Career advice and feedback for 40 yr old beginning Acct journey - Page 2

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  • #193422
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I’m just now looking to start my accounting journey and would appreciate anyone’s advice and feedback on my current plans…

    I completed an MBA in Finance from a non-ranked private school about four years ago, which my employer at the time helped to partially pay for. I did pretty good in my Finance courses, despite finding them challenging, and have never actually held a job in Finance.

    I got let go from my last job a few months ago and am contemplating a career change to accounting. My last job was in a sales-type of position and I made $93K, so I’m obviously looking at a severe pay cut here if I start over in accounting without experience. I’ve primarily worked in sales and fund raising in the past, but am getting burnt out and want to switch to a career that I can see myself doing in my 60s and 70s – since I’ve done a poor job of financial planning, I may very well have to work into my 70s. I’m tired of being stressed out all the time and want a career direction and self-improvement/education plan that will work for me now and in the long run.

    I could probably find another sales job in the next few months that pays close to what I was making before, but it would probably mean a much longer commute and more of the same stress and burn out that I’m trying to escape. Plus, I just feel like that becomes like spinning my wheels and doesn’t really take me in a positive direction where I learn and grow.

    I live in Pasadena, CA within walking distance of the South Lake financial district. Having lived in the greater Los Angeles area for a long time, I’ve come to despise commuting (I once had a 95-minute one way commute, which meant 3 hours and 10 minutes in my car every work day), so I’d love to find a job within walking distance. If I can’t find a job here in Pasadena, then the financial center in Glendale and the financial center in downtown Los Angeles are each only about a 30 minute drive, which is nothing by LA standards.

    I’ve considered trying to use my MBA in Finance to land an in-house corporate financial analyst job. There seem to be a few of those available in my city. It looks like I could make $70-$85K working about 50-60 hours a week. One of these employers may value my sales experience and be willing to pay on the higher side for this, especially if I’m part of a team that presents to potential investors or something like that. I’m a little rusty on my finance skills from class because I finished my MBA four years ago, and am worried that a financial analyst position like this might be too stressful and consuming, especially with the initial learning curve. Still, I’m seriously considering this option.

    And this leads me to accounting. I only need 22 credit hours in accounting to qualify for the CPA education requirements. Also, I’m looking to do the Devry University Masters of Science in Accounting degree which would only require me to take 24 credit hours in Accounting to get the degree since six credit hours from my MBA will transfer. So, by taking 24 credit hours at Devry, I kill two birds with one stone: I meet the educational requirements for CPA and I get another Masters degree out of the deal. I figure I can get all this done in about a year and four months, and then focus on passing the CPA exams for however long that ends up taking.

    With this educational plan in mind, I’d love to get an Accounting job working under a CPA so that I can go ahead and get my CPA experience requirement out of the way. The problem is, it looks like entry level accounting jobs pay crap. Most of what I see posted is either a GL/Assistant Accountant job that pays $40K or an Accounting Manager with 5 years experience and CPA required – there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground between the two out there for a guy with lots of lesser relevant work experience.

    I suppose I could try the downtown LA big four firms, but that means a little more commuting and very long hours and stress, which is what I’m looking to get away from. Plus, I’ll be taking classes while working (which is how I did the MBA in Finance) and a big four / school combo could mean major burn out, even if it’s only for a year or so. Overall, I think I would have mixed feelings with a big four. I’ve had Fortune 500 firm experience and have also worked for other big time organizations, so the prestige of Big Four in itself doesn’t have an extra appeal for me.

    What draws me to accounting over finance is the stability and long term outlook. I like that 75% of CPAs are over the age of 50, which could create an opening for me to rise to management levels much quicker, perhaps based partly on all my previous work experience (even though it wasn’t in accounting, some of it was in management and leadership positions).

    Finance, on the other hands, seems very competitive and crowded. Also, I’m not super strong quantitatively, and feel I might just get lost in mediocrity in this field. But with Accounting, I feel like I could, over time, bring leadership, management, and client service skills to the table.

    One other side note… In my 20s, I got certified from Microsoft as a Network Engineer, but only did that for about 2 1/2 years. I haven’t done anything IT related since, but I can legitimately say that I’ve had serious IT experience. I mention this, because I wouldn’t mind getting another masters degree in Information Systems when I’m done with my CPA classes and exams, if it would help me advance in an accounting career… I’ve read that CPA/IT is a strong combination.

    I would really like to get an Accounting job in the next few months. I don’t really want to go below $70K, but I may have no choice. I’d love to get $80K, but I don’t know how realistic that is.

    I suppose I could get a financial analyst job for possibly $80K and if I were reporting to a CPA, they might be willing to attest for my experience requirement… but I think that’s all a long shot…

    I think finance seems a little more interesting than accounting in theory, but I just see many more benefits to accounting, especially if I can figure out how to break in without taking too harsh of a pay cut.

    Having had extensive sales experience, I tend to interview pretty well. I’m willing to do the hard work in this job search, and would appreciate any advice and feedback on what I’m attempting to do…

    TLDR: Any advice for a 40 yr. old with an MBA in Finance with no finance or accounting experience, but with sales experience and a little bit of IT experience on pursuing accounting jobs (which doing an MS in Accounting) or possibly a financial analyst job?

Viewing 3 replies - 16 through 18 (of 18 total)
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  • #662976
    Last Chance CPA
    Participant

    @dumbgenius – I keep hearing that Big 4 is the only chance for folks like us. I keep getting pigeonholed into IT consulting gigs, so I may even try to go back to the Big 4s as such, and then make a switch in practices. I know that switching from advisory to audit or tax is very difficult though.

    @billbraskey – I think our salaries might come in higher, don't you think? I was able to come in as a senior associate back in 2012 at one of the Big 4s, and was able to make six figures. Of course, I had 8 years of IT consulting experience. I can't imagine that they wouldn't look at our years of experience, and along with a freshly minted CPA, and give us solid offers of $80-100K plus bonuses.

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    Now I need some experience!!! And some networking...

    #662977
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @billbrasskey: Yes, I have generally found nine-figure net worths to be nice, appreciative, and grateful for my perspective; seven figure net worths in my experience tend to be all over the map including many jerks and psychopaths, although some of them are very nice too…

    The reality of the pay cut I'd take with this career move is really starting to sink in, BTW… I get that I could advance pay-wise to decent levels over a 2-3 year time period, but the short term pay cut may be too difficult for me to withstand. It's something I'm going to have to deeply think about. I suppose if I'm willing to put in 2-5 years of hustle and lower pay at a Big Four, then the rest of my career goals should fall into place.

    @LastChanceCPA: No apologies necessary. We're on this journey together. 🙂

    I suppose I might make more money if I joined Big Four on the consulting/advisory side, but audit and tax seem to be good career tracks. For example, if I learned tax, that might eventually combine well with my MBA in Finance, since all financial investments and decisions carry some kind of tax ramification… On the other hand, it seems to me that solid audit experience could lead to a controller/CFO career track, and I like the idea of going into senior management. So I agree, audit and tax tracks have a lot of appeal… for me, I would probably lean toward tax.

    From a salary standpoint, I may have to go back my previous sales-type field one more time. Depending on what type of jobs are available and interested in me, I'd probably make $80K-$95K. I'd take the accounting courses and eventually the CPA exams while working this job, so that when I do enter a Big Four, I'm further along in my Accounting knowledge, which will hopefully justify a higher starting salary.

    Having to split my mental focus between my job and the accounting study will be tough, plus I'm probably looking at another long commute, but this is probably my best strategy and the one with the least financial pain. I'd love to get started with an accounting job sooner so that my studies would feel a little more immersive, but the money probably just isn't there right now.

    I'm going to start aggressively pursuing positions in the next two to three months. I'll probably apply for stuff in my current field, financial analyst positions, and accounting just to see what bites, but I'm probably looking at my current field again while studying accounting. In the meantime, I think I'm going to go ahead and get this Masters of Accounting coursework set up so that I can hopefully start in May and make some serious progress while I'm not working.

    I still think accounting makes the most sense for me in the long term. It seems to me that accounting is tough to beat from a long term security point of view… I just can't see myself doing sales or finance when I'm in my mid to late 60s or early 70s, but accounting seems like a safe bet compared to my other options.

    #662978
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Based on all the feedback I've gotten on this thread and my own research that I've done, I have an update to give on where my focus is now in case anyone would find it of interest.

    I'm going to take the next two months to brush up on my corporate finance skills (modeling, variance, excel, etc.) and then shoot for a Financial Analyst job in an FP&A department, hopefully within walking distance of where I live in Pasadena or a 30-40 min commute to Downtown LA or Glendale. My goal is to land something at $80K+, which wouldn't be as harsh a pay cut from my last salary of $93K. I'm hoping that my previous high level sales experience will help me get $80K+ since so much of FP&A appears to be influence (of internal executives) as much as it is actual analysis. Maybe I'll only get $65K-$70K, but I'm going to aim for $80K+. I must have a job by early November, so I'll stagger my approach accordingly in the coming months. I'll probably avoid Big Four for now, because it looks like the starting salary would be too low.

    I'm also going to selectively apply for a few positions in my previous sales-type field, but my area was so specialized that there aren't many jobs in that niche available and all would likely entail a long commute (90 min one way) with a draining lifestyle, which would leave little energy left for grad school. But I'll apply anyway to keep my options open.

    I'm looking to start my remaining courses in Accounting in about two months, regardless of what I job I end up getting. I have eight courses that I need to complete and then I'll study for the CPA exams. This whole process might take me about two years to complete, would give me an MS in Accounting (to complement my MBA in Finance), and if I'm lucky, I'll get to report to a FP&A Director who has his CPA so that my experience requirement can be fulfilled right away. If I have any energy after all this, I may do a Masters of Information Systems (I was previously a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) over the following two years. This would give me two more masters degrees and a CPA by the time I'm 44.

    I think my overall career will probably entail climbing the FP&A ladder hopefully to Finance Director, Treasury, or if I'm really lucky, CFO. I figure the higher I get, the more my previous experience in sales and IT will be valued. This is why I'm willing to invest time and money in two more masters degrees at my age of 40 with the hope of pushing me up the corporate ladder as quickly as I can go. If I get stuck in FP&A forever, at least I can say I tried, and it doesn't appear to be that bad of field anyway work wise and pay wise.

    The MIS degree probably won't be as hard for me to get compared to the other two masters, given my background. Plus, it's potential career pivoting, in case I want to make a play for Director of IT or CIO down the line… I think it gives me more options, clout, and career differentiation, and therefore I think it will probably be worth the time and money to get.

    By the time I'm in my mid-60s, I'll probably move back down the corporate ladder to reduce stress and maybe settle into an 8-5 Accounting position and look to ride it out into my 70s as I unwind into retirement.

Viewing 3 replies - 16 through 18 (of 18 total)
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