[Jazzy87]

Yes corporate accountants suffer from burnout as well lol. I will keep my story short. Moved from my hometown I was a corporate accountant doing a variety of positions for this company for about 4 years. They wanted to keep me so I got to work from home and commute twice a week (2 hours each way) but only doing A/R, Revenue etc. I decided to leave to get a job closer to home. They didn’t want me to leave so I moved to be a financial analyst still commuting twice a week. But I’m tired and burnt out. I was thinking of just leaving and staying home to knock my exams out? I’m studying for FAR now. I don’t have a time limit of when I have to go back to work but feel like If I’m out too long it will look bad on my resume? I don’t have any public accounting experience so I was hoping to jump in as an intern or seasonal to get my feet wet and see if I like it.

Any thoughts?

[Jimmy Dugan]

I had a commute of an hour and 15 minutes each way, for something around 10 years. I was doing work I hated and felt the same way as you re: being burned out. I decided to quit and get a masters in accounting. I was unemployed for around 8 months and finally couldn't take it anymore, so went back to work with a local public firm even though that's not the job I wanted. I ended up with a good gig at a private company, but I won't sugar coat it, that gap on your resume is tough to overcome. Beyond that, so much of our self-worth (at least for me and I think most people) is tied to what we do for a living, for better or worse. When the answer to that becomes “nothing”, you start feeling a little down on yourself and people absolutely do look at you differently than when you are working. If I had it to do over again, I would have hung in there and found something in accounting closer to home. I know your drive sucks but it's only 2 days a week. Not ideal but since you already have accounting experience, you can probably find something closer in no time.

[DM]

There is nothing wrong with taking a gap year or unpaid leave. I suggest working with your current firm and see if they will support an unpaid leave of three to six months. That way you get to keep your position, take time away from work and start the CPA exams.

[Jazzy87]

Thank you both for the advice!

[Author]

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