In college, you majored in accounting. You sweated through the CPA exam and put in countless billable hours as a young practitioner. Now you're well into a successful career. But what happens if you discover making numbers talk no longer carries the thrill it once did?
Before packing in your accounting career, consider that you might already work for the right employer - just in the wrong job. It's not uncommon for accountants to become dissatisfied with their specialty, observes Joe Maiorano, executive director of Human Resources at KPMG. Sometimes, they just need a change of practice.
A new KPMG project, dubbed ''Career Architecture,'' promotes a cradle-to-grave philosophy that allows employees to try new specialties by moving across business lines, say from audit to tax or consulting. ''Folks are able to go on the audit team during tax season, and maybe 25 or 30 percent say 'I don't want to go back to audit, I want to stay in tax,''' says Maiorano.
Career Architecture also helps employees virtually network to explore other accounting specialties. KPMG is producing a series of video job testimonials for its Web site, where employees describe what they like, and what they find challenging, about their current positions.
A New Venue
If a change of practice won't do it for you, consider a change of employer.
''Sometimes people say they hate accounting when what they're burnt out on is the corporate world,'' says Dr. Valerie Young, ''dreamer in residence'' at ChangingCourse.com, a Montague, Mass., firm that helps people find ways to make money by following their passion. ''If they get satisfaction from making numbers work and decide they want to work alone or from home, there are many small business owners who . need someone to come in once or twice a month and reconcile the books.''
Tax strategist and author Diane Kennedy, CPA, is the perfect example of an accountant who followed her dream to success, says Elizabeth Kanna, co-founder of the consulting firm Dream In You. Kennedy, she says, leveraged her accounting background and followed her passion for teaching and education to become a best-selling author. She started on that path by selling her accounting practice and teaching wealth-building classes at the Learning Annex and small events.
Imagine the Good Life
Of course, if you never want to see another ledger, focus on what would make you happy instead of weighing your transferable skills. Young recommends answering a larger question: What do you want your life to look like? For example, do you want summers off? Do you want to travel the world on a yacht? ''I don't focus on skills because I don't care what people are good at. I'm good at typing and mowing the lawn,'' she quips. ''Focus on what you love to do. That will open up a lot of possibilities.''
