<p>I’m making a mid-life career change, and after a lengthy process of figuring out what fits me and my personality type, and what I am looking for, I’ve pretty much decided on accounting. The reasons I’m drawn to this field is because I am detail-oriented, organized, precise, dependable, thorough, like working with numbers (although I don’t really consider myself a math whiz), want to work in a quiet office environment, and enjoy working on projects. I’m introverted and prefer to work alone or with a few other people. Accounting or auditing seems to fit.</p>
<p>I have a bachelors degree in business (HR Management) from ages ago, so I plan to go back to school to get a post-baccalaureate in accounting, then study for the CPA exam.</p>
<p>Accountants/auditors:
How do you like your job? Can you tell me the good things and bad things about it?</p>
<p>Acounting is a field that opens you up to many options - corporate accounting or finance department (field I originally took, then moved into investment management) or staying public route and working with either small companies or individuals, which will require good grasp of taxes. Taxes are constantly changing, so you need to keep up with it. </p>
<p>Given you are looking doing a mid-life career change, the typical large firms will probably not consider you, so you will look at smaller local firms, which would require a great deal of client interaction, which does not sync with your preferred route of project management. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what the job market looks like where you live if there are companies looking for people who will stay in the background. If you want to try it out, maybe look for a bookkeeping job that doesn’t require a degree.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is the cyclical nature of this field. There are “busy times” during which you will almost certainly need to plan on working overtime, and usually, lots of it. For me (corporate consolidation & reporting), it is the during the month following quarter end. In a tax based environment, it is during filing season. In audit, it is following the financial close. Depending on the nature of your role, it may be earlier or later…but you can’t get away from it.</p>
<p>Lots of CPAs I know in private accounting/industry have very regular hours that are fairly consistent throughout the year. As Justamom notes, many industries have busier times, but I don’t think the workload compression is anything near that of public accounting. I’ve been doing this 25 years and tax season is just flat out nasty. I love working with and seeing my clients, most of whom are very long-term. However, there is a suffocating amount of work to do in a short time period. The upside, esp. since I live in the midwest, is that public accounting summers are much easier going (thus able to take more time off) and tax season makes disgusting February go by much more quickly.</p>
<p>As noted above, there are many various routes one can take with a CPA license, or accounting jobs in general. I do think the skills OP listed jive well with accounting, although some accounting careers involve much more people contact than the general public assumes. The CPA unemployment rate in my state is 3%, which is waaaay lower than the regular rate in my rust-belt, used to be manufacturing state.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. It hadn’t occurred to me that I might be subject to age discrimination. I’m only 44, still a baby! And I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t like working with people; I get along well with most everyone and can communicate effectively, but I am not an outgoing person (for example, would never consider sales as an occupation).</p>
<p>I’d check carefully into the requirements for obtaining a CPA in your state. I’m not up to date on this, but I think that the total educational credits requirements have been raised over the past 10 or 15 years, and are now quite substantial in some cases. Many professions, accounting included, seem to be raising the bar so that just passing the exams isn’t as available to people as it once was.</p>
<p>Here is the thread I started on a similar topic from late August. I still might consider the same career change, but I learned alot from this discussion:</p>
<p>I am focusing more on getting a position in IT Audit now, and a fraud examiner certification, but I found all of the feedback very helpful from that thread. I will probably pursue a masters, not more undergraduate classes in accounting and a CPA.</p>
<p>Thanks for bringing up your old thread, pumpkin. I had not seen that one. There’s a lot to think about here.</p>
<p>My problem is that I do not want to stay in my current field (medical laboratory science), and in order to do something completely different, I need additional education or training. It didn’t cross my mind that my age would be a hindrance.</p>
<p>Risk management and fraud detection is a good field that would not lock you into the crazy year-end or April 15 deadlines. Much of the skills are similar to accounting and your science/research background would be a plus. I would speak with someone in that on what the best path to that career would be.</p>
<p>We have hired quite a few accountants and the ones who stay and have worked out have been 40+ years old, so IMO, your age should be a plus, not a negative. Stability and life experience count for a lot, especially since most of my interaction with our accountant requires that person to “translate” accounting concepts into English. I took basic accounting, but I still sometimes find it difficult to understand journal entries. Our current accountant (and English is not her first language) can explain it to me. Good luck!</p>
<p>The post upthread that mentioned age discrimination was referring to being hired at one of the Big 4 or very large accounting firms. For the most part, they like to hire newly minted, young college graduates. Then they work them to death. Most of them leave those firms within a few years. I don’t think your age will be a big factor. As Class of 2015 mentioned, firms and corporations need stable, responsible, non-job hopping adults.</p>
<p>Almost all states now require 150 college credits to sit for the CPA exam. Mine, and I think most, do NOT require a Master’s. They do require x amount of core accounting/business law hours (approx 30). The undergrad does not have to be in acct (again, my state, but most are similar), as long as you have the necessary acct courses. The extra 30 hours above the BS can be in underwater diving, basketweaving, yoga. I don’t believe this rule has made better CPAs exactly for this reason; but it has made younger CPAs have more educational debt and invest a 5th yr in their undergrad.</p>
<p>Fraud detection/risk management are two of the biggest/hottest areas in accounting/auditing now. Skills/certification in that area would be a huge plus in the career.</p>
<p>I have checked into it and will have more than enough required accounting/business credit hours to sit for the CPA exam when I’m done with the post-bac program.</p>
<p>Good idea to look into fraud detection or forensic accounting. That would be a very interesting field. I really have no desire to work for a “Big 4” accounting firm anyway. I was hoping to work as an accountant or auditor for a health care organization or medium-to-large company which produces goods/services.</p>
And I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t like working with people; I get along well with most everyone and can communicate effectively, but I am not an outgoing person (for example, would never consider sales as an occupation).</p>