Career Vs Baby (27F Chartered Accountant)

[Puzzles10848]

Hi all

I am struggling to make a decision on whether to have a baby or continue with my audit career to progress.

I am currently a Chartered Accountant at supervisor level (will be 2 years to progression at least). I want to ideally start a family before 30:

• My SO is 5 years older than me
• Age related complications are less
• I will have more energy
• We are already on the property ladder and finances are fine

What would you recommend? Have kids or hold off?

A few things on my mind are:

• I was thinking of starting fresh in a firm after as a financial controller/work my way up
• worried that people my age/ at my workplace would frown on this and I'm worried I won't be taken seriously as most people wait until Manager/SM before starting a family
• I might be starting in a new audit department, shall I hold this off?

I say go for it, if you feel ready!

I think you're overthinking it, if you want a baby, just do it.

Check your benefits before starting to try, in my firm you don't get full maternity benefits unless you've been employed for 2 years. That's all I can think of. You have a husband, a career and house - I don't see anything stopping you! I haven't managed to have all 3 yet!

Also, maternity can affect your career harder if you're too senior so get it done early-ish of finances allow.

Are you quite newly qualified...?

It won't hold your career back if you go on maternity leave now, but if you want to take a career break of several years when the baby is small, you need to be careful you're not on a break for longer than you've been an accountant for. Otherwise, you'll find getting back in the game difficult.

I mean, either way I'd do it - it sounds like this as good as any a time for you to try (assuming you're comfortable with giving birth in a pandemic). Just if you do take a serious amount of time out, you should make sure you seriously keep your CPD up as well. Apart from anything else, it will help your confidence when you return.

In my experience, a qualified accountant can always find a job - the issue tends to be more around the accountant's confidence if they've been out of the game for a while. You can deal with that by making staying technically up-to-date a real priority. If you know you still have the knowledge, you'll run a lower risk of suffering from imposter's syndrome.

I was 29 and working in audit when I had my first baby. I made partner when my third baby was 9 months old. So I’d say go for it. You can make it work if you want to.

CA here too also 26. I plan to work to get to manager level over the next 2-3 years and then trying for a baby.

Depending on work load I might make the decision to leave for industry after this.

I think it depends on whether you think you might want to go part time after you had a baby or whether your partner would. And whether to progress, you need to move around geographically or put in a load of hours.
If you will go back full time then it wont really matter when you have the baby as it shouldn't impact on your career too much (unless the next step up has crazy hours). If you want to drop down to part time then I would wait a couple of years until you are at the next stage in your career, it's often much harder to progress when you're part time as most jobs are advertised as full time positions.
What will affect you as much as age, is how involved your partner is. For example if you cant stay late because you do pick up, it helps a lot if you can go in early because your partner does drop offs. It will look a lot better if your partner shares emergency days off for ill children etc. If he can't or wont do 50pc then I would put it off for as long as you can. I would also seriously consider sharing paternity leave, both to reduce the impact on your career and avoid being the default parent and to encourage your partner to do his share of everything

My SO is a doctor so as he progresses I'm going to have to step in more, so it's a case of probably going part time for a bit before I get back into it fully

@Puzzles10848 why step in more than him and go part time? Why does his career choice mean you have to sacrifice yours? Fine if you want to be with your baby more and therefore want to go part time but why are you making yourself the default parent before you've even conceived??? That's a recipe for resentment right there.

CA as well here... Pregnant at 27 ( Yes, oops at the time!), once I got my head round it, cracked on and qualified first time within the 3 years.

How? 3 months Mat Leave and a shed loads of (carefully chosen) childcare costs, as I was a lone parent from day one. Being younger had the energy to work hard all day and study at night. Could not do that now!:)

As a PP has pointed out, probably easier on your career earlier on, as there are more resources to draw on at your same level within the firm.

No regrets - 18 years later and both me and the kid are flying, with a few more good years of me working at a very Senior Level still ahead of me, with the benefit of solid experience - in a really strange way I feel like I have grown 'younger' being early 40's with a near adult child and the independence that brings!

The biggest decision for me I would say, was timing the move from Practice to Non-Practice ( if that is in your radar). Newly Qualifieds sell like hotcakes as a PP noted , so anything within 5 years still gives you the 'tag' as current with latest standards etc

Still, a hugely personal decision based on individual circumstances, but just to say it can be done, even better if you have a supportive partner. Good Luck and best wishes

Hats off to you @MrsWobble3 for making it to partner in those circumstances... Very impressive!

ACA and CTA here at top 4 and I am 11 weeks pregnant at 26. Decided some things are more important than a career and there are so many careers you can go into. I know lots of managers/senior managers/partners where their career really took off once children were at school. You have a long time till retirement so don’t burn out now!

This was me 13 years ago.. My daughter is now 12 and I don’t regret my decision at all. I did choose to leave the big four straight after maternity leave but have a great career in public sector (not a financial management role.) I don’t regret my decision for a second, it made me realise there was much more to life than 18 hour days! Potentially I could be earning more, but we’re happy (as you can be with homeschooling in lockdown).

There's a time limit on having kids but not on careers. You're already highly qualified. Have the child, the career will be there after. IMO of course. But I wouldn't delay too much if you know you want kids, better to find out early if there are issues etc. (No judgement on anyone who had babies later in life though)

I had a baby at 24 and went on to have a stellar career in a very high-pressured job. Was offered Partnership at 26, even though I was a single mum. You can have both a baby and a career. No need to choose.

You don't sound like you want one yet so wait. Could you pay for a fertility assessment of you're worried about warmly menopause etc?
At 30-32 you'd hardly be a geriatric mother, even if you wanted a 2nd