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Fellow boardmates,

First of all, I apologize for using this board for this matter. I am in a dilemma and it has been haunting me for almost a year now. I lost my job in July '08 and have been unable to find something (other than small consulting gigs - Finance/Accounting). Despite obtaining an MBA (Finance & International Business) and a small certificate from Oxford I find myself unable to land a job (forget decent). Is anyone else here facing a similar problem? Any advice or references for Accounting/Finance related jobs for a 12th year professional? It seems everything I find get passed, either cuz it gets put on hold or I am over/under qualified.

I have exhausted recruiters/headhunters, LinkedIn networks, FinanceLadder, Careerbuilder, Hotjobs, Monster, Jobing, etc etc.

MODS please lock this thread if you find it inappropriate/unacceptable for this board.

I'm sorry to hear about that. I was a Business major last year but now an Economics major doing undergrad and what you say doesn't surprise me. I think people with Business degrees out there are saturating the market, and especially during the downturn, there's less hiring. You certainly are not the first person I've heard who has this problem. Finance is also kind of death right now from what I'm hearing as well.

What I would suggest is to look for accounting jobs in some of the big firms. If you can do some boring audit or tax stuff, that might be a start. Generally Business still needs accountants no matter what the state of the economy.

I think it's tough, but you might need to take something that is beneath your experience and skillset until something right comes along.

Sorry to here that. I am still in school and studying finance, but I know a lot of my friends that graduated are also having hard time landing jobs in finance and accounting.

Wish you good luck

check out some night auditor positions. for example, maybe some hotels or somethin like that can give you some night time gigs to fill in the cash flow alongside the day time gig

Is it possible it's your attitude (lacking positive energy or confidence), your resume needs work (outside source, is it up to date), untimely follow-up (show interest following the interview always with regard), your appearance (dry cleaned, shoes polished, leathers match, a new suit in LA they have like 3 ensemble suits for $100 or some shi* right?, or hygene (breath, clean shave, decent haircut).

Some of the stuff you may not think about all these little things matter. Looking at your post it looks like you have a lot of the bases covered, and you are doing your due diligence, but maybe it's something as simple as one of the things I mentioned. Good luck!

DubaLakers wrote:Is it possible it's your attitude, your resume needs work, untimely follow-up, your appearance, or hygene. Sorry man just looking at your post it looks like you have a lot of the bases covered, and you are doing your due diligence, but maybe it's something as simple as one of the things I mentioned. Good luck!

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR CONDOLENCES & ADVICE.

There are always ways to improve your presentation. Generally, I get a very positive feedback on my resume and interviewing skills. I have consulted professional advice on resume writing and interviewing and most tell me I really don't need to worry about it much.

Most recruiters I have worked with have either jumped ship/left the industry. It is purely due to lack of work that I am not finding anything. I actually worked in Accounting most of my career, however, as you go up the managerial ladder you end up doing mostly finance related stuff. Which is right down my alley. It sucks to be unemployed in this market. Employers are low-balling candidates left and right. Initially I turned down a couple of offers because the managers I would be reporting to did not even have half my qualifications and the pay was horrendous (I refused back then to take a 40% pay-cut). Now I regret these decisions. It is really frustrating sometimes. I don't want my skills to get rusted. I try to keep myself updated with current events (business/economics) to avoid being left behind.

Being a student of economics/business and actively communicating with academia (economic/business experts), I have learned that this market has not bottomed out as far as employment and will probably not bounce back until later next year. Ouch....

BTW - I interviewed with AIG (office across from Staples Center) for a pretty decent job & got turned away because "management" felt I would leave them in a year.

Consider retraining.

I did accounting/finance for 7 years for the government and decided that in addition to it being boring as hell it was a dead end with so many business/finance majors saturating the market.

I learned how to build computers and taught myself how to program and now I'm a fairly successful software engineer receiving high paying job offers almost monthly. I struggled for a couple of years (especially since I was peaking during the dotcom crash) but damn did it pay off in the long run.

It's never too late to do something else, so don't be afraid of change. Personally I'm considering another career change just because I'm tired of sitting in front of a computer all damn day. If you have confidence in yourself that you can do anything, then you can. You just have to act.

As usual, well said semi-sentient.

I'm at a similar crossroads and sometimes its good just to be reminded that you can do anything if you really want it. Thanks.

semi-sentient wrote:Consider retraining.

I did accounting/finance for 7 years for the government and decided that in addition to it being boring as hell it was a dead end with so many business/finance majors saturating the market.

I learned how to build computers and taught myself how to program and now I'm a fairly successful software engineer receiving high paying job offers almost monthly. I struggled for a couple of years (especially since I was peaking during the dotcom crash) but damn did it pay off in the long run.

It's never too late to do something else, so don't be afraid of change. Personally I'm considering another career change just because I'm tired of sitting in front of a computer all damn day. If you have confidence in yourself that you can do anything, then you can. You just have to act.

Hey Semi... Im an IT student looking for an internship. I got a degree in Philosophy and now almost done with a second Bachelor's in IT. any advice on internships, etc? spill some knowledge/insights on that area bro...

thks

They must not like your personallity because I see a lot of those jobs listed. J/k

U just have to settle for less and ride the hard times. It's really difficult to get good paying jobs now.

Have you looked at any government job offers? USAJobs lists most of the gov positions that are open to external candidates.

^^ To that point. I know the government is hiring a bunch of people for the US Census.

http://www.census.gov/hrd/www/index.html

Its temp work, but they pay well and it could be a good stop gap for you.

This may seem extreme , have u though about looking for opportunities in other countries as a temp measure until the usa economy rebounds.

China , Thailand , India all value english speaking foreign workers...

U could start by looking for some teaching opportunities in these countries and then try to find some better positions.. the pay may not be great but u will get to travel and see some new places and meet new people..

Canadian economy was doing well until the end of Nov and then we got caught in the financial meltdown.. Our financial sector is not in as bad a state as the usa so u can look for jobs in toronto..

semi-sentient wrote:Consider retraining.

I did accounting/finance for 7 years for the government and decided that in addition to it being boring as hell it was a dead end with so many business/finance majors saturating the market.

I learned how to build computers and taught myself how to program and now I'm a fairly successful software engineer receiving high paying job offers almost monthly. I struggled for a couple of years (especially since I was peaking during the dotcom crash) but damn did it pay off in the long run.

It's never too late to do something else, so don't be afraid of change. Personally I'm considering another career change just because I'm tired of sitting in front of a computer all damn day. If you have confidence in yourself that you can do anything, then you can. You just have to act.

Thanks! I am really glad it worked for you. I on the other hand AM one of those boring people that love accounting/finance. Fortunately, I am beyond merely staring at the computer screen for upteen hours at a time. My expertise are gearly mainly in utilizing my emphasis towards making business development/investment decisions. I was a Director/Manager for a pretty popular leftist paper in the OC not too long back. With 2 kids and a wife, a career change would not work for me. I am actually completing my CPA and looking to get into M&A firms/Investment Banks (once they start hiring again). Until then looking for Dir./Controller type roles which are being eliminated for now. Sometimes I am so afraid things will not turnaround fast enough.

I have even applied for positions in the Middle East, Asia, S. Africa. Once some of these projects open up, I will at least get an interview; I hope. All the Executives I worked with are either looking for jobs or downsizing their departments.

kevin_405 wrote:This may seem extreme , have u though about looking for opportunities in other countries as a temp measure until the usa economy rebounds.

China , Thailand , India all value english speaking foreign workers...

U could start by looking for some teaching opportunities in these countries and then try to find some better positions.. the pay may not be great but u will get to travel and see some new places and meet new people..

Canadian economy was doing well until the end of Nov and then we got caught in the financial meltdown.. Our financial sector is not in as bad a state as the usa so u can look for jobs in toronto..

I am actually Indian, and yes I have looked in other states and countries. However, I have not tried Canada yet. I will look into that. Thanks!

J Rob wrote:As usual, well said semi-sentient.

I'm at a similar crossroads and sometimes its good just to be reminded that you can do anything if you really want it. Thanks.

Good Luck to you J Rob. Hang in there bro. I know things will turnaround. All the recruiters/headhunters keep telling me how horrible the employment market is. It is a LOT worse than people think. In some areas of L.A unemployment is close to 20%. However, there are certain industries that are on a hiring binge - Engineering, Health, Transportation etc....

Frantik wrote:Hey Semi... Im an IT student looking for an internship. I got a degree in Philosophy and now almost done with a second Bachelor's in IT. any advice on internships, etc? spill some knowledge/insights on that area bro...

thks

Well, I would say look at the school you are attending and see what they have available as far as internships go. Typically there will be some jobs (although low paying) available in the labs and whatnot that can get you some good experience. I'd also look at talking to some job recruitment agencies and letting them find work for you. I used one (http://www.teksystems.com) and within a week they set me up with an interview for the job I currently hold that started off at $40 an hour (this was 3 years ago, so it's gone up a bit).

Generally when it comes to IT you start off with some sort of technical support / help desk job and work your way up, so there should be plenty of those available. Me personally I went straight into hardware and got a job building PC's for a local wholesaler, but that was because I bought parts from them all the time and they happened to be hiring. I was only paid $12 an hour but it was a good start, so maybe you can find something similar. From there I got a $15 an hour job as a webmaster for some rinky-dink web design firm, then a $20 an hour job as a computer security analyst / network assistant / part-time programmer that led to the job I have now (7 years in the making).

Note also that in this profession you also tend to get a ton of side work. Just in the past year I've made about $15k on the side helping out other friends who are consultants and pass me work (a lot of which I turn down just because I'm lazy).

I should mention that the only degree I ever got was an AAS in Computer Network Administration and some fake online BS in CIS that I paid for just so I could throw it on my resume... lol. Most of what I learned though came from endless online tutorials and books that I picked up at B&N or Halfprice Books.

Other than that, get your resume up to par. This is my old resume that I used to get my current job, so you might consider modeling yours off of it: http://www.dolem.com/sites/resume/resume.htm

kevin_405 wrote:This may seem extreme , have u though about looking for opportunities in other countries as a temp measure until the usa economy rebounds.

China , Thailand , India all value english speaking foreign workers...

U could start by looking for some teaching opportunities in these countries and then try to find some better positions.. the pay may not be great but u will get to travel and see some new places and meet new people..

Interesting you should mention that, because that is precisely what I'm looking at doing next year. For those that are still young and/or aren't tied down this is a great way to travel and experience the world if only for a short period of time. Most of these teaching jobs will provide a decent salary + accomodations and no experience is required as they typically just want someone that can teach conversational English. From my understanding the courses are already set up so all you have to do is go by an existing curriculum. By decent salary, I mean they generally pay about $1000 USD which is actually quite a bit in the countries you listed particularly since rent/utilities are already paid for. That's probably the equivalent to $4000 here in the US when you consider how cheap transportation and food is in those countries, not to mention clothes and practically everything else.

I would highly recommend this to anyone that hasn't gotten knee deep into their careers or are looking for a change of pace.

tayzer wrote:They must not like your personallity because I see a lot of those jobs listed. J/k

U just have to settle for less and ride the hard times. It's really difficult to get good paying jobs now.

Actually 99% of those jobs don't exist. It's recruiting companies attempting to build their database with candidates. It's all bogus listings.

AmusingFiddle wrote: Employers are low-balling candidates left and right. Initially I turned down a couple of offers because the managers I would be reporting to did not even have half my qualifications and the pay was horrendous

Let me start by saying that I am in accounting also.

I think the paragraph I quoted above is your problem. Beggars can't be choosers. I am an A/R manager, but if I'm in dire straits I won't think twice about working as a receivables/payables clerk or even a collections clerk. I'll take the job! Once I'm "in", I'd slowly introduce my skills until the management realizes my capability. It's not easy, but in this economy, nothing is easy.

"Qualifications" can only take you so far... It's your work ethic that can get you to the next level.

I wish you nothing but the best. Good luck.