I am a CPA that graduated college in 2007 and have been building my career professionally ever since.
Every September, like fucking clockwork the bullshit starts trickling down. The days get shorter, the hours in the office get longer. It’s absolute misery and EVERYONE around me does it. I’ve worked in a number of companies, public vs. private, small vs large, F500 vs small sized, it’s the same shit everywhere. September rolls around, budget planning starts, then year end audit and it’s as if those 4-5 months of your life you simply don’t exist. Working weekends is the norm, staying late is absolutely expected. So like groundhog day, every day is the same shit.
Today was no different, I am sitting in my office dealing with my direct reports and peers, my peers (director level) humble brag who worked more on the weekend and who is working later tonight. I am sitting there kinda nodding, but angry at the same time.
Ten years of this shit, doing something I don’t like and being surrounded by people who think it’s absolutely ok to spend years of your life sitting chained to a desk trying to quantify and make sense out of some bullshit numbers, which are wrong to begin with, and in the end someone will “plug” so everything you do is fucking irrelevant to begin with. Sometimes I am not sure if this is real life or what the fuck is it that I am living in. The worst part is i can't talk to any of them about it because we aren't close and the nature of the company is very competitive to begin with. I don't know if they are faking it or not, maybe they are thinking the same thing as me? I have no idea, in reality i don't give a fuck either, but i can't help but wonder once in a while.
Excuse my rant, thank you for reading.
I’d like to hear from the rest of you CPAs/bankers/lawyers/etc how do you deal with the long hours? Do you really love what you do? Are you on drugs? No choice in the matter? I didn’t mind it in my 20’s, as the saying goes “you are paying your dues”, but it’s wearing thin. The only thing keeping me sane is that I have an exit plan within 2 years.
Please share.