Taking a year off of college

What are your thoughts on taking a year away from classes, to get a job and try the "real world" out for a year? I'm majoring in Accounting, and was planning on being a tax CPA. That goal is slowly leaving me disenchanted as I progress toward graduation. Sure, accounting has lots of career options, but they all involve...accounting of some sort . The long hours behind a desk aren't exactly appealing at the moment. I'm thinking about taking a year off, getting a full time job at Geico as a claims rep (the person who answers when you call, and takes your info down, etc.). I have friends and contacts who retired from there, and they loved the company. Basically, I'm hoping I will see lots of room for advancement and higher pay, they'll like me, I'll take the following year off to go back and finish school, then come back to a higher position in the company...or at least have a future of higher positions, maybe as a claims adjuster or manager, etc. Sure, it's setting low expectations, but I'm really afraid of dreading waking up every morning right now as an accountant, and due to the hours a CPA works, the hourly pay rate is not very high. Thoughts? I'll save money for that year of work, maybe take a small vacation at the end, then go back to finish my degree in 3 semesters or so. Even though neither of my parents have a full college education, that was always simply a 'given' for me. I was GOING to get a degree, there was no alternative. Looking forward, I don't know if I want the professional job, sometimes a 40 hour week slowly moving up within a good company seems like enough to be happy.

my first response to your tittle was "hell, yes", having read the thread, I'd say "hell, no". taking a year off to travel the world, join the french foreign legion, be a commericial fisherman, hike the apalachian trail, those I can see. working for Gieco for a year isn't a good enough reason to leave school.

good reasons

1. will allow you to re-think what you want to do with your life
2. will allow you to do tihngs that you will never do later on in life
3. will allow you see things that you will never see later in life
4. will give you a lot of money


anything else isn't worth it.

I'd like to think that without the time spent studying, I could work at Geico AND do some of the things you mention. Do you have any recommendations for things that will make a lot of money, that you could do for, say, 30 consecutive yearly stints? LOL.

Your plan hinges on a lot of potential scenarios that may not work out. Don't do it.

I took two years off before college, and although it wasn't by choice, I think it was a really good thing.

I agree with globe, only do it if you are going to be doing something really exciting and worthwhile.

The other option though is get out, get the accounting job, and then maybe hate it. What then?

Uh dude, don't do it. Finish your degree. Don't waste your time as a claims rep. Accounting majors don't have to be accountants for their entire lives. Lots of people start their careers as accountants but then move over to managment. A job as a claims rep won't do anything for you.

Stay in school.

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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Uh dude, don't do it. Finish your degree. Don't waste your time as a claims rep. Accounting majors don't have to be accountants for their entire lives. Lots of people start their careers as accountants but then move over to managment. A job as a claims rep won't do anything for you.

For once we agree. A friend of mine has an accounting degree and has ended up doing something only slightly related to accounting. He does very well financially.

Ditto on what Globe said. Sounds like you are taking time off for all the wrong reasons.

Originally Posted by globetrotter

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my first response to your tittle was "hell, yes", having read the thread, I'd say "hell, no". taking a year off to travel the world, join the french foreign legion, be a commericial fisherman, hike the apalachian trail, those I can see. working for Gieco for a year isn't a good enough reason to leave school.

good reasons

1. will allow you to re-think what you want to do with your life
2. will allow you to do tihngs that you will never do later on in life
3. will allow you see things that you will never see later in life
4. will give you a lot of money


anything else isn't worth it.

Originally Posted by Connemara

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Your plan hinges on a lot of potential scenarios that may not work out. Don't do it.

Originally Posted by randallr

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I agree with globe, only do it if you are going to be doing something really exciting and worthwhile.

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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Uh dude, don't do it. Finish your degree. Don't waste your time as a claims rep. Accounting majors don't have to be accountants for their entire lives. Lots of people start their careers as accountants but then move over to managment. A job as a claims rep won't do anything for you.

+1

also, it will be hard to get back into the swing of college. i know several people who basically dropped out of college/never finished because of a similar decision like this.

Originally Posted by longskate88

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I'd like to think that without the time spent studying, I could work at Geico AND do some of the things you mention.

Not gonna happen.

i took a year off. it did my brain good to air it out.

but then

you don't have to go to college

to have a good time

No freaking way. The only upside I see to this plan is that you hate the short-stint job so much that a desk job looks fantastic in comparison, and I doubt that will happen.

The more likely scenario: You take that year off, meet some cool people at your work, and start getting into that culture. You join the softball league and buy in to what management's selling. Seasons pass, maybe you get a raise, maybe you don't, but you're working hard and returning to school is the last thing on your mind.

Two years down the road you discover your old textbooks and think...naah. You're comfortable and make a steady paycheck.

Five years down the road, you're overworked and burned out, tired of it all, and you wonder what it was you'd wanted to do with your life in the first place - oh yeah - a degree! Once you dust off the old books, you've likely forfeited the credits you worked so hard to earn, so you pretty well have to start over, which sucks badly because you're now retracing your steps just to get back to where you were five years ago. And, five years into the workforce, you're used to a certain standard of living, so you either 1) work days and go to school nights, or 2) move in with your folks to make ends meet, because you haven't saved a dime towards that education you were one day going to finish.

So, in other words, no. I wouldn't recommend it.

Finish college! Don't take time off. It's hard to get back into school mode mentally after you've had time off.