is anyone a chartered accountant?

[workplacehelp]

Hi, I'm ACA qualified and having a bit of a blip in confidence and a panic about my future as my current job is ruining me.

I used to work in big 4 audit, now I work in economic consulting.
I want to one day be my own boss/do my own thing, but I'm not sure my experience so far sets me up for that.

If you're a CA, what do you do? How did you get there? Are you happy/satisfied?

I'm especially interested to anyone who is self-employed/runs their own business.

Thanks

I'm ACCA. I went from management accounting to more business partnering roles but 10 years ago I took a new job as a reporting/MI manager with niche role to consolidate financial data from two parallel systems. I've a process improvement background - ie always looking for ways to do things better or more efficiently, and that led me to a secondment to a systems team as sort of a systems accountant and then to a frontline area of the business to develop and implement financial MI. My role is now more commercially focused with profitability modelling and KPI creation, and I'm working on developing a small team into a core business function.

I really enjoy what I do now as it's more data/process based and has a real impact on business decisions and direction. I hated being an 'accountant', with all the month-end cycles and constantly being backward looking but that background is definitely the basis of my current work because I fully understand the framework the business operates within and all of the upstream and downstream effects.

I’m a CA. I’ve had some fab jobs, some crap jobs and now run my own practice which is ok. Moved abroad with E&Y which was an amazing experience - from there got my first break in industry as financial controller for a retailer. Loved this job, best job I ever had. Moved back to UK in industry, largely crappy jobs that were undervalued. Running own practice is rewarding but stressful, lonely too.