Hi Everyone,
The past few weeks I’ve been hyping myself up to quit my staff accounting job. I’m 26 years old and have about 32k in savings. I work remotely at a public accounting firm with an O.K. workload. Regardless of the hours, it can be stressful and tedious. I have firm boundaries not to work past 6pm when need be.
I feel the workload right now is manageable after a discussion with my supervisor, but my manager keeps talking about giving me more work for my “development”. I love accounting work to a degree but when the deadlines and monthly closes approach all at once I find myself holding my breath the entire time I’m working and even when I’m off I feel tense and burnt out.
I landed this job after graduation but I’ve had various jobs before this and some managerial experience. It’s been about a year and half at this place. I live at home so my expenses don’t exceed a grand a month. I make around 70k w bonuses and such.
Now here’s my dilemma. I have a YouTube channel which I started when I was a teen. I’ve had several videos go viral reaching upwards of 15 million views. I have over 100k suscribers but I make practically nothing from the channel at the moment. Over the years, I have been uploading but pretty infrequently. I get tons of comments telling my videos have been helpful etc and to keep uploading (I make tutorials-don’t want to reveal too much on here). It’s truly my passion and I love it and have a ton of ideas.
I understand that I could do both and I have been lately, but it comes at a sacrifice (not spending time with family/friends, skipping the gym, not eating etc.) To be successful, I feel like I have to dedicate more than full time hours on youtube and branch out to other platforms. I want to give it my all for once because over the years school and other obligations were my priority.
I feel like the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward but I can’t help thinking I’d be a big idiot by leaving my “cushy” 9-5 job in this market and dwindling all the money I’ve worked hard to save.
Please give me your honest opinions 🙏
Hello, fellow accountant. I also did public accounting, and I will say leaving them was one of the best decisions of my life. A job shouldn't leave you feeling drained every day. I work in industry now, have about six years of experience, and make six figs working ~25-30 hrs a week.
As someone who also has a passion for content creation, I don't think you should pick one or the other. Getting any kind of traction online is rare and I would be hesitant to let something like that go, as asking "what if" for the rest of your life might eat you up inside.
I think the sensible thing would be to find a different job, one that leaves you with enough energy to put into making videos. If you're really serious about content creation, I would go for it. There will be enough opportunities to work in accounting if it doesn't work out.