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[spider_jerusalem]

Haven't de-lurked here in a good long while. I was just hoping somebody around here has good advice. I'm kinda hoping octoprof shows up.

Two years ago my spouse graduated with his humanities PhD just as I was finishing up my second bachelor's degree in accounting. (I'm a humanities transplant. Right around the time I'd graduated and spent a year working, and my spouse was beginning the comps process, I did a little research into the humanities job market situation and said, uh, no thanks. Hmm, somebody's gonna have to support us! I knew law school was dead-end and I hadn't the desire anyway, so I decided to try something more quantitative.) We'd planned to let him take a turn in his graduating year's market; if a miracle happened and my spouse got a job, we'd move to that place and I'd find a job in the area. If he didn't, I'd just get a job with a firm near my family and support him for a year or so while he published.

He did get a job (only about a seven hours' drive from my family and hometown, too) and I realize how lucky that makes us - it's a good semi-academic admin job, doing work that he really loves. (And we're really really lucky to only have a tiny bit of student loan debt, since we lived in one of the few places in the country where tuition and living are cheap and scholarships and stipends are generous.)

I, however, did not. In 2009, in this area there was just... nothing. In 2010 there was still nothing. Firms have done a lot more laying off than hiring. There was a brief little explosion in the spring but it looks like that's over. The ironic part is that our school was third-tier in humanities at best, and a top 20 accounting school. (If I had been mobile and hadn't gotten a job on the local/regional market, a phone call from our department chair would've solved it. Alas, zero department connections in HusbandsJobVille.) However, the local market for entry-level accountants where we live now is terrible. Hell, the market for experienced CPA's is terrible. I've met a former controller for a mid-sized corporation who's been out of work for a year and a half. Entry-level jobs (or at least jobs with entry-level pay, like $40-45k) frequently ask for five years of work experience and certification. I mean, it's so bad that one job I just saw posted is for an accounting assistant doing coding, accounts receivable processing, and data entry, and it asks for a bachelor's degree in accounting. This is insulting.

(I hope I don't come off sounding like an entitled snowflake here. I've applied for job or two that just prefers an associate's; I don't think I'm too good for low pay or status. But the idea that someone needs to know SOX regulations and internal control risk assessment procedures and linear programing and yada yada to do basic bookkeeping or high-complexity secretarial work really rankles. Credential inflation, what hast thou wrought? I thought my field was immune to this!)

I just don't know what to do. I have some work experience thanks to audit projects with my family's little firm, and my GPA was decent, so? The obvious answer is to take my professional exams and get certified, but the idea that I'll pass them and do just fine and still not be able to find work (while having to pay the dues and continuing education fees, natch) is completely terrifying. If I'd known how bad things were going to be up here, I would've taken one of the couple of offers I had near AlmaMaterVille and risked, like, the dissolution of my marriage. But I just didn't know.

This has just completely destroyed my confidence and I worry that shows in interviews. God, just getting the degree was bad enough in that regard! (I probably don't have to explain to most of you guys how tough it is on the psyche to go from a little undergrad humanities star to working hard to do average work; to re-teach yourself algebra because you're in calculus and they expect you to know it already or something; to force your left brain to take over when your right brain's been in their driver's seat virtually since birth; to go from easily fraternizing with lang and lit profs to, well, not. Now that I think about it, why the heck did I do that to myself?) And I know I got pretty good at it, especially the more quantitative parts and I figured out that I really like math (which most accounting isn't), but... *sigh* I just don't believe in myself in this field anymore. That's nuts, right? I mean, on the one hand, I am very fortunate to have not made the mistake of trying to get a PhD in liberalwhatthehelleverstudies (I've always been more of a general liberal arts nerd; sticking with one subfield for more than five years would send me off the deep end), but is the alternative any better? GAH!

I hope I don't sound like too much of a whiner. We need more money but more importantly, I'm just going crazy with all the nothing I'm contributing to society, all the mental engagement that I'm not experiencing, all the socializing with non-canine mammals I'm not doing for 90% of my waking hours. Crazy, like I have noticed myself talking out loud when no one is there crazy. This is painful.

 

[lasquires]

Ok, first of all, take the CPA exam. You are a better job candidate with that credential in your pocket, as most of the people competing with you for jobs are going to have it.

Secondly, look into internship programs with major firms. Given that you say you came from a Top 20 school, I'm a little surprised that your program didn't have something like this set up for you. Everyone I know who graduated in accounting from one of our state schools did a one semester internship with Deloitte, which, in many cases, led to a full-time job.

Finally, if you are having trouble finding full-time employment, you might try hanging out your own shingle, so to speak. I have a CPA sister who quit her big-time job at Deloitte and now does tax returns and bookkeeping for local businesses in her pajamas at home (she has a six-month old), and she makes very good money doing it. Naturally, it takes a while to build up a client base, but you could start by advertising yourself in local business newsletters and even Craigslist (I've gotten quite a bit of freelance work off Craigslist). A little client work like this would also give you some of the experience that potential employers are looking for, and since your spouse is employed, I'm guessing that you don't need the benefits that come with a full time job.