Life After the Corner Office… A Second Career I Never Planned
September, 2026
One of the questions I often hear from executives approaching retirement is, “What am I going to do next?” For some people, the answer is clear before they leave their jobs. For others, it isn’t.
Dave Ripka was in the second group.
After more than 30 years in corporate accounting and finance, including serving as Controller for Xcel Energy, Dave retired without a plan to become a college professor. In fact, teaching wasn’t something he had ever considered.
Then a guest lecture changed the direction of his next chapter.
What started as a possible one- or two-year opportunity turned into more than 14 years teaching accounting and finance. Along the way, Dave developed new courses, conducted research, worked with students and shared his course materials with other university professors.
I asked Dave to describe how this happened and what he learned from the experience. His story is interesting because there was no master plan. He didn’t retire knowing exactly what he wanted to do. An opportunity appeared, he was willing to consider it, and he discovered that he enjoyed something he had never expected to make part of his career.
Here is Dave’s story.
“I never gave much thought to becoming a college professor. When I was 55, I was working as a corporate controller and had already spent more than 30 years in accounting and finance. Teaching wasn’t part of my career plan.
Then I gave a guest lecture.
I had been doing this type of thing for a number of years. I had made presentations to corporate boards, worked with people in my accounting department to help them understand business issues, and given lectures to various organizations. I was comfortable discussing business topics and enjoyed doing research and sharing what I learned with others.
After one guest lecture, the Chair of the Accounting Department, who had attended the presentation, asked me if I had ever thought about teaching.
I hadn’t.
The question eventually led to something I certainly didn’t expect.
From guest lecturer to professor
After I retired from my job as Controller for Xcel Energy, I wasn’t looking for a second career. I was asked to give what was probably a final guest lecture on internal audit and internal controls. The Accounting Department Chair attended and afterward asked if I would consider teaching.
I met with the chair and department staff and decided it might be a good fit for a year or two.
Fourteen years later, I was still there.
The transition from corporate management to teaching wasn’t particularly difficult in terms of knowing the material. I knew accounting and finance and had presented to many different audiences. What was different was the administrative and organizational process.
In a corporation, you have people to help you get things done. As a professor, you don’t have a personal secretary. You have to do your own computer work, put your presentations together, develop tests and exams, prepare class materials and grade the papers.
The grading, in particular, can be very time-consuming and sometimes tedious.
Preparing for a class can also take much more time than someone might expect. Depending on the class, I could spend four to eight hours preparing for each hour in the classroom, especially when there were new accounting rules or new business examples I wanted to use.
That’s something I would tell anyone considering teaching after a corporate career: make sure you understand the work that goes on outside the classroom.
Knowing the material isn’t enough
I was considered a tough grader. That wasn’t because I wanted to be difficult. The material I was teaching didn’t allow for guesses or answers that were simply “close.”
Many of my students were ultimately going to sit for the CPA exam, and the CPA exam doesn’t give credit for sloppy work or almost-correct answers.
At the same time, my classes were popular. I focused on current topics and tried to connect those topics to the class work. I wanted students to understand how accounting and finance applied to the real business world.
I also learned from the classes themselves. I don’t think you necessarily learn something different from every individual student. You learn from the class as a whole. Each class gives you an opportunity to improve your teaching process and your interaction with students.
That became one of the things I enjoyed about the job.
The unexpected part of the second career
One of the best parts of teaching was having the opportunity to develop new classes.
I developed two new courses that were well accepted by the students. I enjoyed researching the subjects, developing the class materials, teaching the classes and eventually presenting the materials to other university professors so they could potentially teach the courses at their schools.
Teaching also allowed me to spend time researching topics that genuinely interested me, particularly corporate governance and SEC accounting. Those interests eventually became classes that I taught for several years.
That was something I hadn’t anticipated when I started.
I didn’t miss much about corporate life after I left. I had enjoyed being a controller, and I was fortunate to have excellent management and talented, knowledgeable and dedicated employees.
I did miss the people.
But I didn’t miss the pressure of preparing quarterly and annual financial statements, closing the books every month, explaining financial results to senior management, preparing for board and shareholder meetings, working with outside auditors and managing the department.
I enjoyed doing those things when they were my job. I just didn’t miss doing them after I retired.
Was it really a second career?
I never really thought of it that way.
I knew I could do the job. I knew the material and had spent decades presenting to different audiences. What surprised me was how much I enjoyed it and how long it lasted.
Eventually, though, it was time to move on again.
COVID was happening, and I wanted to travel internationally. I also wanted to work on some new challenges. I had become very serious about music and wanted to learn a musical instrument, which is a serious challenge in itself.
So I retired from teaching.
It wasn’t a carefully designed career plan. It was more a matter of recognizing that I had enjoyed the work and was ready to move on to something else.
What should someone consider before making a similar move?
If I were talking with someone in their 50s who was considering teaching as a second career, I would ask them to think about whether they are comfortable with the actual work involved.
Can you work independently? You aren’t going to have a staff pulling materials together for you.
Are your computer skills good enough? You will need them for developing lectures, class handouts, spreadsheets and other materials.
Are you willing to prepare and grade exams and papers?
Can you stay current in your subject? Depending on what you teach, that may mean keeping up with regulations, legal issues and other developments that affect your field.
Can you see the material through the student’s eyes? Knowing something yourself isn’t enough. You have to be able to explain it so the student understands the key points.
Organization and research skills are important as well.
I would also tell someone to become involved with professional organizations that support the area they want to teach. Those relationships can be valuable, both for staying current and for finding opportunities to teach.
There are also different types of teaching opportunities. Someone considering this path should think about whether they would be comfortable teaching night classes or online classes. Colleges and universities are putting more pressure on professors to do online teaching.
I taught a number of classes online. Neither my students nor I cared much for it, although there were certainly situations where it made sense.
And there is one other skill I would add: sales.
You have to be able to sell a course or topic to a university committee. You also have to sell the topic to the students. Just lecturing isn’t going to do it.
Looking back, I never planned on becoming a professor. I thought I might teach for a year or two.
Instead, I found another professional chapter that lasted more than 14 years.
Sometimes you don’t need to know exactly what your next career is going to be. You just need to recognize an opportunity when it comes along—and be willing to find out where it might lead.”
Dave Ripka
“A satisfying career — and a satisfying life — is found through actively creating your own luck and making the most of new and unforeseen experiences.”
John Krumboltz
Professor of Education and Psychology at Stanford University
