Career advise! Currently graduate student for finance

[maginvizIZ]

Hello everyone! Let me give you a little background about me.

I graduated last summer in accounting at the university of Utah. I decided accounting is too boring so instead of working at one of the big 4 firms; I got a job at a small financial advising company. I'm an operations specialist, meaning I make sure all client accounts are accurate and make quarterly reports.

For the first 6 months or so. I was really busy and learned so much! I've found ways to do my job faster and now honestly takes me 10 hours a week to do my job, then I sit on my ass for the other 30 hours, looking busy.

I'm currently getting my masters in finance at U of Utah... After this semester I'll have 20 credits left. I could graduate as early as December 2016, or take my time in school and graduate spring 2017.


With that being said... What's my best option?

I recently went from salary ($40,000) to hourly ($22), working 30 hours a week. I feel like I could land a job making 50-55k plus $5500 per year of tuition reimbursement (if I take my school slow, which id have to do working 40 hours, they pay for 2 years; $11000).

The school says average student with working experience average $67500 after graduation, with $80000 average for last semesters graduates.

Does it financially make sense to stay at my job where I do close to nothing (getting paid to do homework I guess), or find an internship where I could gain more experience while going to school... Or do I get an entirely different job?

[maginvizIZ]

The questions is part finance related, part "what the hell am I doing in a dead end job" question. I think my firm I'm at is too small to move up in (10 employees, 2 in operations/financial decision making).

Getting a new job will give me an extra $15000 ish ($10k salary bump, 5k tuition). But with the tuition reimbursement program, I'm sure I'd have to stay with the company for 2 years. So I guess it would trade off flexibility...

Maybe I should take advantage of my job and just get the absolute best grades? I'm signed up for the CFA exam in June... But there is a lack of feeling accomplished... I've basically done nothing at my job since January.

[mozar]

I would go to the career center and line up informational interviews. During the interviews ask them what would make you stand out on your resume.
I would be concerned about taking a job with tuition reimbursement that requires you to stay after graduation. You want to get the best most highest paid job right after graduation, you can't do that if you are stuck somewhere. You are not helping yourself in life if you take a job making 55k and are stuck there, when you could've stuck it out and waited for an 80k job.
I would graduate in spring 2017 only because you will be in line with on campus recruiting. They interview in the fall for jobs that start in the spring, and those are the best jobs. Unless part time students aren't allowed to do on campus recruiting in which case you should switch to full time. And yes, go for the internship in summer 2016 (start interviewing now).

[maginvizIZ]

Thank you for your input!  You're probably right about the tuition reimbursement portion...

Regarding summer internships...  I'm worried about being unemployed after the internship. If I'm unemployed... Taking 6 credits to stretch my credits out to spring doesn't seem smart.  While I understand a lot of campus recruiting is targeted for graduates graduating in spring.... I'm not sure if its smart to do part time school with no type of work to keep my occupied.

[mozar]

I didn't say you couldn't work at all. You could find another part time job, or even do fewer hours at your current job. When I was in grad school I did a full time internship that was good for my career during the summer, did classes at night (because I was speeding up my classes so I could graduate in the spring), while also doing a few hours of my regular part time job to keep it going until I could go back up in hours once school started again. You sound young, I bet you can do it. It depends how badly you want that 80k.

[Retired To Win]

... I recently went from salary ($40,000) to hourly ($22), working 30 hours a week. I feel like I could land a job making 50-55k plus $5500 per year of tuition reimbursement (if I take my school slow, which id have to do working 40 hours, they pay for 2 years; $11000).

The school says average student with working experience average $67500 after graduation, with $80000 average for last semesters graduates.

Does it financially make sense to stay at my job where I do close to nothing (getting paid to do homework I guess), or find an internship where I could gain more experience while going to school... Or do I get an entirely different job?

If you go to a $50K per annum job with $5k tuition reimbursement for the 2 years it would take you to complete your schooling, you would have grossed $110K over those 2 years, as opposed to the $68.6K you would gross in your present situation. That's more than $20K per year extra if you go to a new job.

Does that sway you at all?

[BlueHouse]

For me, school is hard and takes a lot of time.  so I would personally stay in the easy job through school and use your free time to study.  But everyone's different and some people thrive the busier they get.