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I am 27 years old and have been in tax accounting for nearly 5 years now. I am on my third job and can honestly say that I never liked any of the three jobs I held, including my current job. It's very stressful, demanding and downright difficult. Tax is NOT an easy profession by any means.
My first two jobs were held for 1.5 yrs each, and my current job will hit the 2-year mark in April. I plan to stick it out until then, after I have collected my annual bonus in March and receive a raise, most likely. But after that, I would really like to leave and do something completely different. There's nothing more depressing than sitting in a cube all day working in Excel and researching tax legislation. Seriously. I'm at the point now where I hope a Republican gets in the white house next year and abolishes the IRS so that I don't have to do this crap anymore.
I hold a Bachelor's in Business Administration and a Master's in Accounting. What else can I do besides anything financial though? With 5 years of tax experience I feel like I wasted my early career doing something I can't stand. And I'm not even that great at it; just average, really.
I would be more interested in doing something that's not so technical or law-oriented. But it must pay at least in the $50K+ range. I currently earn a salary of $67K but am willing to take a significant pay cut if necessary. I'm also currently on a short-term lease which ends in July, so I will have the freedom to move anywhere in the U.S. to pursue my new career, if necessary.
There are so many things that I would do for a $67,000/year job. I earn $38,000/year working two jobs (one full-time and one part-time), and if I could do it all over again, I would do everything I could so that I could get out of the situation that I am in.
Well, that's pretty despressing seeing as how I just started my first internship in tax at a CPA firm last week. Is this what I have to look forward to?
Do you have your CPA licence? Are you at a firm that is involved in audit at all to ask for a transfer? If you're, haven't you built a group of contacts out in industry?
I'm sure just the work skills that you've picked up could allow you to move into a corporate accounting type role. But to be honest, I've done internships in industry, and that type of work was boring as well (cube/excel). It's really the people that you work with that make it tolerable. DO you like the people you work with? Are you alone? Can you make changes to that enviorment?
Accounting isn't really fun and glamorous. It's work as you obviously already know, but at least it pays well.
nearly 70k is really good money at 27. many people get burnt out and look for a better option in their late 20s but usually their isnt one. i was in a similar deal with IT at 27 making around 70k ended up leaving for various other endeavours non of which panned out. Now after getting another bachelors in accounting I am trying to do what u hate and find an accounting job, which is proving to be next to impossible. unless u have some natural talent and abilities or can start a business around a passion of yours then where u r at may be as good as it gets. at the end of the day its all about the money, very few ever love or even like their jobs, and u r making good money. i know it sucks but maybe stick it out, find a better firm or different role. if u leave accounting, in a few yrs u may be in a job u hate making 30k....
Early in my father's accounting career, one of his coworkers left his corporate job to open a hair salon that he eventually made a huge chain. Your accounting and legal skills are vital for successful business. So investing and owning your own business might be the way to go. He opened the salon while he still kept his corporate job. After it became successful, he left the corporate job to run his business. You of all people know that you can write it off while it's not making money.
My father stayed with the corporation and became a high level executive. So both men ended up being hugely successful.
As a result, I think your best bet is to open your own business or get an accounting position in the corporate world where you can eventually break out of the accounting department into management.
Alternately, if you decided you wanted to be a manager of a restaurant, many owners would hire you. At least around where I live because it's really hard to find competent people to run restaurants because few have a business background. Just throwing that out there to brainstorm because your business degree can be applied to any industry.
Tax can be tricky to break out of, depending on the type of work you've been doing. You don't really get involved in a client's operations the way you would as an auditor. Usually the best exit opportunities are if you've been working on larger clients who have their own in-house tax people. But I'm sure I don't have to tell you that, or that if you don't like it now you probably won't ever really like it, since it doesn't really change. I second the advice about possibly going to a firm that will give you an opportunity to work outside of tax.
As someone who only has tax accounting experience, I can say that it's hard to convince companies that I am qualified to do other things, although someone with your level of experience might have an easier time.
I guess I don't understand what's so depressing about it? Would improving your ability make you happier? And starting over completely, not using any of your skills is going to be more than a small paycut, try 30% or more. So what about trying to do something with project managemet at a finance firm? Doesn't sound like you have much time to practice it though but perhaps there are systems and processes you know well enough to get started.
Good catch, I didn't notice it was the same person from that thread.
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