks. You’ll find widgets designed to make the company more money, while you’ll get about a 2% increase a year in salary. You’ll drive a Dodge Stratus.

You’re basically that guy in the film No Country for Old Men who asks the nameless sociopath in the office, “Are you going to kill me?” And the nameless sociopath says, “That depends...do you see me?”

You could disappear…but all anyone at the firm would care about are the Excel files you leave behind.