Ok, long story short: I have a BA in political science, and instead of using it I went into an industrial trade to pursue the oil boom. Fast forward 8 years, I have a fairly cushy maintenance position as a journeyman tradesman for a mining company (pretty secure job). Making $110K salary, but I am still unsatisfied and feel like I'm not using my brain enough. The economy is so bad right now that I think I am hamstrung even if I really wanted to get into something else, and all my experience has been in construction so I am typecast to my potential employers. I have thought about using my degree to get a govt position, but I can't find anything entry level (I think people in my position are expected to do internships, except those are reserved for people who graduated in the last two years), and let's face it, govt jobs are usually reserved for women and non-whites (I am very much a white male). I'm probably stuck where I am in life unless I want to give up a massive amount of money that I will never see again and start a new career at 37, but I do wonder some days if the grass is greener elsewhere. I would take some accounting classes part time to see if I like it, but all the university masters programs seem to be full time 2 years.
Hypothetically considering accounting for a career change
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If it doesn't work out, look into becoming a professional appraiser. No matter where the economy goes, people still need appraisers.
W
Warl0ck
You could take courses in the evening or with distance education if you can study that way. I don't imagine you'd make the same money in the early part of your accounting career & you might find it a bit routine too. As a side note, given options to exploring management or planning in your current career? Could you say develop and architect those maintenance systems versus manage them?
Unfortunately you probably made that decision 8 years ago in the oil boom, but you could probably do a lot worse. My suggestions would be look for changes in your life elsewhere.
Well paid Union jobs with Union Pensions are what the accountant working in his contract position for $40,000 dreams of while he's sending off resumes for a replacement contract in 3 months.
You can always use your brain in volunteer work for a charity or political party. Or, you could start a home business on the Internet and use your brain to grow the business.
The only fun place in accounting is where you are CFO or VP Finance in at least a medium-size company - upper management.
A long, long way from an entry position, and you will need a lot of business experience to go along with an exceptional aptitude for both basic and advanced accounting skills.
A long, long way from an entry position, and you will need a lot of business experience to go along with an exceptional aptitude for both basic and advanced accounting skills.
The majority of these come from good four year undergrad programs and start their careers with big four until they get their designation.... OP isn't even interested in making less money than he is now for long let alone go through the aforementioned.
If you want to take up a fun hobby that uses your brain consider learning to program. You could create your own apps and you never know, you might hit one out of the park and make a lot of money. But do NOT consider taking up programming as a career !!! You are too old and IT is a very precarious career to go into, even right out of school. Accounting would be a much better choice for a new career.
JD
JD
You are better off to get an MBA as it can support your existing skills and experience should you want to go into corporate.
Apparently accounting is more fun than working in the oil industry apparently. So much fun that he is willing to have his salary cut by 2/3rds to do it!
Except those guys are usually not accountants, they are business/admin people with MBAs.
Except that to get into those programs you have to apply, and they expect you to already have be working for a few years in an administrative management role. Having eight years experience as a maintenance tradesman won't count.....the people selecting students from the applications will laugh their asses off when they see that.
What? It's impossible to become CFO of any half decent sized company without an accounting designation (otherwise steer clear of that company - their board are idiots ).
Sorry dude but it's too late for you to start over in accounting. Most accountants make far less than $100k and are glorified bookkeepers or tax preparers. The real money is in becoming a partner in a big 4 firm ( takes 20+ years ) and their business model is like a pyramid scheme ( hire tons of cheap young accounting grads - work them to death - bill them out high - and give them 8-10 years of training in the trenches in the bargain). If you don't become a partner, your accounting designation and 10 years of big 4 experience can get you a decent entry level ($80-90k) position in a company where you could become CFO someday. Vast majority of medium company cfo's make $150-$200k ... usually with some small equity upside.
That kind of payday is at minimum 15 years away for you. If you aspire to a mathematical career do the math: -$50k for school, -$80k in salary for 5 years, -$50k in salary for 10 years = $1 million investment to get a job that maybe pays 40% more than what you're already making? Doesn't add up. ( and accounting is fucking boring !!!)
My advice is to leverage what you've got. Equipment and plant maintenance ( particularly preventative maintenance strategies and life cycle breakdown analysis ) are growing areas in business given the cost of capex. It's also a specialized area of procurement and purchasing ( the number one way for a trades capable person to add value to a company's bottom line).
Talk to HR. Tell them you want to grow and be challenged. Look at potential work study programs like part time MBA ( or pursue a supply chain Management designation.) There are some very interesting jobs and careers in that field - some with big upsides based on your ability to extend the life of very expensive Plant and equipment , or help improve the bottom line and operations by buying the right equipment, at a better price , in the first place.
Those guys ( many of whom become consultants ) are worth their weight in gold.
( and don't give up on the O&G sector just yet. I've spent my career in it down here and it's far from done. ).
At 37 you're too expensive to hire for any entry level position. And employers will think you'll get bored soon and leave such a position.
You have university degree which at least means you can think critically and deal with other humans. Your experience is in construction. This lends itself well to becoming something like a Home inspection contractor. Once you get your certification you can write your own ticket and piggy back on the real estate industry. It's still an active physical job but not as demanding as actual construction.
I went the opposite direction - had a good office job driving a desk for a living, then gave it all up to do construction. Learned on the job, became a general contractor. That was 15 years ago and I'm still in the game.
CFO's don't do accounting, they manage the company's finances. That is completely different. They might have been accountants once, but it is not necessary. What they do need are skills and experience working with bankers/investors (or have experience as a banker or stockbroker) and business economics in general. People who come through IR or MBA routes will have that sort of experience and can function perfectly well as CFOs. A CFO deals with macroeconomics, not doing the companies books (that is something underlings do).
Do you honestly want to sit behind a crappy desk crunching numbers for someone else.
Why not forget working a job completely and instead open your own business.
Then you make yourself money if you work smart and hard to make it a success.
I never got any satisfaction making others rich. But being self employed is great!
So many work hard and for so little money.
Many business people would consider making 30k a bad month, yet lots of people make that per year.
Why not forget working a job completely and instead open your own business.
Then you make yourself money if you work smart and hard to make it a success.
I never got any satisfaction making others rich. But being self employed is great!
So many work hard and for so little money.
Many business people would consider making 30k a bad month, yet lots of people make that per year.
