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Dogshit at engineering, like accountants’ lives better
Career AdviceUser deleted comment
7d
“Worth their weight” cringe
Go talk with junior accountants making 60k a year, because that’s where you’re going to start and if you can’t grind the shit times you won’t make it to the good times.
I don't think this guy is aware that accountants often bust 60 - 80+ hour weeks during busy season... I have a friend that works as an accountant and, after hearing his hours, I don't ever wish to be an accountant.
Yeah and in finance/account you often run into people claiming to be self-made sucesses and they're either straight lying or omitting the fact that they made it to be 'VP of their firm' because their dad started them as Jr VP right out of undergrad.
Hopefully OP is just young and takes the tongue lashing several people gave them and becomes better for it haha.
What exactly do you like in their lives that you can't achieve with engineering?
In college I actually started off being an accountant major and most accounting majors and accountants I've met in engineering companies are introverted. I then switched to engineering a year after.
You're also not limited on your major if you like a more social life, speaking from experience
Have worked in both fields as an engineer and had some experience at Big 4 Accounting Firm.
Accounting is a good career but it takes time and hard work to build a career in it to the point where they're well off. Wealthy accountants are usually either CFOs or Partners who have been grinding away for 15+ years.
Lot of successful accountants start in the Big 4, get their CPA and Senior promotion, then bounce to a F500 for a cushy industry job paying $110k+.
Public Accounting is BRUTAL, you will be working 60-80+ hours on a weekly basis during financial year-end and the CPA is no joke (you will need the CPA).
Bot OP, but thank you for sharing this
Why would your career dictate your social life? So what if the team you are on is introverted, find things you enjoy outside of work and do what you love.
Engineering will provide a more stable career as many administrative jobs will likely be replaced by automation and AI in the next 10-15 years.
I mean let’s be real, your career has a big effect on your social life if it is demanding. Plus, for most engineers, it’s where you spend at least 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. To not be able to pull from that pool of people to make friends does make it harder to find people to socialize with outside of work hours. And if you already have other responsibilities in your life, it’s just exhausting to somehow find friends outside of work.
You say that like people have no friends of their own choosing at all, and I don't get why
I already have too many friends to see during the week, the LAST thing I need is making friends at work or in my classes
Before you even think I have lots of spare time to make other friends or do other things, I'm working full time and (slowly) doing my engineering courses.
I wouldn’t try to discount your experience or tell you you’re wrong. Just try to remember everyone has different resources, circumstances, skills, luck and energy. It’s obvious many people don’t share your experience or else there wouldn’t be a loneliness epidemic right now.
Have you imagined how hard it would be if you had kids too? What if you had a pet you started taking care of because no one else wanted it? What if you were borderline disabled and in chronic pain but decided to become an engineer anyways, despite how much harder it would be?
All I’m saying is that there is room for both of us to be right. Everyone’s life is different so try to remember that and be empathetic.
I'm borderline disabled and in chronic pain, I'm actually writing this from my 3rd long term hospital stay in 6 months.
And when I say 'chronic pain' I mean 'constant open wounds that will not even begin to close for weeks on end and that will actually bleed all over my clothes and stick to my bedding to the point I have to peel my own face away from the pillow'
I know what you mean and I'm not saying everyone's circumstances aren't equal, I'm a great example of it.
I'm just saying that if one, as a person, actually puts in time and effort to make friends, they don't NEED to find them during work or college.
This is not even about going like "Oh MY PAIN IS REAL PAIN". Everyone can handle what they can handle, I'm not one to judge.
This is specifically about separating work/college life from one's actual social life.
Accountant here moving to engineering. Accounting people are the outcasts of business. Most of them are locked away in offices to work on data entry or building reports, the ones you met were probably all higher level auditing or tax professionals who worked their asses off in the beginning and brown nosed a lot. Accounting is rule based and very monotonous work with little freedom in what you actually do. In the US to truly succeed as an accountant nowadays you need to get your CPA licence which is just as hard to get as the PE in my opinion and generally you will need to take a few post grad classes unless the requirements changed after COVID.
I am leaving accounting because of how fucking boring it is. I can golf at any time, I don't need a job to do so. I can think of jobs that let you golf and pay more than accounting, just get into VIP services and you will golf for free forever. Engineering is about solving problems accounting is about recording business facts.
I wouldn't say engineering is exciting by any means. People die if you screw up in engineering and in accounting they just get mad and may make you die.
Most people engineer phone cases or circuit boards for power management lol
People don’t die
I was literally thinking to myself last week that if I screwed up what I was working on that a lot of people could die.
Engineering freedom is also a double edge sword, talking about design, u need to narrow down the desired results and specifications of the design so the "freedom" dont make u feel lost in how to begin the design, usually u begin with expected budget and quality to choose materials and then go on
My office is almost all engineers and there’s a golf league, pick up sports leagues, happy hours, and outdoor outings, so not all engineers are introverts. It’ll actually be worse for you switching to accounting because GPA matters more in that field and yours won’t reset by switching, you’re stuck with it. I graduated engineering with a 2.7 and got internships and jobs from being involved with clubs, going to career fairs, and being very good at writing my resume and interviewing. Those things allowed me to remove my gpa from my resume and have enough content where people didn’t care about it. Almost all recruiters will care about your gpa as a business major because you’re given less slack due to it being an easier major.
My accountant friends work 7am-7pm on audits that suck, I work closer to 8-4 and on some groundbreaking stuff (if your stuff is boring, at least tangible projects are better than last year financial numbers )
I think this is crucial info here, finance hours suck.
At my company our engineers work 8 hour days, and the good ones frankly get away with less as long as they are preforming.
Our finance team are WAY over 40 hours consistently, and stressed af.
Also, pretty sure I make more than our CFO as sales engineering manager, but not 100% sure on that. That fact that it’s close enough for me to wonder either way is crazy though.
You say "like their lives better" but you literally didn't mention anything other than golf. Like half our engineers golf. We even do company sponsored golf tournaments for the engineering branch.
If you want a genuine answer, then you need to provide more details then "accountants play golf, so I should drop out of engineering right?".
Engineers golf too.
lol drop out and become a pro golfer.
it’s easy bro, trust me.
I went golfing with accountants is probably the lamest thing I've ever heard anyone consider dropping out for.
If that's all it takes op should get out. The last thing we need is more engineers who don't want to be there
Oh god this is good. You're not in engineering school for it and that's fine. Go where you wanna be and enjoy it. I'm sorry you got pushed into engineering school.
Go to /r/accounting and compare their salaries/lives to /r/engineering
You're closer to the money as an accountant, and that usually means more opportunities. Engineering is good but it's built around a bid system so you'll never be swimming in cash (from a business perspective) the same way as would, say, an accounting firm, where institutional trust is key. My brother majored in accounting but now works at a top management consulting firm and has plenty of options in his field because he has worked directly with some pretty high level stakeholders. Myself, I'm a good engineer but I haven't gotten nearly that exposure despite similar GPA's and stuff when we were in school.
Basically, the ceiling is lower in engineering, although the argument could be made that mid-career success is higher. I also work in construction management, not engineering however, and even though there's more money here than in engineering the WLB is dog shit even compared to the Big 4, which are known for churn/burn.
If I could go back honestly I'd do accounting or finance. I made the decision to follow the money into engineering and it has provided me with a stable middle class lifestyle, but that won't ever change unless I start my own firm, and I'll never see the kinds of performance bonuses people in banking or finance get.
Also as a civil engineer, our industry is pretty much dictated by the existence of regulations and codes, and as we move toward a more deregulated business environment with more AI tools becoming available by the day, the need for CE's will decline (relative to the total market share). Not in our lifetimes however, and there will always be engineering jobs, but my point is that you have to actually like it to be successful in the industry, and if you don't enjoy engineering you may be better off in accounting.
This was so depressing to read, especially the AI part, chatgpt went from a "dumb" chatbot when released to be fully interactive bot that can teach you calculus with live video feed and Sora. All these exponential advancements occurring within less than 2 YEARS. Can't even imagine how the world would look like in 10 years
I wouldn't sweat the AI remark, it will sooner displace finance and accountant folk than engineers. Not only that, engineering school postures you better to become a user/developer of AI given the mathematical requirements.
The world needs less engineers with your personality so i think you've come to a wise decision
You work to live. Work is something that pays for a lifestyle. If you want the lifestyle of those people you could still do it. If you think engineering won’t make work bearable then don’t do it. If you think accounting will make your work bearable then do that instead. But at the end of the day it’s still work.
Dropped engineering for similar reason. Now work tech sales and make more with a company truck
Came here to make this recommendation. I started out as an engineer and quickly realized it was a fine pathway to do "pretty good" for the rest of my life, and never much more than that. I quickly saw that the sales guys were making way more money and having a lot more fun. Whatever branch you follow OP, you can always reference your engineering background to help in technical sales. I have a vibe that you are more socially adept than a lot of technical people, so nothing wrong with changing course and riding that wave to a more lucrative future
You should attempt to find a career that you will enjoy. If you're doing poorly in engineering, that will limit your choices after school. If on top of that you don't think you would enjoy a career in engineering, then why beat your head against the wall for something you don't really want?
You should try Industrial Engineering. Extremely versatile and in-demand (at least in the USA). Can easily choose between working in a manufacturing facility with blue collar workers or in a clean office with other business professionals. School isn’t as demanding as other engineering majors (plus you have a lot of the engineering prerequisites out of the way). One of the best majors for reaching management level. Attracts a lot of fun extroverted people who would otherwise probably be business majors.
I switched from Software Engineering to Industrial Engineering and couldn’t be happier with my decision. I enjoy the work a lot more. My GPA increased. I made way more friends in my major because I fit in better. Currently working an internship and it’s great. The work environment is laidback. Most of my coworkers love to chat. A lot of them play sports and hang out outside of work.
Accounting is a hell of a lot easier and probably just as much money.
Lifestyle is a big part of career choice. My brother-in-law is an accountant and his company has offices in Switzerland so him and his wife and three kids got to live out there for a couple years.
Bro, I went from business and accounting to engineering and I don’t cry at all!!! My life has changed from ok to amazing!!!!!
I am happy asf because I can afford anything that I ever wanted.
You say you would switch because you like how accountants lives are more in line with where you want to be, you would not be “dropping engineering because it’s too hard”, but because you like accounting more. Follow your heart man, although I will say you probably won’t need to stop golfing when you become an engineer.
- how many more years of school do you have left?
- what form of engineering are you in now?
- have you talked to somebody about the right routes to go about things?
- what professional experience do you have?
I am now in data science/data analytics but went to school for mechanical engineering. I currently do nothing mechanical engineering related. I loved the curriculum I overcame, but wasnt crazy about industry when I worked and thats why I did that data pivot.
The thing is, I was able to leverage my engineering skillset to make my career change possible. I had to work really hard for that also.
I wanted to code every day for a living and a data pivot was the most transferable way to do so. I now code every day on a more business-facing industry. When I look for more work in the future, I will likely stay this route.
Ask yourself - what is a quality of life you want in your day to day? (coding, schmoozing, desk job, out & about job)? - do you think accounting is the best field for you? have you explored others, the accounting job market, or the accounting market future prospect? Ive met a few accountants and every company needs accountants, but I also think pursuing “accounting” might limit you only to “accounting” where as other finance related majors might help you keep doors open. - have you networked a lot?
From what I understand, accountants make similar money and have less career options. If you want a well-paid data entry job, then go accountant. But if you just want decent pay with plenty of PTO, then switching probably won’t do you any better.
Just get the degree. You can go into accounting or estimating or other types of book keeping pretty easily. Also everyone is different. Engineers tend to skew more introvert but also there are sales engineers who love to socialize. Engineers tend to overthink things and you’re doing a great job at that! Jk
It's important to understand what their lives were before hand too. There are plenty of not well off accountants.
Usually the ones that are well off either did everything right very early and have just continued that trend or they came from money which allowed them to focus on making money more than paying down debts.
Also my GPA is a 2.3 right now. I graduate next year and am in my mid 30's.
Speaking from experience the ones with money usually come from it.
Finish engineering and go into accounting, work for a defense contractor, profit greatly
Okay, cool.
So in engineering there are companies that do have somewhat of that workplace balance. And of course there's companies that will not have it. But it's geared towards people who actually really love engineering and solving problems. Find what you like but also consider in your future that maybe something that you love and enjoy like accounting. Would it actually provide really good stability in the long-term future or is it more just something that can be replaced as someone mentioned with AI.
User deleted comment
7d
I didn't say or mention that engineering will get replaced by Ai maybe certain aspects of engineering are more software based (as I think Ai will only be good in its relative domain) but fs Ai can also do some level of administrative work (HR, accounting, finances) and even then even if it's not going to replace 100% of the work force it can fs displace a certain amount of people to look for other jobs.
User deleted comment
7d
So does the PE exam?
If one day of golf with a select group of people is enough to make you want to switch your major, it's super clear you should change your major. Especially if you're major is that low.
It's also just weird to me that you're basing your entire choice off a cherry picked group of people and that somehow represents ALL accountants and ALL engineers.
Every company I've worked for has had both engineers and accountants. The lives of these people look pretty similar. Because their lives are dictated by their location, industry, and company.
And both often play golf.
The accountants play on the weekends, when they are not stuck in the office for 10 hours.
The engineers play on Thursday afternoon at 2pm because no engineering manager can afford to fire 4 good engineers that leave a couple hours early hahaha.
No one has ever regretted getting an Accounting Degree. Get your CPA, then you're set for life...
Your gpa very low
Was that your first experience networking with people who had good jobs? lol