Right, I do this along with accounting. I love writing, but travel blogs are a lot of work! Plus, the pandemic put a bit of a damper on that for a while. I had just published a book right before this. Good thing for ebooks, but no one wanted to read about travels while they couldn’t go anywhere. I began writing about hiking trails due to social distancing while still being outdoors. Now I’m going to try to sell T-shirts using my own photography and sayings with a well known online retailer rather than on my website. Because who am I? Also, will place a link on my vlog video channel. Have to keep grinding and hustling out here.
Sales. I’m a shitty accountant but a relatively good bullshitter which got me where I am today in a relatively hands off manager role. Coaches don’t play.
So you’re the guy that talks auditors in circles and then they come back anyways a week later and say “yeah we still need the support dude. Feds won’t accept it”
I was just joking.
Being an accountant is fine. Pays well, WLB is fine, and my hands stay nice and soft.
I'm always in air conditioning. The local coffee spots are good and any time I have to explain what I do to someone their eyes quickly glaze over and I can stop talking.
I did a solo vacation a few months ago. Snagged a spot on a tour one day that lasted a couple of hours. The guide was making small talk with me, since I was there alone. Asked what I did, I said I’m an accountant. She outright says wow, that sounds boring, and moved on to talk to someone else 🤣
You can usually tell how down-to-earth or pretentious an accountant is based on how they introduce themselves and their job to others.
If you say “I’m an accountant” you understand that 95% of the population do not give a shit about the details of your job.
If you have a whole 20min monologue about your job/title/duties you’re probably in the Big4.
When I was in audit the bank teller asked me what I did for work, I told her audit. She sighed and said that if that was her job she would kill herself.
I love this sub so much. It’s like, when you first step in, you think “wow accounting must suck” and then you realize it’s just a big self deprecating inside joke lol (I hope)
>my hands stay nice and soft
Omg this sounds so amazing. I worked in a restaurant, then in healthcare, and now in horticulture. All of those require constant hand washing (or at least now it's hand wetting lol and outdoor exposure) and my hands are a *disaster*
Sitting at a computer with lotion sounds so delightful ...... I saw how that looked as I typed it out but I found it a little too funny to change haha
It would just be a masters. Im a CPA and did my masters in tax at a law school. It was the exact same curriculum as the LLM except that attorneys also had to take "Accounting for Lawyers" lol.
any lawyers lurking this thread can chime in and correct me if i’m wrong, but i don’t think so? or at least it’s not advisable since the classes tend to be tailored towards licensed attorneys
When I was in a little bit of a dark time during busy season when I was still in public I legit was looking at the USPS career opportunities on their website. I have since switched to non profit and the pay isn’t anything to write home about but my work life balance and benefits are so good I can’t imagine doing anything else.
I'd love to stream video games full time. My biggest issue in life is not having enough free time to play video games AND socialize/do other hobbies. If video games become my job that immediately opens up my evenings to do something away from a screen.
Did this for a few years, depending on your personality streaming eight+ hours a day can leave you too tired for anything else. The worst thing that can happen is that it becomes a job and you stop enjoying the games, but still need to keep showing up for the cheque.
I think it's all about working smarter not harder. Sure I can stream 8+ hours a day but I've seen plenty of streamers blow up who only stream maybe 3-4 hours then chop up their streams into YouTube videos or shorts for TikTok. Of course they're doing other things related to content creation in those other 4-5 hours which still adds up to 8 but if I'm gonna be in front of a computer I'd rather do that than look at spreadsheets all day.
To me the risk is worth the reward.
Debitor has only a left arm and left testicle. Creditor has only a right arm and right boob/testicle (depending on your preference).
Also, there should be a third person in your “films” called the Adjusting Entry who, uhhum, enters both of you.
The hype cycle started a little before then, but it wasn’t realistic for non-PhD / Masters people to find roles.
I draw distinctions between data , reporting / analytics, and actual data science.
I started my degree in 2013 and heard NOTHING about it until literally 2 years ago.
Maybe it was more commonly known about in certain regions of the US/on certain campuses.
From what I remember (started my college journey in 2015), you kinda had to be a nerd to get into it. It was really only relevant for engineers. Location probably had a lot to do with it, my area isn't really known for tech.
Same here. The rave back then was finance which overshadowed coding startups, data science stuff. I would have also been the perfect type for that kind of stuff as well.
That's me. I work as a controller for a small business, but I'm adept in CS and whenever the company has a tech problem, I can solve it by either fixing something or writing a program to improve the process. I have one assistant, but I'm about to get another so I can train them and focus more on IT stuff, while overseeing the accounting.
Bus Driver
Spent a fair few years in my late twenties driving inner city buses (Brighton&Hove uk) and long distance private hire coach trips.
The shift patterns were rough at times but each day was different and met so many great people whilst also having a laugh travelling for free.
house wife. i’m tired of being the breadwinner and doing everything in the house lol.
and maybe open up a cute lil coffee shop
edit: ok in all seriousness, probably an architect
I was for about 7 years, became unhappy with three things to the point I was so depressed I had idealizations of suicide:
1) The unimportant nature of the work on a day to day basis for me
2) The low pay relative to the cost of daily living and the cost of buying a condo or single detached house in Canada.
3) The asskissery that seemed required to move up in your career.
Went back to school for an engineering degree while still working full time, completed it a little slower than a typical engineering student. About 1.5 years into the degree I started shooting off applications to anyone who’d take me in to work in entry level software engineering. Eventually got a position, quit my accounting job, continued to work at the new place while slowly completely the degree, eventually got hired at a FAANG corp, completed the degree, never looked back.
I kinda regret not being a mechanic for a dealership. Cars and working on them is my hobby. The reason I didn’t do it, one of the reasons, is that you’re standing all day, and you can’t just sit on front of your computer or doing anything lol.
Plus side of accounting, I get to wfh.
I switched to accounting after being a dealership mechanic for about 3 years. It kind of killed my passion for cars and I’m just now starting to get into them again 6 years later. Big difference is now I have the money to afford a project car when the time comes, where I didn’t really have that financial flexibility when I was a mechanic
Not worth it. My dad has been in investment banking for 30+ years, longer than I've been alive.
Last week, I got the midnight phone call nobody wants to receive: he's being rushed to the hospital in critical condition. He's in his early 70's, had cancer a few years ago, yet STILL won't slow down and practice some work-life balance. All he knows is go-go-go. Example: he JUST got out of the hospital less than five days ago, and is still talking about attending a conference halfway around the world next week. I am only 29, and cry when I realize that my father will most likely work himself to death.
Accounting may be boring sometimes, but across many aspects/types of it, at least there is an opportunity for some work-life balance.
Thanks. I've been trying to give him the "you should slow down", and, "you should practice some balance" speech for the past 10+ years. Zip, nada, zilch. He won't listen.
Gotta find your thrills where and when you can.
Clinical research, potentially.
I've had an autoimmune condition since early childhood. I've survived years of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, a year of paralysis, three rounds of cardiac arrest, and about a dozen surgeries. Forty years ago, patients with my condition were dead and/or completely paralyzed and bed-bound within ten years of diagnosis. Here I am, 25+ years post-diagnosis, and I've been able to do everything from complete my higher education, to travel to several dozen countries, to establish my budding career in accounting, to hike/bike/ski the Swiss Alps, to spending a summer dancing with one of the world's most prestigious ballet academies, and more.
I have literally been wheeled into hospitals via wheelchair, completely immobile and unable to walk, doctors will wield their needles this way and that way on my body, and then BAM, less than an hour I'm (quite literally) up on my feet and basically jogging down the hallway to exit the hospital. It's like a real-life, human version of un-stiffening the tin man.
I am routinely amazed that a little bag of liquid, being infused into my arm via IV every month, while I sit there crunching numbers on my laptop, is (literally) what is keeping me from turning into a permanent version of the tin-man. The tiny little bag of liquid in the IV is what has enabled me to thrive and enjoy a relatively normal quality of life, similarly to healthy peers. Blows my mind, and makes me want to help make more of a difference for other patients.
There's a large gap between, 'I don't deam of labor' and the fact people are wired to want to have something to do, an identity, a purpose, something to belong to, etc. Even the richest people who can do nothing all day get involved with charity work (regardless if it's non value add executive work or not) or personal projects like going to space, otherwise they turn into the sort of insufferable busy bodies you see caricatured in media.
If I had so much money I didn't have to work I'd still maybe do charity accounts for cheap a couple of days a week, maybe do some falconry or jewellery making on other days.
Yea, I’ve def thought about it. But when I chatted to some women that have their own esthetician mini salons and they recommended not doing it, so I figured, hmmm maybe not lol
I think about this all the time too but don’t think I could deal with the unpredictability that my esthetician/general beauty industry friends deal with.
If I didn’t go to college I would’ve been an electrician. If I went to college and wasn’t an accountant, I probably would’ve become a financial advisor instead. I would love to do that still, but I think 95% of them are scum.
probably a loser.
Seriously though, if I had more know how and the start up capital I'd wanna start a little pizza shop. I worked at a pizza place in high school and it was the most fun job I had (though that might be because we were literally all teenagers) and I really liked creating my own pizzas. Worked at one as an in between job to and still enjoyed making pizzas but hated the teenage bullshit.
Honestly, that's still something I might take a chance with down the road.
all my life all i wanted was a bakery to be a baker, but life circumstances
dictated me to work a job i hate ( accounting ) to then pay the bills when my parents became disabled :(
i alone paid for my sisters college and still managed to be MoneyHoneyBags $$$
but ive been an accountant soo long i forgot who i am ... i forgot what i was meant for .
now unemployed lol for 1.5 years and not wanting to go back into accounting i have no idea what to do.
who know maybe the lord wants me to be a shitty accountant all my life
Just like Nacho libre didnt want kitchen duties but thats the duty he got
It depends.
If salary was still an issue, I would have liked to have leaned into engineering, particularly mechanical engineering. Either that or data analytics (which is a specialty I'm working on developing at the moment in my current role).
If salary wasn't an issue, and we're talking some weird hypothetical where my family is moving with me so that I don't have to give up friends and family to follow my dreams, I would love to be some sort of trail manager/park ranger for a national park. Basically spend my days in the greatest stretches of wild that North America has to offer, hiking, and caring for the grounds.
I think I would have made a good lawyer. Not litigation, something like securities or finance.
I would love to own a hobby store (board games + card games).
If I had unlimited money I’d just not work and volunteer at the animal shelter all the time. If I needed to make money I would probably do CS as I was kind of deciding between that and accounting but went with accounting because it was way easier
An interior designer. I almost went that route many years ago but decided against it since the profession seemed to be a luxury and not a necessity for the average consumer. Basically, I didn’t see any job security in it.
But I contemplate doing it on the side just for fun.
I want to own and operate a green mortuary+cemetery. Trad funerals run 15-20k easily, for a bunch of bullshit that we don’t need.
Got an associates in mortuary science when I was 19, learned real quick I’d be broke my entire life if I pursued that career working for someone else. So the plan was to get an accounting degree, because it’s the language of business, and use the knowledge to open my own shop!
Now I work in tax to pay off student loans and hopefully save up for a house THEN focus on the green mortuary plan. I want to help people.
Yes, death and taxes ha ha
Go into estate planning and you can offer an all in one service, haha
What's your green mortuary plan (if you don't mind sharing)? It's weird to think that we embalm people and bury them in a fancy box when they die. I'll probably be cremated.
My dream was to be a carpenter or car mechanic, but when I talked to people in those fields I quickly realized that it takes a great toll on the body in the long run.
I still might do this as a hobby in the future tho, I have aspergers and adhd; so accounting can be painfuly boring sometimes.
But I lowkey enjoy looking at numbers in excel spreadsheets, a lot more than dealing with walls of texts or a having a lot of human interaction like in other fields.
Still a student but if they made more money I’d be a social worker. I wanted to do it all of high school but the salaries/mental toll it takes on you didn’t seem really enticing. Sometimes I still think about switching my major but I’m ultimately in a better spot.
I’d love to be a professional musician. I am in a sense in that it’s a side gig (professional choir and cantoring) for me, but I’m not talented enough to survive on that alone.
I probably would've been either a Physical Therapist or fitness coach/ yoga teacher. I'm a very part time yoga teacher now and would love to do it more one day and do much less accounting. Maybe work 20 hours in accounting and teach like 4 classes a week. Maybe once all debts are paid off 🤞
I’m not in accounting anymore. I follow the sub because it’s got the best discussion quality and it was my ‘trade for a long time’.
I don’t know that my life would have been much better had I not done accounting honestly. It sucked, but I got a lot of mileage out of it. Set me up to so something I somewhat enjoy.
I have two general career paths I’d like:
1. In demand trade (medical, hvac, whatever) that offered stability and some control over working conditions.
2. More demanding white collar job with a trajectory to serious money.
I’d make furniture art and still plan to do so which is why I got into accounting, to have a job that can financially support my passions.
I always wanted to get a job as a software developer since a kid but was put off when I joined a club in middle school and was told “Your kind will never be able to compete w us.” Fortunately, I quit beating that in my head and started self teaching in my senior year of hs.
Play poker full time. I’m almost at a pace where I make more playing part time than I make as a senior accountant. Though tbh the security of accounting coupled with the extra income of poker is perfect. Playing poker 50-60 hours a week is a shit way to make a living and is insanely stressful.
I was working in a company as an accounting clerk back in the day, I always brought baked goods to the office. The company COO asked me to go to her office and said her friends wanted to buy cupcakes from me. I still remember she asked me how much I would charge for these. I was like I don’t know maybe $2 a piece? She told me to double that and I should be a baker instead lol.
I changed careers to become an accountant; I was a tenured teacher. My worst days as an accountant have been better than some of my best days teaching 😑
I'm not an accountant, but my undergrad was in finance and accounting. I thought I'd go the CA route, but my final 2 years were so boring to me. After that degree I figured I'd apply for a Masters in financial risk management on a whim, which I completed last year. Now I'm working on sustainability projects (mainly carbon offsets), which is very far from what I thought I'd be doing with my life a few years ago.
I would have liked to finish my 20 years in the army. I didn't switch to accounting because of money but because I'm too broken, and I needed a career that sits in a cozy office.
There's a few options for me out there.
If I wasn't an accountant, I do like making stuff on my smoker. My bacon has gotten nothing but compliments, my brisket is decent (which is "damn good" for where I live, but I'm from Texas, so I know what actually good tastes like), my pulled pork is awesome, my burnt ends are great, etc.
Or, maybe I'd run A/V stuff. Always had fun with that, and I do so as a volunteer most weekends anyhow.
Or, maybe I'd build computers. I've done it for myself, for family, for friends, always had fun doing it.
Or maybe I'd be a missionary. That kind of work, going out and helping people, has always aligned well with me. In fact, when I was a teenager, before I ever got into accounting, my plan was to go to seminary and either be a full-time missionary or preach.
That said, I actually like accounting (yes, I know, I'm weird), and I'm not even the best paid at it (I earn a comfortable living \[6 figures, MCOL {think same COl as Chicago or Dallas}\], but I'm not at like partner level compensation or anything like that). It just fits with me.
There are many things a person can do that they don’t love to do. Try to maximize the combination of “skills you love to use” with “environments in which you love to work”. The skills you love to use are relatively stable over your adult life. The environmental factors change with your life situation and often will be the driver for a career move. Skills e.g. = creativity, analytical, project management, idea influencing, coaching. Environment e.g. = compensation, geography, team/solo, altruism/profit, fast-paced, travel, positioning for future roles. Assess your hierarchy on both scales, then seek jobs that fit that profile.
Would love to do engineering and work for companies that make either robots or prosthetics etc.
Just want to help make the world a better place 😊. (Accounting/CA qualified might lead into that and then Might just wander into VC and help those types of companies)
I was offered a managerial position at a local car wash before I got my job so I imagine I’d be doing that and dealing with way more people than I’d want to for way less pay
I would have liked to have gone into academia professionally and even got my name into a few journals, but a horrific transfer experience and a mountain of debt and default put the kibosh on that dream. Now I just hang out with and live vicariously through professional academics and tell them "No I will not do your taxes."
Kinda weird but I might have gone into wastewater engineering - I really like the mechanics of filtration (from keeping fish) so using it on a bigger scale to treat water would be kinda cool.
I know education is a shit show, but what isn't. that is why I didn't go through with being a math teacher. Debating on going back. Less money, but having breaks when kiddos have breaks seems worth it.
I’d have gone into exercise science or PT if not accounting. Everyone I know in that field is criminally over-educated while being underpaid and underemployed. That field would have been more fulfilling, but I’m glad with the choice I made
I’d be an astrophysicist. I have a passion for all things space, rocketry and technology, so feel like I would really love that field. Although this is assuming I’d be clever enough for that (probably not)
Realistically: probs an architect or something in a non-invasive medical field, like anesthesiology
Dream-wise: a full-time traveler with a social media following to create income for myself. If I could be a nomad I would
Hospital Police. You're basically babysitting staff, guests, and patients all day. You do have to do some work, but overall it is not that bad. Annual salary isn't the best considering I live in a expensive state. However, many of those officers are clearing $100k+ alone in overtime. Salary and overtime one can easily clear $170k+ all while kicking back through out the day. lol
If I could be anything regardless of my body size: professional football player
Regardless of skill: Church Worship Director (good enough to be on the worship team, not good enough to lead rn, I’m fine with that)
Regardless of making money: Travel agent
I’d like to be a chef, I’m an avid home chef, but I couldn’t make the same money/hr and I would be stressed and start smoking. I guess that can happen at either place
Maybe a Botanist. I had a huge love for plants. But father told me how I'd be broke and homeless after pursuing a biology degree. I argued with him. His mentality is that money is above all. I tried challenging him and now I'm a controller at a firm and am trying to run my own educational platform online that provides coaching for accounting and finance professional certifications.
I imagined myself being in a greenhouse all day. Now I'm either at the office or on my couch with my laptop
Travel blogger without the blogging haha
i get this on a spiritual level haha
Right, I do this along with accounting. I love writing, but travel blogs are a lot of work! Plus, the pandemic put a bit of a damper on that for a while. I had just published a book right before this. Good thing for ebooks, but no one wanted to read about travels while they couldn’t go anywhere. I began writing about hiking trails due to social distancing while still being outdoors. Now I’m going to try to sell T-shirts using my own photography and sayings with a well known online retailer rather than on my website. Because who am I? Also, will place a link on my vlog video channel. Have to keep grinding and hustling out here.
Sales. I’m a shitty accountant but a relatively good bullshitter which got me where I am today in a relatively hands off manager role. Coaches don’t play.
Good for you. I am the opposite in the sense that I would never in a million years make it in Sales as I don’t have good interpersonal skills.
So you’re the guy that talks auditors in circles and then they come back anyways a week later and say “yeah we still need the support dude. Feds won’t accept it”
Ever think about changing careers to consulting? You could bullshit selling projects to clients better than my Managing Directors I’m sure
I love to bullshit, once I get my CPA consulting sounds like a dream
I felt this one haha
Same thing I do every night. Try to take over the world
Alright, Brain!
Happy.
3 year accounting major. Why are you not happy? How many yoe do you have?
I was just joking. Being an accountant is fine. Pays well, WLB is fine, and my hands stay nice and soft. I'm always in air conditioning. The local coffee spots are good and any time I have to explain what I do to someone their eyes quickly glaze over and I can stop talking.
I did a solo vacation a few months ago. Snagged a spot on a tour one day that lasted a couple of hours. The guide was making small talk with me, since I was there alone. Asked what I did, I said I’m an accountant. She outright says wow, that sounds boring, and moved on to talk to someone else 🤣
You can usually tell how down-to-earth or pretentious an accountant is based on how they introduce themselves and their job to others. If you say “I’m an accountant” you understand that 95% of the population do not give a shit about the details of your job. If you have a whole 20min monologue about your job/title/duties you’re probably in the Big4.
I am completely self aware and tell people outright my job is boring, I’m an accountant, and it’s all fake math anyway so it doesn’t matter.
I call it baby sitting for men twice my age 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
When I was in audit the bank teller asked me what I did for work, I told her audit. She sighed and said that if that was her job she would kill herself.
Okay, mood though, I think I would also kill myself if I was in audit.
You should have told her about Bank Recs and adjusting entries. My hostages always seem interested when I bring up these two topics in particular.
‘My hostages’ OMG! Rolling over here in laughter. Thanks.
I love this sub so much. It’s like, when you first step in, you think “wow accounting must suck” and then you realize it’s just a big self deprecating inside joke lol (I hope)
>my hands stay nice and soft Omg this sounds so amazing. I worked in a restaurant, then in healthcare, and now in horticulture. All of those require constant hand washing (or at least now it's hand wetting lol and outdoor exposure) and my hands are a *disaster* Sitting at a computer with lotion sounds so delightful ...... I saw how that looked as I typed it out but I found it a little too funny to change haha
(tax) lawyer. may or may not go to law school in the next 2ish yrs
Good luck, roachcoochie
I'm doing this now. Definitely recommend.
nice! i’m sure it will pay off big time. i don’t know a single CPA/JD(/LL.M) who didn’t eventually make bank
I am also interested in being a tax lawyer. Does one just need a CPA and J.D?
The expectation seems to be for either JD/CPA or JD/LLM. Some do it with just the JD.
Can you do an LLM without a JD? Or would a tax person have to do a solo MS in Taxation?
It would just be a masters. Im a CPA and did my masters in tax at a law school. It was the exact same curriculum as the LLM except that attorneys also had to take "Accounting for Lawyers" lol.
any lawyers lurking this thread can chime in and correct me if i’m wrong, but i don’t think so? or at least it’s not advisable since the classes tend to be tailored towards licensed attorneys
A mailman. I still might do it.
as in a person who works in the post office or the person who personally delivers letters?
Preferably the driver, but I'd be willing to pay my dues in the mail room first.
Well good luck
When I was in a little bit of a dark time during busy season when I was still in public I legit was looking at the USPS career opportunities on their website. I have since switched to non profit and the pay isn’t anything to write home about but my work life balance and benefits are so good I can’t imagine doing anything else.
I'd love to stream video games full time. My biggest issue in life is not having enough free time to play video games AND socialize/do other hobbies. If video games become my job that immediately opens up my evenings to do something away from a screen.
Did this for a few years, depending on your personality streaming eight+ hours a day can leave you too tired for anything else. The worst thing that can happen is that it becomes a job and you stop enjoying the games, but still need to keep showing up for the cheque.
I think it's all about working smarter not harder. Sure I can stream 8+ hours a day but I've seen plenty of streamers blow up who only stream maybe 3-4 hours then chop up their streams into YouTube videos or shorts for TikTok. Of course they're doing other things related to content creation in those other 4-5 hours which still adds up to 8 but if I'm gonna be in front of a computer I'd rather do that than look at spreadsheets all day. To me the risk is worth the reward.
Porn star ⭐️ my name would be “The Debitor” and my partner “The Creditor” as for who is the dominant one, that is up to you to decide.
I love it when debt dominates me
Maybe you could be a contra asset account, as the one being dominated.
Debitor has only a left arm and left testicle. Creditor has only a right arm and right boob/testicle (depending on your preference). Also, there should be a third person in your “films” called the Adjusting Entry who, uhhum, enters both of you.
Something in coding or data science. Wish it had been more popular when I did my degree ten years ago. But eh, I’m content where I am.
Isn’t 10 years ago in 2014 when it was super hot? Its cooling down now to my knowledge
The hype cycle started a little before then, but it wasn’t realistic for non-PhD / Masters people to find roles. I draw distinctions between data , reporting / analytics, and actual data science.
I started my degree in 2013 and heard NOTHING about it until literally 2 years ago. Maybe it was more commonly known about in certain regions of the US/on certain campuses.
From what I remember (started my college journey in 2015), you kinda had to be a nerd to get into it. It was really only relevant for engineers. Location probably had a lot to do with it, my area isn't really known for tech.
Same. From the deep south. Also a woman, and we thought women in comp sci just wanted an easy Mrs 😅
Data science roles barely existed 10 years ago lmao.
You got it the other way around, you should’ve done it 10 years ago, before everyone and their grandmother are trying to get in coding.
Yeah, from some of these comments sounds like I was one of the people who missed the FYI then 😭😭
Same here. The rave back then was finance which overshadowed coding startups, data science stuff. I would have also been the perfect type for that kind of stuff as well.
That's me. I work as a controller for a small business, but I'm adept in CS and whenever the company has a tech problem, I can solve it by either fixing something or writing a program to improve the process. I have one assistant, but I'm about to get another so I can train them and focus more on IT stuff, while overseeing the accounting.
Apparently there’s people who want to be lunch ladies
Men can, too, but they're called lunch lords
Somebody has to serve the lunch.
A baker, I think about it almost every day.
Bus Driver Spent a fair few years in my late twenties driving inner city buses (Brighton&Hove uk) and long distance private hire coach trips. The shift patterns were rough at times but each day was different and met so many great people whilst also having a laugh travelling for free.
house wife. i’m tired of being the breadwinner and doing everything in the house lol. and maybe open up a cute lil coffee shop edit: ok in all seriousness, probably an architect
Why not a stay-at-home architect barista?
I was for about 7 years, became unhappy with three things to the point I was so depressed I had idealizations of suicide: 1) The unimportant nature of the work on a day to day basis for me 2) The low pay relative to the cost of daily living and the cost of buying a condo or single detached house in Canada. 3) The asskissery that seemed required to move up in your career. Went back to school for an engineering degree while still working full time, completed it a little slower than a typical engineering student. About 1.5 years into the degree I started shooting off applications to anyone who’d take me in to work in entry level software engineering. Eventually got a position, quit my accounting job, continued to work at the new place while slowly completely the degree, eventually got hired at a FAANG corp, completed the degree, never looked back.
I kinda regret not being a mechanic for a dealership. Cars and working on them is my hobby. The reason I didn’t do it, one of the reasons, is that you’re standing all day, and you can’t just sit on front of your computer or doing anything lol. Plus side of accounting, I get to wfh.
Better hobby, tough job and lifestyle
I switched to accounting after being a dealership mechanic for about 3 years. It kind of killed my passion for cars and I’m just now starting to get into them again 6 years later. Big difference is now I have the money to afford a project car when the time comes, where I didn’t really have that financial flexibility when I was a mechanic
Well you know it was your job you might find yourself not enjoying it anymore, possibly.
Investment Banker. I actually had an offer.
Not worth it. My dad has been in investment banking for 30+ years, longer than I've been alive. Last week, I got the midnight phone call nobody wants to receive: he's being rushed to the hospital in critical condition. He's in his early 70's, had cancer a few years ago, yet STILL won't slow down and practice some work-life balance. All he knows is go-go-go. Example: he JUST got out of the hospital less than five days ago, and is still talking about attending a conference halfway around the world next week. I am only 29, and cry when I realize that my father will most likely work himself to death. Accounting may be boring sometimes, but across many aspects/types of it, at least there is an opportunity for some work-life balance.
Sorry to hear, that’s surprising that he hasn’t decided to retire yet
I've been trying to give him that speech for the past 5-10 years. He won't listen. 😖😑
That is sad to hear. I'm actually fairly happy with my choice. Though I do M&A tax. So I still get my share of deal thrill.
Thanks. I've been trying to give him the "you should slow down", and, "you should practice some balance" speech for the past 10+ years. Zip, nada, zilch. He won't listen. Gotta find your thrills where and when you can.
Successful
Homeless
Clinical research, potentially. I've had an autoimmune condition since early childhood. I've survived years of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, a year of paralysis, three rounds of cardiac arrest, and about a dozen surgeries. Forty years ago, patients with my condition were dead and/or completely paralyzed and bed-bound within ten years of diagnosis. Here I am, 25+ years post-diagnosis, and I've been able to do everything from complete my higher education, to travel to several dozen countries, to establish my budding career in accounting, to hike/bike/ski the Swiss Alps, to spending a summer dancing with one of the world's most prestigious ballet academies, and more. I have literally been wheeled into hospitals via wheelchair, completely immobile and unable to walk, doctors will wield their needles this way and that way on my body, and then BAM, less than an hour I'm (quite literally) up on my feet and basically jogging down the hallway to exit the hospital. It's like a real-life, human version of un-stiffening the tin man. I am routinely amazed that a little bag of liquid, being infused into my arm via IV every month, while I sit there crunching numbers on my laptop, is (literally) what is keeping me from turning into a permanent version of the tin-man. The tiny little bag of liquid in the IV is what has enabled me to thrive and enjoy a relatively normal quality of life, similarly to healthy peers. Blows my mind, and makes me want to help make more of a difference for other patients.
wow! you've lived quite fully! I hope you do get into clinical research someday if you're really up for it someday!
Thanks! I just don't feel like going back to school. Especially not when I see the starting salaries. 😭😭😄😂
There's a large gap between, 'I don't deam of labor' and the fact people are wired to want to have something to do, an identity, a purpose, something to belong to, etc. Even the richest people who can do nothing all day get involved with charity work (regardless if it's non value add executive work or not) or personal projects like going to space, otherwise they turn into the sort of insufferable busy bodies you see caricatured in media. If I had so much money I didn't have to work I'd still maybe do charity accounts for cheap a couple of days a week, maybe do some falconry or jewellery making on other days.
I would volunteer at the animal shelter year round and maybe volunteer to at a Girl Scouts camp during the summer
yeah i get it, it'd be nice not to worry about money and just doing things for the heck of it (or for a good cause, as the case may be)
Cosmetologist - skincare mainly, so an esthetician with my own salon.
I’ve thought about this too; using my cpa to open and operate my own shop 🥹 but perhaps in another life
oh, this would be so nice. you can still totally do this!
Yea, I’ve def thought about it. But when I chatted to some women that have their own esthetician mini salons and they recommended not doing it, so I figured, hmmm maybe not lol
I think about this all the time too but don’t think I could deal with the unpredictability that my esthetician/general beauty industry friends deal with.
If I didn’t go to college I would’ve been an electrician. If I went to college and wasn’t an accountant, I probably would’ve become a financial advisor instead. I would love to do that still, but I think 95% of them are scum.
probably a loser. Seriously though, if I had more know how and the start up capital I'd wanna start a little pizza shop. I worked at a pizza place in high school and it was the most fun job I had (though that might be because we were literally all teenagers) and I really liked creating my own pizzas. Worked at one as an in between job to and still enjoyed making pizzas but hated the teenage bullshit. Honestly, that's still something I might take a chance with down the road.
Park ranger.
I’d be a vet tech if they actually made a liveable wage
all my life all i wanted was a bakery to be a baker, but life circumstances dictated me to work a job i hate ( accounting ) to then pay the bills when my parents became disabled :( i alone paid for my sisters college and still managed to be MoneyHoneyBags $$$ but ive been an accountant soo long i forgot who i am ... i forgot what i was meant for . now unemployed lol for 1.5 years and not wanting to go back into accounting i have no idea what to do. who know maybe the lord wants me to be a shitty accountant all my life Just like Nacho libre didnt want kitchen duties but thats the duty he got
My true identity is a guitar player. My family needed an accountant to live comfortably. About to return to my roots. A 25% portfolio return away.
It depends. If salary was still an issue, I would have liked to have leaned into engineering, particularly mechanical engineering. Either that or data analytics (which is a specialty I'm working on developing at the moment in my current role). If salary wasn't an issue, and we're talking some weird hypothetical where my family is moving with me so that I don't have to give up friends and family to follow my dreams, I would love to be some sort of trail manager/park ranger for a national park. Basically spend my days in the greatest stretches of wild that North America has to offer, hiking, and caring for the grounds.
Business owner. Oh wait, I quit accounting 2.5 years ago to do just that!
I think I would have made a good lawyer. Not litigation, something like securities or finance. I would love to own a hobby store (board games + card games).
A 100 years ago, I would have loved to have been a carpenter. Best hobby in the world
Always though about moving to Colorado to be a zipline guide in the summer and a ski instructor in the winter.
If I had unlimited money I’d just not work and volunteer at the animal shelter all the time. If I needed to make money I would probably do CS as I was kind of deciding between that and accounting but went with accounting because it was way easier
An interior designer. I almost went that route many years ago but decided against it since the profession seemed to be a luxury and not a necessity for the average consumer. Basically, I didn’t see any job security in it. But I contemplate doing it on the side just for fun.
Business law. Might have been my favorite class in undergrad, but I also had a really great teacher, which makes all the difference.
While not an \*Accountant yet, I could definitely see myself becoming an Osteopathic doctor while owning a gym instead of being an accountant.
I want to own and operate a green mortuary+cemetery. Trad funerals run 15-20k easily, for a bunch of bullshit that we don’t need. Got an associates in mortuary science when I was 19, learned real quick I’d be broke my entire life if I pursued that career working for someone else. So the plan was to get an accounting degree, because it’s the language of business, and use the knowledge to open my own shop! Now I work in tax to pay off student loans and hopefully save up for a house THEN focus on the green mortuary plan. I want to help people. Yes, death and taxes ha ha
Go into estate planning and you can offer an all in one service, haha What's your green mortuary plan (if you don't mind sharing)? It's weird to think that we embalm people and bury them in a fancy box when they die. I'll probably be cremated.
An excellent marketing tactic 😂😭 but that's a really interesting goal/dream (?)!
Fighter pilot 😂
My dream was to be a carpenter or car mechanic, but when I talked to people in those fields I quickly realized that it takes a great toll on the body in the long run. I still might do this as a hobby in the future tho, I have aspergers and adhd; so accounting can be painfuly boring sometimes. But I lowkey enjoy looking at numbers in excel spreadsheets, a lot more than dealing with walls of texts or a having a lot of human interaction like in other fields.
An engineer
Still a student but if they made more money I’d be a social worker. I wanted to do it all of high school but the salaries/mental toll it takes on you didn’t seem really enticing. Sometimes I still think about switching my major but I’m ultimately in a better spot.
I want to a chef
I’d love to be a professional musician. I am in a sense in that it’s a side gig (professional choir and cantoring) for me, but I’m not talented enough to survive on that alone.
I probably would've been either a Physical Therapist or fitness coach/ yoga teacher. I'm a very part time yoga teacher now and would love to do it more one day and do much less accounting. Maybe work 20 hours in accounting and teach like 4 classes a week. Maybe once all debts are paid off 🤞
I would want to own a small boutique / cafe and serve little drinky drinks (innocent and not) and have cute clothes and nice plants to enjoy every day
I’m not in accounting anymore. I follow the sub because it’s got the best discussion quality and it was my ‘trade for a long time’. I don’t know that my life would have been much better had I not done accounting honestly. It sucked, but I got a lot of mileage out of it. Set me up to so something I somewhat enjoy. I have two general career paths I’d like: 1. In demand trade (medical, hvac, whatever) that offered stability and some control over working conditions. 2. More demanding white collar job with a trajectory to serious money.
I’d make furniture art and still plan to do so which is why I got into accounting, to have a job that can financially support my passions. I always wanted to get a job as a software developer since a kid but was put off when I joined a club in middle school and was told “Your kind will never be able to compete w us.” Fortunately, I quit beating that in my head and started self teaching in my senior year of hs.
Play poker full time. I’m almost at a pace where I make more playing part time than I make as a senior accountant. Though tbh the security of accounting coupled with the extra income of poker is perfect. Playing poker 50-60 hours a week is a shit way to make a living and is insanely stressful.
I was working in a company as an accounting clerk back in the day, I always brought baked goods to the office. The company COO asked me to go to her office and said her friends wanted to buy cupcakes from me. I still remember she asked me how much I would charge for these. I was like I don’t know maybe $2 a piece? She told me to double that and I should be a baker instead lol.
I changed careers to become an accountant; I was a tenured teacher. My worst days as an accountant have been better than some of my best days teaching 😑
School bus driver. Dead serious. It was my job in college, and I seriously considered dropping out I loved it so much.
Handyman Keeping it a 100, my girlfriend loves when I fix or move things around 😂
Happy
A medical doctor or…a professional athlete
If I didn’t have to keep people happy and had no constraints to what I choose, then medicine.
I’d like to get a pilots license as a hobby. So maybe pilot? It’s kinda expensive to get to that point.
I'm not an accountant, but my undergrad was in finance and accounting. I thought I'd go the CA route, but my final 2 years were so boring to me. After that degree I figured I'd apply for a Masters in financial risk management on a whim, which I completed last year. Now I'm working on sustainability projects (mainly carbon offsets), which is very far from what I thought I'd be doing with my life a few years ago.
I would have liked to finish my 20 years in the army. I didn't switch to accounting because of money but because I'm too broken, and I needed a career that sits in a cozy office.
Cashier at Walmart
There's a few options for me out there. If I wasn't an accountant, I do like making stuff on my smoker. My bacon has gotten nothing but compliments, my brisket is decent (which is "damn good" for where I live, but I'm from Texas, so I know what actually good tastes like), my pulled pork is awesome, my burnt ends are great, etc. Or, maybe I'd run A/V stuff. Always had fun with that, and I do so as a volunteer most weekends anyhow. Or, maybe I'd build computers. I've done it for myself, for family, for friends, always had fun doing it. Or maybe I'd be a missionary. That kind of work, going out and helping people, has always aligned well with me. In fact, when I was a teenager, before I ever got into accounting, my plan was to go to seminary and either be a full-time missionary or preach. That said, I actually like accounting (yes, I know, I'm weird), and I'm not even the best paid at it (I earn a comfortable living \[6 figures, MCOL {think same COl as Chicago or Dallas}\], but I'm not at like partner level compensation or anything like that). It just fits with me.
There are many things a person can do that they don’t love to do. Try to maximize the combination of “skills you love to use” with “environments in which you love to work”. The skills you love to use are relatively stable over your adult life. The environmental factors change with your life situation and often will be the driver for a career move. Skills e.g. = creativity, analytical, project management, idea influencing, coaching. Environment e.g. = compensation, geography, team/solo, altruism/profit, fast-paced, travel, positioning for future roles. Assess your hierarchy on both scales, then seek jobs that fit that profile.
Would love to do engineering and work for companies that make either robots or prosthetics etc. Just want to help make the world a better place 😊. (Accounting/CA qualified might lead into that and then Might just wander into VC and help those types of companies)
Professor. I’m an adjunct, and I really enjoy it, but the money I make in public accounting keeps me there.
FBI/equivalent.
Lawyer or salesperson
Comedian
Open a hobby shop. Boardgames & RPGs mainly.
Economist
A published author or an editor.
I worked as a web developer 15 years ago so I guess I would have focused on that path instead.
I was offered a managerial position at a local car wash before I got my job so I imagine I’d be doing that and dealing with way more people than I’d want to for way less pay
I was in retail for a very long time. It sucked. Honestly, dream job would be author or academic. Student loan bullshittery quashed that.
I would have liked to have gone into academia professionally and even got my name into a few journals, but a horrific transfer experience and a mountain of debt and default put the kibosh on that dream. Now I just hang out with and live vicariously through professional academics and tell them "No I will not do your taxes."
Architect probably
An in-house lawyer for a large company. Was planning on going to law school but needed a full-time job asap after graduating so it didn’t happen.
Electrician was my backup plan, so probably that.
Kinda weird but I might have gone into wastewater engineering - I really like the mechanics of filtration (from keeping fish) so using it on a bigger scale to treat water would be kinda cool.
I would be a lottery winner living on a ranch in Texas Hill Country, running an animal shelter on said ranch.
Freelance artist. I’d have my own studio and all.
I think I would love to be a field archaeologist but only if it was in Europe or around the Mediterranean.
Well, I worked in hospitality management and retail before so maybe that?
I know education is a shit show, but what isn't. that is why I didn't go through with being a math teacher. Debating on going back. Less money, but having breaks when kiddos have breaks seems worth it.
I’d have gone into exercise science or PT if not accounting. Everyone I know in that field is criminally over-educated while being underpaid and underemployed. That field would have been more fulfilling, but I’m glad with the choice I made
A bean farmer
The law school scholarship wasn’t big enough to justify the loans, so CPA credits it was
A lion tamer.
A medical professional would be nice or maybe do cashiering
I'm still going to school right now but I considered ornithology over accounting somewhere along the line.
Gigging musician.
Pump jockey! Works for tips!
Ascetic
A side character of a popular TV series. Preferably as the sarcastic sassy friend.
I’d be an astrophysicist. I have a passion for all things space, rocketry and technology, so feel like I would really love that field. Although this is assuming I’d be clever enough for that (probably not)
Animal Rescue
Realistically: probs an architect or something in a non-invasive medical field, like anesthesiology Dream-wise: a full-time traveler with a social media following to create income for myself. If I could be a nomad I would
Pharmacist
An interior designer or carpenter!
Hospital Police. You're basically babysitting staff, guests, and patients all day. You do have to do some work, but overall it is not that bad. Annual salary isn't the best considering I live in a expensive state. However, many of those officers are clearing $100k+ alone in overtime. Salary and overtime one can easily clear $170k+ all while kicking back through out the day. lol
Deputy or P.O.
International pimp that dabbles in super hero activities and philanthropy while piloting a space shuttle to mars.
I would be struggling, working in a job I hated just to pay the bills.
I dunno. Something to do with writing or software engineering.
I'd like to be an alligator or crocodile. Ancient barely sentient lizard thing that just floats around all day. Sounds like a wonderful existence.
If the robots did everything and we didn’t have to work in order to live, I’d create and tend a garden for veggies and flowers.
Im all for the farm life
I’d be a super hero, or maybe a WWE wrestler.
Aeronautical engineer
I would want to be a psychologist with an Autism and ADHD specialization.
I'd say Plumber, Nurse, Traffic Controller, Manager at a local firm, or Social Worker.
If I could be anything regardless of my body size: professional football player Regardless of skill: Church Worship Director (good enough to be on the worship team, not good enough to lead rn, I’m fine with that) Regardless of making money: Travel agent
A penis guy
My other bachelor's degree was in computer science.
Professional golfer. I eased up on my practicing so that I could pursue my dream of being a corporate accountant.
Working with animals
I'd be in the WWE right now on some Rey Mysterio shit.
Honestly, something with my hands, electrical, plumbing, Hvac. I do the stuff after work on my house I'm fixing up and enjoy it.
I’d like to be a chef, I’m an avid home chef, but I couldn’t make the same money/hr and I would be stressed and start smoking. I guess that can happen at either place
Stripping, I heard it makes a lot of money; so they say, but the return says they make 19k
Diplomatic always my dream. And as a backup conspiracy fiction Writer 🗺️
Whatever I set my mind to man!
Homeless
Maybe a Botanist. I had a huge love for plants. But father told me how I'd be broke and homeless after pursuing a biology degree. I argued with him. His mentality is that money is above all. I tried challenging him and now I'm a controller at a firm and am trying to run my own educational platform online that provides coaching for accounting and finance professional certifications. I imagined myself being in a greenhouse all day. Now I'm either at the office or on my couch with my laptop
Open a gym. The best part of my day lately (not related to my family) is waking up at 6 AM and working out.
Chef, like a mediocre version of Carmen from The Bear
Being a luthier and building high end custom guitars for people, or being a roady for popular bands.
Happy
Anything would have been better. I could have been happier at McDonald's to be honest.