This past year, the skills of accountants (or lack thereof) have been a topic of intense debate. Employers of all kinds lament that the talent pool is lacking in several areas. Skills such as leadership, critical thinking, communication, are all in-demand as are science, technology, engineering and math. Not to mention the fact that most accounting curriculums neglect areas most common within corporate accounting: forecasting, analysis, budgeting, and the like.
This past summer, I wrote a post reacting to a question of whether accountants should learn how to code. Around that time, I started exchanging emails with BYU Associate Professor and Glen Ardis Fellow David Wood about coding as a skill amongst the laundry list of skills employers seem to want from accountants these days. There was a lot of interesting back and forth that I thought was worth having out in the open and Professor Wood agreed to discuss it here.
