Leaving I.T. for finance??

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I work in the tech industry, something I had studied for and wanted for a long time. For a brief while I considered accounting because it sounded quiet, repetitive, and solid as far as job prospects and pay went. But the attitude as of late has been you should work in a tech and since I had more interest in computers (built my own, I like playing with SQL so wanted to move in the direction of data or being a sysadmin, etc), I chose this path.

It’s ok. I probably do better working with other nerds. But it’s a call center job with a lot of noise and I am interrupted by calls every few minutes because that is just the nature of the job. And we’re the starting point for a career in tech for this company and we work very closely with a few other teams. And seeing what they have to do... I no longer want to be a sysadmin. I don’t know what I would want to do. I don’t think I would like programming very much. But I keep thinking back to accounting and how I just... wanna take math classes nonstop with little or no pretense of using it for coding. And that accounting is just all numbers and a million little rules and is super predictable and that just all sounds really nice.

So I googled how often people leave I.T. for finance and... they don’t. It’s the other way around. Because you’d have to be an idiot to leave such a thriving field. But I don’t think this is what I want anymore.

Is anyone here in accounting? Do you like it? I feel like it’s worth mentioning I highly suspect I have Aspergers but no one else does. My therapist maybe. We’re working on it. But my family is convinced I’m this outgoing tech genius and that’s not who I am and it’s certainly not who I want to be!! I just want to sit quietly and do my work.

I know a civil engineer who now works as a landscape designer. Problem was, her old job was all about doing stuff cheaper. Not about creating something beautiful. She is much happier now. And it is likely she will live longer as her present job is a lot healthier.

I don't know about the finance industry in general, but I day trade on the side and I love it! Love it! I do alot of research, which I like, a lot of stragizing, which I like and the best part is I almost never talk with anyone (Every now and again I have to call Fidelity for clarification on things) which I love.

Only problem is you have to have a lot of starting capital to do it. That kind of sucks.

It is accounting I would be interested, and maybe financial analysis.

My concerns are basically:
1) I have no degree. I want one! I really do. I love school, I miss studying. I’m 32 and it is time. So if I go back I basically have to mean it this time... unlike the other 5 or 6 times.

2) projected job growth for accountants in the USA is favorable but I do worry about accounting jobs becoming automated. But if/when that happens, could I become, say, a fraud analyst? Something like that? I have read accounting jobs are high-risk for automation. So when I say I am nervous about what others may think, I am seeing as someone in IT taking a potentially large step backwards career-wise.

And also... I have not been diagnosed with Aspergers. I have ADHD and a lot of my symptoms overlap with Aspergers. My family does not recognize this, and they believe ADHD is simply an inability to focus, and that I talk too fast, am too dramatic, etc. They don’t know that I have get this way about my job for quite some time. They think I am just a very dramatic person and they very rarely do anything about my feelings aside from dismissing or downplaying them, which has only thrown fuel on the fire so to speak. So the likelihood of them taking this seriously is extremely low. I know this should not bug me but it does. A lot.

If you don't mind me asking, can you get the money to get a degree? My apologies if that's too intrusive.

It so happens that my brother has his degree in accounting, and has had some accounting jobs. I brought up your situation and I am going to paraphrase here, but basically he said that depending on where you live you may need a lot of experience or have to know someone to get a job in accounting. I mentioned how you just wanted to sit quietly and do your work. That constantly having to pick up the phone was bothering you. Well according to him you can forget about working in peace with an accounting job. That phone is still going to be ringing sometimes with angry customers who feel the IRS is cheating them and who will then take their anger out on you. The only thing that would change from switching from IT to accounting is what you talk to customers about.

What do you think about trying a web based business?

That could allow you more control over how and when you communicate with customers. As I said before I don't know what business you should go in to, but I can spit ball ideas if you like.

IMO take the one that pays more then save till u have 800k-1m. This is enough invested properly to live off of permanently, so then you can retire immediately.

I went the other way: finance to data science. Granted, I had an Engineering background and was previously working as a quant in finance. My main reason was that these quant jobs were very few and far in between even though few people were conpeting for them and there would only be one new opening every several weeks or so. I found that my skills were more transferrable to data science and there were far more openings in that in every major city so I moved to that.