thanks for the insight. I work in higher education and find that most students are looking for the more concrete (lifetime) career. For those students, who have solid math skills, I always point them towards engineering or accounting/finance.
I think you could breakdown the post graduation options for most academic disciplines in to those three categories; Graduate school, some career job that is semi-related to their field but not a perfect fit, and high school teacher. I’m worried about the number of people that pick number one or three and a few years later aren’t happy.

@josh – I was actually thinking (but apparently I didn’t write it down) that I wouldn’t need to go back in time but I could simply start it over from this point. I think it is very few people that can really retain a lifelong interest. Things that are really interesting to me tend to remain so for about 5 years if I am externally motivated … about 3 years if I do them on my own.

Another thing is that I’m … hmmm … talented in I have a lot of choice in what I could be quite competent at, so I essentially have to choose what I want to do before I die. With 5-10 years on everything, I have 4-12 things left I can do.

That’s one way to put it, though I wouldn’t say deferred consumption is quite the right word. Maybe it would be if I had the money in savings accounts. But I have built up enough financial assets to leave the middle class way of life in terms of spending a lifetime servicing liabilities and to leave the working class way of life in terms of working for money. So essentially I decided to become a capitalist because that is what the system and the tax laws favor. It is the aristocracy of the modern age, not working for money.

Jacob, I speculate that your deepest “next” challenge would be to attain the state of not wanting to overtly challenge yourself with an enumeration of 4-12 things before you die. I’m saying that you don’t have to explicitly choose your challenges – you could allow them to choose you. Engage what comes along. Starting and ending could lose their meaning, i.e. what they have meant to you in your previous pursuit(s). Things come and go without discrete chronological cut points.

Chad:

As an auditor, I completely agree with everything you said. The client resents you, and it is always a hassle to get any sort of information from them. The long hours are unbearable, especially since most companies don’t even pay their auditors for overtime (that is the case at my company). This is why I will not be an auditor for much longer.

I also agree that math has nothing to do with being an accountant/auditor.

@Seth – I think you’re absolutely right. When I was young[er], the standard career advice from university councilors was to study whatever you were most interested in. I can see why this is a good for the university as it increased the likelihood of students graduating and the university got paid for graduating students and it would also be good for the student in the short term. However, going in, I had no idea of placement ratios, etc. It never even occurred to me to think about such things.

@Steven – I don’t want to view my life as a check list but I do like to have well-defined goals to strive for despite my insistence on life being process-oriented. It let’s me know where I’ve been.

@Patrick – Nah, that’s not really a challenge.

@josh – As a CPA (but not an auditor), I agree with Chad about the math/accounting connection. It is certainly there – but not to the level every non-accountant thinks. My laptop does all my math for me via Excel or various other programs.

The nice thing about accounting is the varied careers it offers – auditing, tax, G/L accounting, some even specialize in I/T issues. If you are really interested in the field, my advice would be to join a small CPA firm (mine is 10-12 employees). You get so much exposure to many topics and a lot of client contact early on.