If you believed becoming an accountant would get you prestige, think again.

According to the latest Harris Poll Interactive survey, which measures public opinion of 23 professions and occupations, less than half the US population (47 per cent) said accountants had very great or considerable prestige and more than one in 10 (11 per cent) said the job had little prestige at all.

According to the survey, firefighters, nurses, doctors, teacher and, perish the thought, Members of Congress, had more prestige than accountants.

On the other hand, the beancounters are doing better than business executives, stockbrokers and bankers who seem to be pretty much on the nose.

For that matter, so are journalists but then, what else is new.