USA Looking to make a career change to accounting, unsure of my options.

[AaronKM]

Hi. I am a painter (construction) turned student looking to make a career change. Painting pays decent and the benefits with the union are to be envied, but I'm thinking that long term I should do something else. Work dies down during the winter, often times to the point of seasonal layoffs, so my summer checks pay for my winter rent. Also, it's really hard on my body. It's not something that I want to be doing in my 40's and 50's.

So I enrolled in school after a few years off and started working on a business degree I started some time ago. I'm taking an accounting class and I'm surprised at how quick I'm picking up on it and how interesting it is to me.

I'm just weighing my options. My college offers an AAS degree designed to prepare students for bookkeeping positions. This interests me. The pay range is similar to what I'm making and could make as a painter, without the seasonal layoff. It would be nice to be in and out of school with minimal debt. However, through my own research I've found that technology is phasing bookkeepers out. According to BLS, clerk/bookkeeper jobs are declining for that reason.

If I take out a few loans and invest more time I could make more long term, and have expanded duties and responsibility. What is your take on this? Is an AAS worth considering or should I go all the way?

 

[JR.]

Hi. I am a painter (construction) turned student looking to make a career change. Painting pays decent and the benefits with the union are to be envied, but I'm thinking that long term I should do something else. Work dies down during the winter, often times to the point of seasonal layoffs, so my summer checks pay for my winter rent. Also, it's really hard on my body. It's not something that I want to be doing in my 40's and 50's.

So I enrolled in school after a few years off and started working on a business degree I started some time ago. I'm taking an accounting class and I'm surprised at how quick I'm picking up on it and how interesting it is to me.

I'm just weighing my options. My college offers an AAS degree designed to prepare students for bookkeeping positions. This interests me. The pay range is similar to what I'm making and could make as a painter, without the seasonal layoff. It would be nice to be in and out of school with minimal debt. However, through my own research I've found that technology is phasing bookkeepers out. According to BLS, clerk/bookkeeper jobs are declining for that reason.

If I take out a few loans and invest more time I could make more long term, and have expanded duties and responsibility. What is your take on this? Is an AAS worth considering or should I go all the way?

I would focus on a Bachelors in Business Admin with your focus in accounting. The other business classes such as operations management, leadership, MIS etc are critical to being a key finance/accounting person in the business. Bookeeeping/AR/AP and the tidious work is primarily sent overseas for cheaper labor. You want to focus on the high level stuff like the analysis and the understanding of how accounting is used to drive decisions in the workplace. Begin your career search for Junior Accountant then look for Staff Accountant or Accounting Analyst then work your self to Financial Analyst and Senior Financial Analyst. If you get the right job with the right company then you should be up to $75k + in a few years. Don’t stay at a company for more than 3 years. You will learn as you go and will realize you have absorbed what you could and time to move on.

 

[Drmdcpa]

Alternatively you can start your own business. Much better than being an employee for the rest of your life.

 

[JR.]

Alternatively you can start your own business. Much better than being an employee for the rest of your life.

Is this what you did? I have thought about getting my CPA for this reason and start building clientele while being employed at my current job.

 

[Drmdcpa]

That would be the better path instead of the one I took. I simply stopped being an employee. I only had three clients at the time.

Would have been better to have built a larger client base before becoming "unemployed."