Trouble in Professional Career Direction

Dorkman

Hoo boy, where to start.

I graduated a few years ago with a Business Degree with a specialization in Accounting. After getting myself a job at a Big Four accounting firm, I began plunking away at my CA designation. Needless to say the first module was a disaster and I failed. Shortly after that, I was let go as the recession hit in full force.

For whatever reason I decided that I wanted to change my career direction and decided to go to a local community college and take a Mechanical Engineering Technology degree because I like racing. Motorsports be cool! And since they are mechanically inclined, that must be what I am in to! Score!

First year went without a hitch as I hit Dean's List with the highest mark in the class.

The problem is I am seriously doubting that this is what I want to do. Quite honestly I can't think of what I want to be doing in the next 2, 5 or 10 years down the road. Sometimes I want to continue down the path I am going because it is the path I have decided to go down, part of me wants to go back into Accounting and get my letters, considering how difficult it is going to be to get back into a CA firm, and part of me just wants to break down.

I also seem to have serious issues with staying focused at work. I can't seem to work any amount of time before I get an overwhelming sense of boredom and just start dicking around on the internet and what have you. I seriously don't know what I should be doing or where I should go.

I am 28, and just feel like I am wasting an opportune time to start advancing my career by being unable to come up with a firm career goal and it's causing an incredibly amount of stress, sleepless nights and what have you.

I really need some help on this one and dont know where to go.

bsjezz

not everyone can find a job that they truly, deeply love and can talk passionately about endlessly and see themselves doing until they're finally locked out of as a senile 83 year old. sure, if it happens, great! otherwise, there's no problem using a career as a comfortable way to earn the means to enjoying your life.

accounting's actually really good for this. it's pretty much a unversally demanded skill so you'll always have flexibility, and it'll give you enough options to ultimately find a working environment in a good location, with great people, and make a good income.

motivation's something that people will always struggle with - just know that when you position yourself to stay with a place long enough to build responsibility and personal investment, your motivation will grow

my suggestion is to get back into that field, don't rush your certification yet - a good job will probably pay for you to do it ultimately - and if it's not working, take a break, look at other roles, move sideways, until you're starting to feel happy and ready to settle in for a bit

Darkewolfe

If you can't find a job that'll make you happy, find a job that'll make you rich.

ihmmy

If you do want to get back into accounting, there are designations other than CA. Even if you're dead-set on public practice, a fair number of CGA's have public practice firms across Canada.

I will say... don't worry too much about what you want to do "forever" or for a career. I'm almost 26 and I still have no clue wtf I want career-wise. I have a BComm in HR and I use none of the HR skills I learned at my current gig, but I rather like a lot of the duties I'm focused on these days. I used to stress myself out buttloads (and still do, but not quite as badly) because all my friends knew within a year of hitting university what career path they wanted forever-and-ever, and I just sort of.. floated into something. But that's ok too. Sometimes you have to work at something for a while before you can determine if it's a good fit or not. Sometimes an 'ok' fit is just dandy, because it can let you focus on other things that are important to you rather than being your all-consuming singular purpose in life. Yeah, it's great to love what you do, but not everyone gets to have that, and that's just fine.

Thundyrkatz

This impression that we have, that everyone else is happily doing what they want in life, while we drift aimlessly looking for something that interests us is a huge myth. Very few people know what they want to do, and get a chance to do it professionally.

The rest of us are just taking life one day at a time and making the best of the situation. Worry less about what you want to do for t he rest of your life, worry more about what you want to do in the near future.

Its a tough economy right now, so that's going to work against you right now. But it sounds like you are a bright guy, perhaps your not being challenged in your current job? Its pretty easy to get bored and distracted when you are not working at your full capacity. Can you take on new roles and responsibilities, show some leadership qualities and fix some problems around the office?

You never know what is coming down the pipe at you in the future, so your best bet is to be ready to grab the opportunity when it shows up. Being the quiet guy in the office surfing the web, is not going to put you in that position.

EggyToast

Most people end up getting satisfaction from their job due to some abstraction, rather than the daily work. I like my job because I assist people with complex technology, but I'm not "help desk." I think the stuff I actually worth with is neat, so helping other people understand it (and then use it by signing up with us) is satisfying.

willhelmson

As a fellow 28 year old, and someone that landed his "dream job" coming out of school .. I'm going to say it never gets easier.

I'm ~4 years into my finance career, making significantly more than both my parents did combined .. but have recently wondered where my life is headed and have hit a relatively large bump in my "career progression" so I'm in the same boat.

Natas_Xnoybis

just an FYI, it is never too late, it just gets harder. My older brother graduated med school at age 38, which is old, one of the people who graduated with him was 52 years old. Thats right 52 years old with residency ahead of them. Never too late, it just gets harder.

willhelmson

Thundyrkatz wrote:

This impression that we have, that everyone else is happily doing what they want in life, while we drift aimlessly looking for something that interests us is a huge myth. Very few people know what they want to do, and get a chance to do it professionally.

The rest of us are just taking life one day at a time and making the best of the situation. Worry less about what you want to do for t he rest of your life, worry more about what you want to do in the near future.

Its a tough economy right now, so that's going to work against you right now. But it sounds like you are a bright guy, perhaps your not being challenged in your current job? Its pretty easy to get bored and distracted when you are not working at your full capacity. Can you take on new roles and responsibilities, show some leadership qualities and fix some problems around the office?

You never know what is coming down the pipe at you in the future, so your best bet is to be ready to grab the opportunity when it shows up. Being the quiet guy in the office surfing the web, is not going to put you in that position.

This. Perhaps my prior comment wasn't very "motivating" but I guess what I'm trying to say is you're not alone. There is many out there (if not most people) who are as much, if not more, "lost" than you are. I'm going to tell you now, as a person who meets regularly with business students and chats with them about their careers, the 5-10 year plan is a pile of crap!

Esh

Natas_Xnoybis wrote:

just an FYI, it is never too late, it just gets harder. My older brother graduated med school at age 38, which is old, one of the people who graduated with him was 52 years old. Thats right 52 years old with residency ahead of them. Never too late, it just gets harder.

Yep, I started college at 32. I'll be graduating with a double major and a minot at 36 and then I'm going to grad school. Don't worry about taking time off or needing a while to figure shit out.

Dorkman

But it just feels like I already took time off, willingly or forced be damned, after being let go from the Auditing firm. I am on a work term now with my province's power comission doing CADD work. And although all I hear is praise for getting into this place, all I can think is I hope to god I don't end up here for 20-30 years. I find the job boring, repetitive and uninspiring.

Maybe you are all right in that eventually you come to a point where you work because you have to. But for some reason that token of advice is not sitting well with me. I really don't want to fit into that humdrum of working all week towards nothing in particular other then a pay cheque.

Finding what your passionate enough about to enjoy a job about is frustrating me to heck.

ihmmy

but a province's power monkey is a very focused position, there are a variety of engineering firms out there where you could be working on vastly different projects. If it's just the scope of current work that's bothering you, plan on going somewhere else in a year or two. Keep an eye out on jobs that pop up, and if you spot one that sounds like it has a fair bit of change, go for it. There are loads of engineering opportunities and CADD opportunities that will challenge you, which sounds like that's the main issue from your last post

Dorkman

One of the main issues is as I get into the business so to speak, I realize I only really have an interest in a very niche aspect of the Mechanical Engineering field. Which honestly scares me.

Usagi

Well, you either have to be flexible enough to find something else that interests you, or make strides to put yourself in the path of getting a job in that niche. Out of curiosity, what exactly do you think an engineer does at work all day? It ain't all puppies and sunshine, let me tell you: as an engineer almost 10 years out of school about 90% of my day is managing other people, documentation, drawings and/or money. I pick up a calculator about once a month.

Also, I would like to say you're facing a twofold problem here

1) The first two years of any engineering career sucks because even though you have a degree, you essentially know nothing. You're going to spend 18-24 months at a job learning how to be a real engineer and doing boring, repetitive, mind numbing stuff because hey you have to, it's how you learn. Want to shorten that up? Go above and beyond, be internally motivated and you'll end up doing much more interesting things much faster.

2) You're pursuing and Eng Tech degree, which is different than an Eng degree, at least here in the US. The tech degrees are seen as less rigorous so you'll end up doing the boring, repetitive, mind numbing stuff longer unless you can show that you've taken the time to learn beyond just school.

Dorkman

I guess I should have been more specific. I am more interested in the material sciences aspect then the HVAC/Piping aspect. And unfortunatly in this part of the world, there is no real job opportunities in the former.

Usagi

So move, unless you have a really good reason (babies, house, etc). Does your college have any outreach programs (internships/co-ops) with the type of work you want to do?