A Career Decision Worth Making Intentionally

Should you stay in public accounting, move to another firm, or leave for something different? Start by examining whether your current role still fits your life, what could change, and what you want your next chapter to make possible. There is also a third option worth exploring: stay, but with changes.

How old were you when you decided to become an accountant? I was 19. I question my judgment back then on a number of things, but that decision helped lead me to where I am today. The question is whether the plan I made then still fits who I am now.

As a coach, I don’t tell clients whether to stay or leave their jobs. My role is to support their decision-making so they can make the best decision for themselves. This four-part guide offers questions and practical frameworks to help you do that.

1. Revisit the Plan You’re Following

We can become so committed to a plan that we stop noticing when the circumstances behind it change. In the first video, I discuss plan continuation bias: sticking to the original direction even when it may no longer fit the situation.

Your life changes. Your family, location, interests, responsibilities and ambitions can look very different from when you chose this career. A plan that once made sense deserves another look.

Ask what you like about your current experience, what could be better, and what you can change. What do you hope will be different a year from now? Update the plan for the circumstances you have today.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received is to consciously decide each year whether to stay or leave. Even when the job is going well, give yourself the opportunity to choose it again. Staying can be an intentional decision rather than the continuation of an old one.

2. Consider Three Doors: Stay, Leave, or “Stay, But…”

The decision can feel like choosing a door without knowing what is behind it. But it helps to recognize that there are three doors.

Stay: the role fits, you enjoy the work, and it supports what matters to you. Leave: this is no longer the place you want to be, or something else is calling you to explore. Stay, but…: you would like to remain, provided some things change.

Before deciding which door to explore, ask these five questions:

1. How does this feel? Are you challenged, interested and engaged, or exhausted and struggling to find motivation?
2. What would I change? Consider your responsibilities, compensation, colleagues, clients, services or working arrangements.
3. What is keeping me here? What are you still trying to accomplish? A promotion, ownership, a leadership role, or something else?
4. What opportunities am I missing? What are you curious about that you haven’t explored because of your commitment here?
5. What am I becoming? Look at your current trajectory. Is it leading toward someone you want to become?

The answers help you understand what is working, what is missing, and whether your interest in change is about the role, the firm, or the profession.

3. Explore What Would Make Staying Work

I think superheroes are great at choosing work that supports the life they need to live. Superman becomes a reporter. Spider-Man works as a photographer. Their work creates room for something else that matters to them.

In your career, “stay, but…” is an opportunity to explore job crafting: changing aspects of the role to create a better professional and personal experience. You might want more flexibility, different responsibilities, fewer responsibilities, an ownership opportunity, or additional time away.

To assess your requests, I borrow three labels from oil and gas accounting: proven, probable and possible. Here, they are a practical way to think about the evidence behind an ask, rather than measured probabilities.

Proven requests have a precedent you can point to. Someone else in the firm already has a similar arrangement. Probable requests seem feasible, even if you don’t have a direct example. Possible requests may require a larger change or an exception to current practice.

These categories are specific to your firm. Flexibility, ownership or extended leave may be routine in one organization and a significant departure in another. Look at the evidence where you work.

Then consider what I call a keep interview. In a stay interview, an employer asks what would help retain you. In a keep interview, you initiate the conversation: here is what I value about being here, here is what I would like to change, and can we explore a way to make that work?

The conversation helps you test whether staying with changes is a real option. You can learn what the firm is willing to consider and decide whether those changes would meet your needs.

4. Explore What You Want Next

The decision can feel like a tug-of-war. Your current firm may be offering reasons to stay. But what is pulling on the other side? Explore that before assuming every alternative offers the same future.

I use PIONEER as a way to consider a range of options:

• P — Public accounting: change firms while remaining in the profession.
• I — Industry: move into an accounting or finance role within a business, such as controller or CFO.
• O — Outlier: explore something substantially different from accounting.
• N — Not-for-profit: consider work in a nonprofit organization.
• E — Education: explore teaching or an academic career.
• E — Entrepreneur: start your own firm or business.
• R — Ramp: consider an interim step, part-time work or time away while you work out what comes next.

These are options to investigate, rather than a checklist you must complete. Moving to another firm is a different decision from leaving public accounting entirely. Starting your own firm is different again. Look at the experience each could create.

Now turn the five questions toward the future: How do I want to feel? What do I want to change? What is drawing me away? What opportunities do I want? What do I want to become?

Use your answers to explore which options fit, and gather enough information to assess them. The goal is to understand what you are choosing, including what staying would mean.

Make the Decision That Fits Your Life Now

You don’t have to remain committed to a career plan simply because you made it years ago. You also don’t have to leave before exploring whether changes could make staying worthwhile.

Revisit the plan. Understand the experience you want. Test what could change. Explore the alternatives. Then choose with greater clarity.

Work Through Your Next Career Decision

If you’re an experienced CPA, partner or accounting firm leader considering a change, coaching gives you space to examine the decision, challenge assumptions, and identify your next steps. I won’t make the stay-or-leave decision for you. We can work through what matters, what is possible, and what you want your career to make room for.

Explore coaching with The CPA Coach →

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