Career change

[financegeek]

I'm a tech geek who didn't know what to do in college and got talked into going the easy route and studying Accounting for a guaranteed job after graduation (this was after Enron failed and accounting was briefly considered "sexy"). I worked as a programmer for my university job and took some basic CS. I really miss the creativity of creating something and wish that I had studied CS, engineering, or a hard science. I liked my job when there was still some mystery, but I've gotten to the point where I'm looking for the next intellectual challenge. Since I have a masters in accounting and that is where my job experience is, I'm afraid that it will be hard to change careers into something more fitting my personality. I'm thinking of going to school for an MBA in entrepreneurship and starting over, but wanted to get some advice. I'm pretty tired of just being a cog in the corporate machine and would like to feel like I'm contributing something to society/humanity. Perhaps a socially conscious start-up? I do also have non-profit and international experience. My former boss said I should get back into programming so I could be making things again. Thoughts?

[barry-cotter]

1. Don't do an MBA to do entrepreneurship. You would be far better off finagling your way into a job in an early stage startup, seeing what's going on and getting experience in a company without lots of structure and procedure. See spencerfry's take on what even someone who's not overwhelmingly technical can do in a startup[0]

2. If you do an MBA, do an accelerated one [1],[2]. If you're considering changing because you've plateaued in your professional growth you may just need a change of area and that's where MBAs are good, but if you have a Masters already you've spent enough damned time in college without doing more than is absolutely necessary.

3. UChicago has a CS Masters that I believe is more welcoming to students who don't fit the traditional profile for people wanting to do CS. I imagine it's pretty brutal though.

[1]http://spencerfry.com/whats-a-non-programmer-to-do

[2]http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020425140457434...

[3]http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/st_mbamainchart_...

[financegeek]

I'm very interested in the start-up culture and definitely agree that I've done enough school for the moment and am ready to get to work. I think the thing to do is just get back to coding and getting into the community to see where it can take me.

[bwh2]

I earned my BS in accounting, but now I'm a developer. Your story sounds a lot like mine. A few thoughts:

* Logistically, changing careers out of accounting/finance is relatively simple. Just explain it like you already did.

* A MBA is a ticket into the corporate machine, not a ticket out.

* You should start programming again. There is significant demand for accountants with developer skills. Your boss is also right.

After leaving my accounting/finance job, I took a year "off" to build a web app, then worked at a non-profit, now working at a great midsize interactive agency.

[financegeek]

I'm sorry for the late reply. Did you have to go back to school or were you able to be hired on the merrit of your web app? Do you think that not having a formal CS degree has been detrimental to your career?

I do plan to start programming again. My experience was mainly Perl with some VB and Java thrown in. I've heard good things about Python and am going to try it out.