The Noble Eightfold Path includes Right Livelihood. Right Livelihood is a livelihood that does not create harming in the world. Specifically it's mentioned about not dealing with weapons of destruction (they didn't have guns in those days but arrows and whatever), not dealing with alcohol or stuff that confuses your mind, and not being personally involved in killing. That's the main issues. To a certain extent most jobs are Right Livelihood because they're just something to do with society. A clerk, a banker, the gas station attendant, most jobs are just things that have to do with society functioning, and in that way are not a harming occupation, are not tied into things that will harm anybody. So most people don't really have a problem with this.
However, when you're in a job that would appear to be Right Livelihood, what's the business? What's the intention behind the business? Now, going in a different way, a lot of you probably saw Schindler's List or read the book. He ran a factory of making enamel plates and things to eat out of. Fine, it went to a lot of soldiers, but basically it was just making plates and all. Then he shifted and he started making ammunition. And he never made a single bullet or bomb that worked! He intentionally wrecked the machines and made it so that not a single one ever killed anyone. Now, you could say that making plates and all is Right Livelihood, making ammunition is not Right Livelihood, but he didn't actually make anything that killed, it was a fake thing, so was it still Right Livelihood?
We'd have to say kind of "yeah', because he wasn't involved in killing and so on, he was actually against it. Actually what we are looking at is the intention. And this is the key to "Right" anything. What is the person's intention behind what they are doing.
Now an accountant, generally you think, "Oh well, that's Right Livelihood", but what is the company doing that they're working for? If the company is actually making the bombs and ammunition and actually selling it, which then kills people, then is the accountant really doing Right Livelihood? Or is there a decision for that accountant to make, where he thinks, "Well I shouldn't be here, maybe I'll go and work as an accountant for the Red Cross or an accountant for a bank or something else"?
This is an issue that goes deeper than just the basic job itself. The accountant just sits there with a book and a lot of numbers, or a computer and a lot numbers, and that's all they do, they swing the numbers back and forth, left and right, and they don't personally get involved in killing anybody or whatever. But if the overall business is set up for harm, then you might want to consider that maybe it is not Right Livelihood.