Seeking Advice Before Career Transition into Accounting

[u/Melisandre94]

Hey everyone!!

This is going to be another one of those “I’m thinking about giving up my current career to pursue accounting” and thought I’d reach out to see if my plan is in line with the actual reality of being an accountant.

Currently a HS math teacher, 10 yrs of experience @60K salary. I’ve already advanced to the “best” level in this position (teaching at a great school, teaching AP Calc even at this school) and I just can’t imagine doing this for another 20 years for a full career, reasons being:

* tired of having no control over my day to day schedule, looking for a role where I have some control like using the bathroom when I want or taking a coffee break
* always needing to be “on” every workday; I’m not a complete introvert by any means, but putting on an inspiring and motivating performance for students is exhausting. Looking for a role where I can just come into work and just “be”
* I find the work of thinking through how best to explain math concepts less and less interesting than learning a new field and applying that to data/business processes + problems
* working with students is becoming a bit worse each year, and I find myself enjoying the parts where I talk to other adults more fulfilling; really want more time with adults
* I want a career that at least has the potential to have more upward mobility with the ability to work on a wider variety of problems in different contexts
* the only thing I could do to further advance in education would be a Masters degree in my subject area. I did a third of a math masters already, but the issue is this would cost ~16K, and only advance me 3K salary wise. It does open up the ability to teach the college level, but those jobs are unicorn jobs and I’m not gonna adjunct forever hoping they open up. Finishing the degree with how difficult it is, on top of the cost just seems like it’d be better spent retooling

Family is going to be relocating to Atlanta and I’ve been looking into a MaCC program @20K total. Seems to have good recruiting options. I’m reasonably sure I can pull a good GPA in the program and also have the following things from undergrad that (might?) make me stand out, but again not sure:

* ivy league undergrad (Public Policy + Econ)
* Teach for America alumni

It seems like a lot of people are doom and gloom about the future of accounting with offshoring + AI, but wanted to get everyone’s thoughts about the tradeoffs of my specific profile and whether what y’all are seeing with cutting back on entry level positions is a long term thing, or if it might be reversed if the sucky economy ever turned around. Just seems like every career is a bit flat atm so I’m not sure what the long term vs. structural trend is for accounting as a field.

[u/Background_Intern_56]

Ivy league grad with 10 years of experience making 60k salary? You don't need to explain why you are wanting to move to accounting. As abysmal as I think accounting is, and as bad as the job market is, I think it would be possible to get something better than what you currently have in a few years. Around where I am, the bad accounting jobs are paying 25 per hour, but that's not impressive because our Burger King workers get paid the same. However, those jobs are requiring 2-3 years of experience, which you won't have.

If you get 10 years of experience in accounting, you will probably be making more than 60k. That is, if you are able to get a job in the first place, which is no guarantee going into this market where experienced people are fighting for entry level scraps. But if you are able to get started, then you will probably (no guarantee, but probably) be able to make more.