Hi everyone. I'm graduating in May with 2 majors, one of which is accounting and I am currently faced with an interesting choice. I have it down to 2 offers that are very different and offer different paths, flexibility and levels of security in life. I am planning to begin studying for and pass the CPA exam in my first year of work.
Choice 1: Stick with near-whole career at same company. This is not an accounting position, but rather a finance-related job with a stable government institution although the skills learned aren't very transferable to many other fields. The pay is pretty good, but not quite on par with Big 4. It does have decent pay advancement, but frankly after somewhere around 8-10 years, pay tops out at around 100k USD in an affordable metro. However, it offers a decent pension as well as an outstanding 401k match. Long-term earnings are probably somewhat to significantly lower depending on how well I would do in an alternative accounting career. One thing I like is that there is a lot of time-off and security with this position and it is a 40 hour a week job. After a few years, I will probably be able to take close to a month off each year to backpack different regions of the world.
Choice 2: Accept an Audit or Tax position with a Big 4 Accounting Firm in my metro. Work my way up and stay for a while or exit after 2-3 or 5-6 years. While I have already turned down a Big 4 offer, I am 95% certain I could get an offer from any of the other 3 firms if I wanted. This route has much higher upside, longer hours, and probably a bit less security. That being said, it offers more flexibility and the skills I will learn will be more transferable if I ever decided to take a year or 2 off work to travel at a young age. I truly don't know how valuable Big 4 experience is and what exit pay looks like in a smaller US metro area.
Choice 3: Go to Law School or something related to pursue a high paying field at a young age.
My long-term goal in my life is to travel the world (I have only been to 20 countries thus far and have so much I want to see), build a large amount of wealth, and possibly retire at a young age to pursue other interests. I don't particularly want a large family or anything that requires significant money.
I'm just looking for feedback on what to do here, particularly from anyone in business-related fields. Starting a first job is a difficult and stressful decision. I want to make the right choice.