u/Double-Star-Tedrick

Heya

I took a nontraditional path into accounting.

Originally went to school for art (yup), spent several years working low-wage food-service jobs, then went back to school (CC) at 29 because bookkeeping sounded like stable work I might actually be good at. A bookkeeping certificate turned into an associates, then eventually a bachelors in accounting, which I just finished two weeks ago. It took awhile because I basically never went under a full-time work schedule, except for 2020 ('cause Covid).

I'm 37 now.

For the last 4 years, I’ve worked at a very small (like 12 employees) public accounting firm doing bookkeeping (QuickBooks), sales tax, communicating with clients, payroll/tax notice stuff, and year-end workpapers / tax return prep for mostly small businesses (a LOT of restaurants). I helped this one guy apply for a Liquor License in another state, which was a doozie. Sometimes we have insurance or payroll audits, or interim financials they will need. The people are great and they have been incredibly flexible while I finished school, but the commute is now 45-60 minutes each way, the pay, while more than I've personally ever made before (52k) is still a very modest amount, and probably not enough to handle student loan repayment that'll probably be restarting in a few months, and most importantly, after several tax seasons I’ve confirmed I genuinely hate tax work, and don’t think it plays to my strengths, and that IS arguably 35-40% of the year, so ... so, yeah.

Right now when I meet people they're like "oh, you're an accountant?", and I say "well, I work in an Accounting office", 'cause I'm primarily a bookkeeping grunt, I'd say?

I've definitely, definitely learned a LOT about tax since being here, which, I mean, learning is great ... ... but having given it the ol' college try, I hate it kind of A LOT, and a lot of it just does not "make sense" to me, like the rest of Accounting generally does. I've seen a lot of people say it "clicks" for them after working on some returns, or after a few years, and I haven't really experienced that. Am I more comfortable navigating ProSystems now than I was in 2022? Sure. Does it also feel like I'm getting an augury reading from the village witch, when I put my inputs in? Also yes.

So now I’m at this crossroads, right, where I've finished the degree, and it's like the Plankton meme where he's like "I don't know. I didn't think I'd get this far." I don’t actually know what direction makes sense next, and I don't know anyone outside of this office to really discuss it with.

If relevant : "Are you gonna go for CPA?"

I feeeeeeeeel like it makes sense to do so, but realistically I'd probably have to take a year away from working and only do that. I'm aware that plenty of people (most, I think) finish the exams while working full-time and I respect that, but the very honest self-assessment is that I know I lack the discipline. I was basically dragging myself across the finish line to complete the Bachelors, this semester.

Thanks for reading.

Any input / thoughts appreciated.