Summer is the Perfect Time for a Career Stocktake
Summer has a habit of giving us a little more space. For some, that means holidays, family time, and a chance to step away from deadlines and work pressures. For others, it’s a few slightly quieter weeks, when the pace changes just enough to allow room for thought.
Either way, it can be a useful moment to take stock of your career. But when I say this, I don’t mean deciding you need to leave your job.
A career review is not the same as a job search. It’s about taking the time to think about where you are right now, where you want to get to, and whether your current role is helping you move in that direction.
Be honest with yourself
In accountancy practice, career paths can appear quite structured. The path is laid out, but in reality, people’s priorities and circumstances are different. The important thing is knowing what matters to you.
A good place to start is by asking yourself a few questions. Are you still learning? Are you being challenged in the right way? Do you know what your next step looks like? Have you had a proper conversation about progression, salary, training and development? Do you know what you need to do to move forward?
If the answers are unclear, it doesn’t mean you’re in the wrong place, but it probably does mean you need a conversation.
Don’t wait until you are frustrated
It’s also worth thinking about whether your role still reflects your strengths. The work you enjoyed a couple of years ago may not be the work you want to continue doing. As you gain experience, your confidence grows, your interests change, and your expectations of work often shift, too.
In my experience, people tend to wait until they’re unhappy before talking about their future. By that point, the issue can feel bigger than it needs to be. A good employer wants to understand your ambitions and help you achieve them, but they can’t do that if they don’t know what you want.
Keep in touch with the market
For accountancy professionals, summer can be a good time to look outward. Not because you are planning to move, but because understanding the wider market helps you understand your position within it.
Do you know what other firms are offering? What skills are in demand? What salary level is realistic for your experience?
Keeping your CV updated is part of that process. Not because you need to send it anywhere tomorrow, but because it helps you reflect on what you have achieved, to think about the clients you have worked with, the responsibilities you have taken on, and the progress you have made.
Keep an open mind
Hopefully, this exercise confirms you are exactly where you should be. It could also highlight that you need to ask for more responsibility, clearer objectives, or better support, or that your current role no longer matches your goals.
If that happens, it is better to know than to drift.
Careers rarely go wrong because of one bad decision.
One of the biggest causes of unhappiness at work is when people just keep going. Summer gives us a natural pause, a chance to step back and check whether things still feel aligned.
The answer may be a conversation with your manager. It may be a fresh challenge in your current firm. Or, yes, it could be time to consider a new opportunity. But the point is not to make a rushed decision. It’s to make a conscious one, because your career deserves more than autopilot.