[Anonymous]

With only 3 months left on my Becker course I’m honestly contemplating whether or not I should even bother going back into accounting.

I dramatically overestimated my willpower and self control after graduation and signed up for a Becker course subsidized by my college. At the same time, I found a really basic A/P position (I graduated with no internship experience, only P/T bookkeeper experience so the first offer I got close to commencement, I took it).

I basically went to all of my FAR lectures and half of the AUD ones before completely flaking out on the rest due to work pressures. 4 months later, I quit the job and started working in OFAC compliance. My confidence in my accounting education by then had been shaken given how terrible I was at doing my job (adapting to the company’s AIS software, handling vendor disputes, organization etc.) which frankly made me reconsider whether or not I’m cut out for accounting in general.

Then came 9 months of procrastination as I fell into a negative feedback loop of working lots of OT at my new job, not feeling like studying after getting home, then feeling more and more lost when I do study, which pretty much has me associating opening the book with my failure which leads me to study less.

In light of this, I’m contemplating whether or not I should even bother taking the CPA given my dismal chances finding any accounting related job now, a year and a half out of college. Public accounting is pretty much out of the question, and not even sure any staff position will take some guy who will probably spend 2 years out of the field. If I stay in compliance, the only way a CPA could help me is if I try for an examiners position with the OCC. Optimistically, even IF i passed all four parts in 1 year, I still need 30 more college credits and 2 years of work experience under a CPA in my state, that means I’m looking at being certified at age 27. Is there even a point getting it that late without having the work experience or connections in the field?

tl;dr – Wasted almost 2k of my own money in test fees and Becker tuition and ended up flaking out on all of it. Now entire career path is in doubt. Don’t know what to do.