Accountant wanting a career change at 28

[confused]

I just finished my accounting designation in Canada (kind of like CPA) . A day after finishing the designation which was a month ago I started my own public practise firm, although, technically I have yet to set up my office. Before I start hunting for clients, I am having second thoughts. I pretty much hate accounting and the business world in general (the fakeness just gets to me, fake suits, fake appearance, the word "professional" - wtf does it even mean, etc,etc ) . And I feel like I am doing nothing of importance, filing taxes etc is in my opinion a crappy use of my abilities.

Now I have two options:

1) stick to accounting - hopefully one day earn a decent living. Accounting is profession that will be automated for the most part anyway.

2) switch to something else and go back to school.

initially I used to think having just enough money to survive, but now I see money is freedom, money is time (with your family), money is important. Thus, If I am to switch to another career it has to financially sound one.

Limitations ( I have a business degree ( with low 70 gpa - slacked off big time) and an accounting designation (CPA -with about 83 gpa). I am an INTP.

can someone please give some suggestions, please don't say law, it is too similar to accounting.

sorry about the crappy writing, I seem to be unable to communicate what is in my head to the outside world, maybe its because I don't really know ......

 

[Architect]

You may or may not be INTP, hard to know sometimes. Regardless you should stick with accounting and find a way to make it work.

 

[Cherry Cola]

The fakeness is not a valid reason to quit the job. There is plenty of fakeness everywhere, you wont escape that anyway. Impressions and superficialities being important is just the way things are wherever there are clients and things are formal. If you're gonna run your own thing you can probably stretch it a bit once you've got a good grip on how to handle people no?

 

[confused]

You may or may not be INTP, hard to know sometimes. Regardless you should stick with accounting and find a way to make it work.

Ive tested INTP for last 3 years. It doesn't really matter what I am though. what is your logic behind sticking to accounting?

thank you for the input

 

[Architect]

Ive tested INTP for last 3 years. It doesn't really matter what I am though.

The tests aren't accurate. Just mentioning, you may well be one.

what is your logic behind sticking to accounting?

You've gotten this far and are about to bank some serious $ and you want to drop it? You haven't even figured out if you can make it work or not. At least save up a load of cash, or better yet do fun stuff on the side. Or find an accounting job that appeals to you. It's only 40 hours a week, take advantage of all the work you've done so far.

 

[confused]

The fakeness is not a valid reason to quit the job. There is plenty of fakeness everywhere, you wont escape that anyway. Impressions and superficialities being important is just the way things are wherever there are clients and things are formal. If you're gonna run your own thing you can probably stretch it a bit once you've got a good grip on how to handle people no?

I agree.

 

[confused]

The tests aren't accurate. Just mentioning, you may well be one.



You've gotten this far and are about to bank some serious $ and you want to drop it? You haven't even figured out if you can make it work or not. At least save up a load of cash, or better yet do fun stuff on the side. Or find an accounting job that appeals to you. It's only 40 hours a week, take advantage of all the work you've done so far.

Well that makes sense. problem solved.

 

[walfin]

You might wish to try management accounting rather than tax/financial accounting. That will sometimes give you a chance to be involved in the production side of things which may be more interesting for you.

Alternatively, you can consider internal audit. Supposedly some of the work is investigative in nature which may be somewhat more engaging.

Or investment banking/financial analysis.

Oh I forgot, insolvency/liquidation can be interesting also, and pays well in bad times.

An accounting degree is generally quite versatile.

 

[Rainer]

Good luck finding something meaningful and non-fake in this society, as long as you want to earn a middle class income. I work for my family's farm for $10/hr, and that is quite meaningful. I can be myself and have flexibility, do a huge variety of tasks including some bookkeeping and business strategy/planning, but I still get bored to tears and have no savings or marketable skills. People on this forum are always mentioning software engineering as a the ideal INTP occupation, but not all of us find that to be too meaningful. I've come to the conclusion that there is no ideal INTP occupation, and that the way to freedom for many INTPs is great thrift, savings, and very early retirement.

Think of all the advantages to being a self-employed CPA, though. You get to set your own hours to a great extent.

• You might be able to be permanently part-time and still make enough money to get by.
• You could probably make a living just about anywhere in Canada since CPAs are needed all over;
• you can make good money if you want and save for early retirement, if you're the kind of INTP who doesn't have to/doesn't enjoy spending much money.

Those are not exactly trivial positives--they're huge positives compared to most jobs!

 

[Affinity]

Find exploits and loopholes in the tax system, find wealthy clientele that you can more effectively shelter their money, and collect big checks from them.