Starting again

maskerade

Hi

So after a decade as a Chartered Accountant i want to leave and do something not involving finance - no budgets and forecasts etc. I find it too stressful and I had a complete meltdown at work the other day because of a small mistake I had made and no one else cared about. A couple of years ago I had a period of severe depression and couldn't do my job properly and I don't think my confidence has ever recovered.

Has anyone ever packed it all in and started again and how did it go for you? My biggest worry would be how to explain my reasoning to potential new employers- wiuld they see me as unreliable?

Thanks

Snakey

What are you planning to start again as? Those figures in your signature line don't look like they'll fund much, so whatever you do you need to be sure you have it all lined up (with signed contracts and so on) before you take that leap.

Could you turn it on its head and try to change your approach to work, rather than the job itself? Smaller firm, larger team, part-time or whatever else might help to reduce the stress to a level you can deal with?

shortcrust

I changed careers in my mid 30s and I'm so much happier in my new job. I moved from IT and data analysis to a health prof job working with kids. The main reason I changed was to get away from the extreme stress I felt in the old career. I've never regretted it, but all the strains and stresses are still there although to a lesser extent. You'll still make small mistakes in your new career that no one else will care about. You'll still feel stressed at times and you'll probably still have meltdowns.

It taken me years to realise that the stresses and strains I wanted to get away from are still with me because they originate from me. I still set myself unrealistic targets, I still bury my head in the sand when things are going wrong, and I still (if I'm honest) am a bit lazy and error prone.

Make sure you really know the reality of the new job. Other people's jobs often look easy, fun and relaxing, but most jobs are like synchronised swimming - onlookers don't see all the frantic hard work that's being done under the surface. I work harder in my new job that I ever did in my old, and I really didn't expect that to be the case.

maskerade

Hi

Thanks for your replies. The stuff in my signature is very out of date, I've just never got around to changing it. Will do now!

I do wonder if it's me rather than the job but i think I'd enjoy doing something where people don't have such high expectations of me. I wandered sideways into my job and it isn't what i really trained for so i constantly feel like i don't know what I'm doing

shortcrust

maskerade wrote: »

Hi

Thanks for your replies. The stuff in my signature is very out of date, I've just never got around to changing it. Will do now!

I do wonder if it's me rather than the job but i think I'd enjoy doing something where people don't have such high expectations of me. I wandered sideways into my job and it isn't what i really trained for so i constantly feel like i don't know what I'm doing

Well in my case it's much better being stressed doing something I like that being stressed doing something I hate.:)

Is it really other people who have the expectations or is it you? I ask because you say the meltdown was over a mistake that other people didn't care about. If you're very bothered by a small mistake I think it's likely that you know exactly what you're doing despite feeling otherwise. I still feel I don't know what I'm doing despite five years formal training for my current job and two years actually doing it. I think for many people that feeling is a part of life. My boss told me that she feels the same after 30 years in the job.

If you think a new career will make you happier then go for it, but my advice is to make sure you also have a really good think about the internal pressures you put on yourself. If you always fail to meet your own expectations then you probably need to lower them. It's not failure - it's realism. If you tend to focus on the things you do wrong/badly then you need to make a conscious effort to also think about the things you do right/well. I promise you, when you actually do a tally the latter always outweigh the former, and seeing that in black and white really helps me.

There's a lot of pressure tied up in a career change, and you have to be careful not to put all you hopes on it (again - realism!). When I've had the same old struggles in my new job as with the old they've actually felt worse at times because this is the new career that was supposed to fix everything, and after the time and money invested (and time left) I can't really change once again. The one thing that's saved me in those moments is that I've chosen a profession that I can take in lots of different directions. A career with options and flexibility might be something to think about.

Bit of a ramble really, and more about me than your situation.:D I hope things go well if you do change. I firmly believe that if you're not happy you should do something.

Three_Wheels_on_my_Wagon

I surprised more people don't have a meltdown at work. It seems a perfectly natural thing to do given that the jobs that people do is enough to drive a sane person round the bend.

I realised very early on that if I wanted to stay sane I'd never put my self in that position.

Mistral001

Have you thought about a sideways move in your job. I am chartered in another profession and it can be stressful and I sometimes wish I was not become chartered as it seems that you have a lot of extra responsibility for not much more pay. In fact there are unchartered people in my profession who are making much more money because they have more freedom and do not have to "sign anything off".


Sideways moves might be going into lecturing in an FE college, or working for one of the accountancy professional institutions. Or working for the a trade associations. Some of the trade associations in the professions are actually quite highly regarded.

MacMickster

OP

Many years ago I was in a similar position to you. I now understand that I have a perfectionist personality and would get so stressed if I felt that I was providing an employer with anything other than my perfect best at work.

I ended up leaving employment and starting my own business. It might sound counter-intuitive as running a business brings its own stresses, but I was more able to accept my own (infrequent) mistakes as they were effecting me and my livelihood rather than an employer's business.

With an accountancy background you will know more about running a business (particularly keeping an eye on margins and overheads) than the majority of your clients. If they can make a success of self-employment then so can you. Only you will know the type of business that you may have an aptitude for.

Pennywise

Accountancy has many different jobs within it. Lots of different roles within industry, more different roles within public sector and more roles still within practice. Why not just move into a different job type that still uses your skills and knowledge of accountancy? Chartered accountancy is a popular choice for uni leavers simply because of all the different career routes that it can lead to.