I'm currently working in finance with my CPA. I am 29 and currently earn around $80k USD, Given my field and experience, my salary will probably keep rising to $200k USD by the time i am 35 but the honest to god truth is I have zero interest in work. I am functionally depressed and despise most days. My day to day life has been severely affected as of late, as its dawned on me that this is probably my life now. I also don't know if I have the growth mindset to keep rising in such a competitive field.

I also recently got diagnosed with ADHD and an 9-7 job in finance was probably the worst possible route I could have taken. I really don't care about money and have a very short term and impulsive mindset.

I have worked a tradie lifestyle when in college, warehouses, factories, groceries etc and found it fulfilling. Getting my hands dirty, different days always and rarely clock watching. Maybe grass is greener and I have a nostalgic view of my years working on my feet but I just don't think Corporate life is for me. I hate the small talk, the egos and the dog eat dog mentality of finance.

I sometimes think I should move to Asia to teach underprivileged kids or build wells. surely there is more to life than this brahs

Honestly I think tradie is the way to go. I spent 7 years in college studying engineering and have worked in the field for 16 years and absolutely hate this chit. Mind numbing b.s. every day. Be a plumber or do hvac, you will make more and probably hate life less.

Then change but tradies don't make nearly that much. Don't listen to the retarded misc lmao

I have borderline adhd so officecel work is brutal. But being outside in chit weather is brutal too. Pick your poison I guess, if it was fun than it wouldn't be called work

The tradies up where I live make a chit ton, there is a huge shortage so they pick their jobs and charge what they want. I make 170k as an engineer and I know my plumber neighbor makes more than me. Might not be true everywhere.

If you want a break, move to Asia or wherever and teach for a year. You won't make much money but it will give you perspective on what you should do next.

If you think just changing jobs is going to make you happier (especially going to something labor intensive like a trade) I don't think that will happen at all, in fact it will likely be the opposite where you are even more miserable.

Having a CPA license is a fantastic career and it would be extremely dumb to give that up. Just treat work as work and leave it as that, find happiness outside the office instead.

Can't you take meds for adhd?

I probably have adhd and do just fine in tech.

start some sides business man

and escape the tradie and offecel work life

I don't personally know you, but I'm gonna say neither.

Tradie is great, but bad on your body while working in the elements.

I hate the office. I hate 9 to 5.

I think your best bet would be to find a field role or start a business. Since you bring hp construction, what about being a Building Inspector? I don't know exactly what it entails and the days are probably long, but you're active and outside going to different jobsites.

I think this is a great idea. 29, I'm assuming no wife or kids. Teach English in Asia for a year OP.

How many years of experience do you have? / what area of the country do you work in?

$80k seems really low for a CPA at your age...

for 99% of people, I'd say make the switch. but CPA is a great professional designation. You could pivot that to a lot of different things. my buddy was a CPA, went back to law school and is now making $225k as a "consultant" in the DC area at age 38. hes also a sick phuck that loves school and the "grind".

if you grind it out.. you could probably be VP finance or some other similar title by 40 and making $160k+.


If you hate it, the office grind, it shouldnt be hard with an accounting degreee & CPA to find some sort of remote work in the field.

I'm 29 as well OP, but only making ~$64k as an office pleb. I'm actually in the process of joining my local welding union now. hopefully it works out. I cant stand the windowless cubecel life much longer.

I am newly qualified and got my CPA with one of the big 4 global accounting firms.. also based in London UK, so just converted salary to USD for ease.

I hear all your saying but like you said, your friend loves the grind. I personally don't know if I have it in me to climb this corporate ladder so maybe best to cut my losses now and start afresh in a new field. All of the Directors/Partners/VPs I have interacted with in their 40/50s just seem dull and the complete opposite of what I want to be. Also could just be boomers too.

is remote work not a realistic possibility in the UK?

again.. with an accounting degree and CPA, it wouldn't be hard to find remote work in the US where you pretty much never go in the office.

Get a remote / hybrid gig and give up "climbing" the ladder and instead stagnate.

You probably won't be making $200k at 35..( that would require brownnosing and bootlicking) but you could stagnate and still get to $100k+ and have a good quality of life where you never go in the office.


for me, it's not the work so much that sucks (although it is boring and redundant) it's the dress code, the commute to work, the 8 hours in a windowless office, and the everyday corporate in-office pleasantries that kill my soul. If I could find a 100% remote job, I could probably suffer through this another ~30 years till retirement.

Im with you OP

Im in finance and its fukin soul destroying. I wanna go back to working at the airport, it was so much more fun. unfortunately I do care about money so I gotta find a way or look for a high paying tradie job, im thinking about oil rig maxing

Do it OP. YOLO

I'm considering this. Been an electrical engineer for 17 years. Right now I hate my job so ****ing much. In the last 17 years, there was like a 3-5 year time frame where I enjoyed it.

It is, I think I just burnt out hard during the latter stages of covid and the various lockdowns. So pure remote work does put me off slightly, I find it difficult to motivate myself to work from home but could just be the firm I was at..Will look into for sure actually.


Completely agree on your last point. It is what led me to get diagnosed with ADHD because I found the everyday corporate life so difficult to conform me unlike my friends and peers. I thought something was wrong with me and it probably is my ADHD. Helps explain a lot and how my brain works and generally none of the general qualities needed for corporate office life are going to be my strengths

maybe you'll like nursing (some ppl consider that a trade). all the adhd people work in the ER

Everyone should be blue collar and white collar in the future. There's no telling where the economy is headed, best to be prepared in as many industries as you can.

https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=184737773

get rekt sun

depends on what kind of tradie.

a good route (no pun) might be to get your CDLs & be a trucker.

i got my CDLs cuz the training was paid for but the only things i could find were a garbage truck driver for $22/hr, a concrete mixer for $24/hr but M-F 7-5 plus every other saturday so 55hrs a week (fuk that), or a long haul trucker home legit 36hrs, if that, then OTR again, starting off at like $60k LUL. brb working 80-90hrs a week for $13/hr. no thx geoff.

id rather be homeless and live in my truck than to live that kind of chit life srs

i did hear of a guy on reddit who said he makes one run a week from Wisconsin to cali & back. if i was able to find sum'n like that, chiiiiiit. brb OTR for 3-3.5 days & off the rest.

actually it wood have been GOAT to find a trucking job out of bellingham, WA doing runs to anchorage AK.

but chyea, id check on getting ur CDLs. plus maybe you run across a hellofa deal on a lot lizard, what with the economy the way it is & all.

I did almost the exact same thing when I was 28. Graduated college with a BS in Finance and worked several different jobs from 2008 until I left the industry to be a nightshift operator at a wastewater treatment plant in 2014...on the other side of the country. I hated the path I was going down, just saw it as kind of dead end because of how much I hated it and needed to make a change. I left $67k/year for $12.75/hr.....but I had a plan and knew I would be happier if I got out of suit every day, cubicle, corporate office bs. In all honesty the happiest I ever was at work was at that wastewater plant making (after I got some certs) $17/hr working 4on/4off.

FF to today (38 in 2024) I've combined my finance background with about 4 years construction/project management experience I got between 2014-2019 and I'm now (have been since 2018) working for a large scale commercial construction company managing budgets/finance side and schedule's.... making (depending on bonus) $130-$150k/year. I started working from home in 2020 and still do. I travel to jobsites 1-2x a month, travel to the home office in Miami 1-2x a year, wear sweat pants all day, get to workout during the day, blah blah blah.....

a lot more to the story, obviously and a lot of life has happened since 2014....but there was no way in hell I saw myself being able to continue down the path I was going.....and if I didnt have that "fuk it" moment in 2014 where I decided to basically start over I cant even image where/who I would be today.

Stay doing what you are currently doing and squirrel away money for retirement. You will be glad you did.

Keep in mind that all jobs suck so you could throw this current job away only to find out you are starting over at a different job that also sucks.

Make a slight change in your current workplace. The work will always suck so find some workarounds and tweaks that make it better for you. Maybe take up a hobby or the like outside of work so you have something to look forward to.

I was in the Navy for 20 years, hated it the entire time. Never fit in and was mouthy about it which of course didnt go over to well but I didnt care. i couldnt just sit idly and kiss everyones ass like they wanted me to do.

i stuck with it though because now I am able to retire early because of the benefits I get from doing it. So in the long run it was certainly worth sucking it up and doing it.

Now you arent getting those same benefits but you can save some money for your future. You are getting to the age where you need to start focussing on that. A lot of guys arent anywhere near that place in their lives so you are fortunate.

It’s true in Australia, especially allowing for the fact that tradies enter the workforce maybe 5 years earlier than their white collar counterparts.

Finish school at year 10, 3 years apprenticeship, start your own business, 200k gross receipts to start off and pay far less tax than wagecels

If our government was smart they would start importing skilled trades instead of hairdressers and Uber drivers

true, in my cuckville country the plumber charged me $5,500 for 7hrs of digging dirt. He was a brainless fully sick guy. He used a tiny digger and still managed to be reckless enough to hit my gas line and sewer line.

Doing a full time job while studying for something different sounds difficult. Do you have enough in savings to study full time with no income? If not, maybe that could be your goal for 2024. Gives you time to consider the different trades or jobs and stick with something too.

Going into trades can be done at any age. Hell I've been thinking of becoming an electrician once my current venture ends.

cant imagine going from WFH office job that i currently have to being a tradie

do it on the side first to make sure you like it

If you think that’s bad wait til you see what drainage plumbers charge to do a slab set down

0* degrees mornings

chit stained portable toilets

traffic & parking & chit tier fast food

no real idea where your going to be working month after month, can't plan anything

its not all gravy OPIE srs apart from the portable toilet