Monday, January 28, 2008

Is being a CPA all that its cracked up to be?

Sometimes I really love my job. I love the people that work for and with me. I love working in private equity and especially in real estate. I find it extremely interesting and challenging.

At other times I wonder if I made the wrong choice 10 years ago when I thought accounting would be a good career option. When deciding what to major in, I thought about picking finance because my Dad worked in banking and I thought that would be a good idea for me. Then I took an accounting class in high school and found it extremely easy. I ended up helping all the other kids in the class and really liked it. So when it came time to pick a major, I picked accounting.

Fast forward 10 years and I really question my decision. I work for someone that is a micro-manager and wants to be out of the detail until its time to turn something in. Then I have to explain all the transactions for the entire quarter to someone who is supposed to be looking at it from a high level. That reached a breaking point for me this weekend when my boss decided to look all weekend at every transaction. Try cramming that into 2 days and it doesn't equal fun. I am not a big fan of working weekends, being called at home on Saturday night at 9:30, working Sunday, and then being called again on Sunday night while I am trying to cook a rib eye on the grill.

I won't lie, I get paid extremely well for someone under 30. I have worked hard to get where I am at, but I keep going back to my sophomore year at Texas Tech. I had a history TA, Richard, who loved Dave Matthews Band and had worked for years in the real world in business. He decided it wasn't worth it and wanted to go back and teach his real love, history. Anyone who knows me, knows that history is something that has always fascinated me and how much I enjoyed that spring semester teacher and his history class. It didn't hurt that he also worked at Tom's Daiquiri and gave me free drinks at a time when I didn't have much cash to spare.

Why can't we do what we love for a career?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you can do what you love for a career, you just have to be willing to accept that you may not be as financially successful in one field over the other. But what is more important? Money or happiness? Its up to you to decide if the cost of doing what you love it worth it.

Emily T said...

Good thoughts. It sounds like you like the accounting/CPA part of it, but not the J-O-B part of it though. Sounds like a rough weekend too. I'm sure that doesn't help the situation. Is it the career you don't love or the place that you are in life right now with it? Sometimes the sacrifice in the short term stinks, but the long term gain is worth it. Other times, your on the wrong playing field. I think the hardest part is trying to figure that out. :-)

Anonymous said...

Assburgers and Fries

Anonymous said...

I am a freshman in college.Do you recommend four years in a Computer Science field or five years of school for CPA?Please help.Thank you kindly.