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(female narrator) Whether bookkeeping for housing builders or farmers, one thing remains. The accounting department is never going away. You could say, "We're going to a flat tax. Are you worried about losing work?" No, because we need to keep track of our finances.

(narrator) Pam Trivisonno is an accounting business owner, Trivisonno CPA, Incorporated. I am a CPA, so CPA stands for certified public accountant. Basically, I'm an accountant, that I've been licensed by the State of Ohio and that's why CPA is after my name.

(narrator) She does accounting and income tax for businesses and individuals. Most people think accounting is boring. That's what I want to break the mold of. Not that I'm an exciting person, but my day is not boring.

(narrator) Pam says people meet with her at her office daily. It's not like I'm sitting in my chair all day and not having any access to the outside world.

(narrator) She says tax season, January through April, is the toughest period because she works 70 to 80 hours weekly, including weekends. The reward is her flexibility for the other eight months. A typical workday outside of tax season begins sitting at her desk checking emails and voicemail.

(Trivisonno) I'm getting all those little things done so that I can start a project. That project might be preparing a tax return, it might be preparing journal entries for somebody's accounting system.

(narrator) The tools used most include the computer, fax machine, scanner, and telephone. Usually, before noon, I've been interrupted five or six times, so one of the hardest things to adjust to in a small public accounting firm like myself, is just that everything is different every day. You've gotta drop a project, pick one up, pick up another.

(narrator) Pam is a public accountant. There are also private accountants working for just one company. There are also bookkeepers who aren't state-certified and don't necessarily need a college degree. It's where Pam first got interested, since her mom was a bookkeeper. My mom was a single mom who didn't have a college education, but through all of her years of working in an office-- she was a bookkeeper, she became an office manager and became an executive director of a non-profit agency. That was as high as she could get without the education. My early exposure to an office, and how it worked and seeing her do bookkeeping, intrigued me.

(narrator) Pam went to college, worked at a large accounting firm in Cleveland, and worked up through the ranks.

(Trivisonno) At that point, decided to have a family. That life was tough, as a female and a mom wanting to have a family, so I cut back.

(narrator) When her kids grew older, she returned to work, briefly as a controller, and eventually public accounting, which later led to her own company. Pam believes there is great potential in her industry in the next decade. There's very few accountants who come out of college without a job. I can't say that about all college graduates.

(narrator) There are things you can do to prepare for a future in accounting, like keeping your grades up, improving communication, math, and problem-solving skills.

(Trivisonno) When I say problem-solving, I think about, do you like to do a puzzle? Because that's what-- If you say, "A puzzle confuses me, "I don't like it, I'm not patient, I'm not organized," accounting's not for you. If you say, "I love having thousands of pieces, "I know it needs to look like this, let me put them together and make it work." You might have different tools or a different table or different lighting to do that puzzle, but hopefully we all come to that end result. It's a game. It's like, let me put this stuff together.

Funding to purchase and make this educational production accessible was provided by the U.S. Department of Education:

PH: 1-800-USA-LEARN (V) or WEB: www.ed.gov.

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