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Hi everyone,
I used to frequent this site a few years ago when I was taking the CPA exams. I was fortunate enough to pass the exams and I officially became licensed a little over a year ago. I’ve run into a bit of a dilemma with my career and want your advice.
I’m 27 years old and currently work for an international law firm in the tax department. I have been here for nearly three years now and realize that this is not a good place for a career. The problems that I’ve identified are that the department is small and there is little room for growth, the raises are cost of living raises only (and are also small and blanket raises), promotions are very hard to get, and the firm itself does not have interest in developing me. My work is largely menial tasks that, while serving a purpose, do not help me learn or grow much as a professional. I feel like I have learned all there is to learn here, and any other time I spend here will mostly be a waste of time. There are definitely positives, though. I like the people I work with, the compensation is ok (base of 57k and total comp of in the low 60s, with pretty good benefits), I usually do not work more than 40 hours a week (though this is not always true), the commute is very short, and I can handle the job. While this is not the worst spot in the world to be in, I expect and want more of myself and my career.
Now here is the problem. I am not sure where to go with my career, and I am finding that any other steps to make are not easy ones. The job market in my city is apparently very tough. I’ve contacted dozens of recruiters in the past 9 months and they have mainly done nothing for me. I have applied to dozens of new positions on my own, and I have updated my linked in and tried to make connections through there. In 9 months I have only gotten a few interviews and these did not pan out. The opportunities for new work are few and far between, and the chances I do get have not materialized into anything. I have also thought about working for the IRS and have put in applications there and tried to contact people directly but they, too, have been fruitless. I have only begun a hard work search since last Christmas, but I expected better results than this in that time. Perhaps I was too optomistic.
I graduated summa cum laude in my college and and top 1% of my high school classes. While I was always a very good student, I am not the type of whiz who can totally dominate a GMAT. If you need a 750-800 to get into a top MBA program, I would not get it. Most I could get would probably be about 700, and that is after a lot of prep. So I am turned off by the idea of going to get an MBA because of the amount of time and money it would take, and the fact that it might not differentiate myself much from my peers since I would likely not get into a top school (the same goes for law school, which I have also thought about). Also, I am turned off by the MBA idea since I do not really know what I am passionate about nor what a position would be like until I get into it. Seems like too much of a risk and too great a cost for a ton of uncertainty and not a lot of upside.
I began my career at one of the Big 4 and had a very bad experience there. Not worth rehashing now but I do not want to put myself in that type of situation again. But what I’m afraid of is while I am getting older and not really getting any new skills or knowledge, that going back into public may perhaps be the most viable solution. The feedback I’ve gotten from some interviewers are that my experience has been too specialized in tax and so they don’t even want to take the time to itnerview me for some positions because of that. So perhaps public is the solution, but I am very hesitant about this because of my bad experience. The problem is I don’t have a lot of differentiated skills to showcase for another private position at this point in my career.
I don’t need all the money under the sun to be happy. My view of success is earning a respectable salary (if I could get to between 70 and 90k in the next few years I would be pleased) while doing a job that I enjoy and get a feeling of importance from. All three are important in my mind: respectable salary, enjoyment, and a feeling of importance. If I cannot get enjoyment I at least want it to be tolerable. And if I get a feeling of importance with a tolerable position and this type of salary, I would probably not desire to make more money than this.
What would your advice to me be? Is going back into public the best solution? Is there something else I should try that I have not thought of? Apologies to be longwinded but I know how insightful the responses can be on here so I wanted to give everyone a pretty complete picture. Thank you in advance for your advice.
Chris
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