Why I Left Accounting After Becoming a CPA

Summary

Jack Forrest explains why he left accounting shortly after building a career that included working at KPMG, earning a CPA license, and taking a remote accounting job. He does not regret the qualification or experience: they provided income, stability, credibility, business knowledge, and savings to support a career transition. His decision was driven chiefly by the nature and organization of the work—not by a belief that accounting or remote work is wrong for everyone.

Career Path and Value of Accounting

• After military service, Forrest used GI Bill benefits to return to school. An introductory accounting course led him to pursue the profession.
• KPMG was the only Big Four firm that interviewed and hired him. He worked in state and local tax while studying for the CPA exam.
• The firm paid for exam preparation. Forrest passed within a year and received a $5,000 bonus.
• He says accounting brought stability, a solid income, a professional reputation, and access to more job opportunities. He also notes that raises can be substantial in some roles, occasionally reaching double-digit percentages.
• He views a CPA license and Big Four experience as credentials that can open doors beyond traditional accounting.

Why He Left

• Forrest had become bored and exhausted by repetitive spreadsheet, software, month-end close, and reconciliation work.
• The issue was not that individual tasks were highly complex, but that many small, simple tasks accumulated alongside emails, calls, and meetings.
• He did not want to spend another 20–30 years at a computer for 8–10 hours a day doing similar work.
• In his remote role, he felt pressure to remain available and online for long hours, while expectations about task priority were often unclear.
• He felt managers tended to add work and deliver criticism without enough acknowledgment, support, or opportunity for employees to give feedback. He emphasizes that this describes his experience, not everyone’s.

Operational and Management Lessons

• Set explicit boundaries and priorities for remote work. Without clear expectations, employees may feel obliged to handle every request immediately or remain online beyond their productive work hours.
• Control task overload. A stream of small requests can crowd out more pressing work and push routine tasks to the end of the day.
• Make feedback two-way. Forrest argues that managers should listen when employees are overloaded and recognize additional responsibilities, rather than communicating only through criticism or new assignments.
• Design roles around sustainable workloads. A busy schedule can feel engaging, but work without adequate time to rest can become exhausting.

What He Plans to Do Next

Forrest has enrolled in a one-year HVAC program at a local college that also includes solar technology. He hopes it will lead to hands-on work outside the home and greater autonomy during the day.

He is considering several options rather than committing to one:

• Taking a part-time job while studying.
• Freelancing in accounting or bookkeeping with one or two clients, rather than taking on a larger workload.
• Starting an HVAC business, potentially with classmates who have relevant experience.
• Growing his YouTube channel into a side income that could eventually become his primary income source.

He values flexibility, autonomy, work–life balance, and a stronger connection between effort and reward more than maximizing salary alone. He says he has saved enough to spend roughly a year studying and working part-time while exploring his options.

Career-Transition Playbook

1. Identify what is not working in the current role—in Forrest’s case, repetitive work, task volume, unclear expectations, and limited control over time.
2. Preserve the value of past experience rather than treating a career change as wasted effort. Forrest plans to apply his accounting knowledge and software experience to future work.
3. Explore new directions through training and small-scale tests before choosing a long-term path.
4. Use financial reserves and part-time work to support a transition while evaluating whether self-employment or a new trade better fits personal priorities.

Key Timeline and Metrics

• Forrest passed the CPA exam within one year and received a $5,000 bonus.
• He began his remote accounting job about a year before the video.
• The HVAC program lasts one year.
• His savings are intended to cover about a year.
• He is considering a bookkeeping workload of one or two clients.
• Forrest says he had only recently resigned and had not yet taken a day off when the video was filmed.

Presenter and source: Jack Forrest.