[john kane]

i think this is a very interesting topic. i'm right on the borderline but have gone down the job route.

i had 3 categories of jobs i applied to: trading at banks, big 4 accountancy firms for audit, lesser accountancy firms for audit.

in hindsight i should of expanded my application horizons. if i got offered trading, no decision, i take it. if i get offered big 4 but not trading, close, but marginal take it, if only lesser firm, i go pro for a year and reapply.

part of me wishes i'd deferred my acceptance of an offer, reapplied (secretly) to banks for better paid jobs such as consultancy, trading etc and have the big 4 auditing job to fall back on. also means i can go pro for a year, win $200K or so, then i can put down a $300K-$350K deposit down on a nice house with another $150K-$200K mortgage and get something good (i live in london so anything less than $500K kinda sucks pretty hard). One other problem is that I'd of turned 27 by the time I get my chartered accountancy qualification assuming I pass first time (not at all easy). Most people do this by the time they turn 24 (I took gap year+4 year course as studying in scotland+then a online poker year). It's a year older I'd rather not be.

instead im accepting the offer. i think i want my life to move on from the whole online poker thing. its been great, but the ultimate goal i think for me is to be in a decision making, well respected, decent paid job in my 30s. Not sitting in my nice house thinking what the [censored] am I going to do.

I guess the career/rat race gives us a challenge that as humans we need. Challenge gives us something to do.

Trading always gave me a shot outside the accountancy route given my poker experience, but not knowing anyone who had applied, I didn't realise I actually needed to know a [censored] load about markets etc themselves, not just rock up and say im a decent poker player i understand risk etc.

There are so many variables in life it's impossible to know what to do. Whatever end goal we hope for it'll never be as good as when we longed for it. The most important factor I think is just to enjoy the ride.