Accounting Jobs

[NY2DFW]

If I may chime in here, although a couple of months late, as a CPA for over twenty years my advice to Lady would be; be careful what you wish for...you might get it. Staff accountant jobs are notorious for being the worst jobs in the accounting profession. Long hours, underpaid, underappreciated, highly competitive and a high rate of burn-out. At your stage in life, starting all over as a staff accountant in a CPA firm, degreed or not (which is not really even an option since most CPA firms will not even hire a non-degreed accountant), is not the way to go for you. You're best bet in my opinion, is to go for a bookkeeping job for a private company. If you can convince them of your management experience you can be a bookeeper/office manager, which I think would be more suitable for someone of your maturity. In the right setting, those bookkeeper/office managers can become indispensible to the company, and in some cases, demand a huge salary. My guess is that being in accounts payable though, you would need to take at least one accounting course to become a full charge bookkeeper. Not a bad idea for a single woman in a new town.

[LastDallasNative]

We are seeing Corporate America companies shipping accounting jobs overseas to India, especially AP, AR, more routine accounting work, etc.

Try to stay away from AP, AR, etc.

[ladyjay73]

Thanks you gus. NY2, your advise was right on time. Thanks for the great information. I totally agree with you on everything that you said. Especially about the staff accountant. I see how the accountants around my office are so stressed, & always working crazy hours. I don't want to spend too many hours at work, that I miss out on my children's lives.

I will expand my employment search to include bookkeeping & office management. I have done some AR, & payroll, but definately could stand to take some more classes. Do you think that $40K would be a estimated salary?

Thanks again for the info.

[momof2dfw]

As NY2DFW said, I'd check w/ smaller companies for their bookkeeping departments. I know we HIGHLY value our people in that area and it is hard to find quality people for those fields. We don't need overly qualified people like CPA's but just people that have a handle of the job and willing to work. Hours are easy too unlike what you would have in an accounting firm. When we needed to add another person in this area a few years ago we had plenty of applicants but not many that were even qualified to file much less do AR/AP, etc. I'll keep my ears open if your interested in these types of positions. Oh, I'll pm you a name of one company as I don't know if they filled the position or not........ I'm way out of touch on some of that daily stuff. LOL!!!

[ladyjay73]

I just got it. Hopefully when I am there in April, I can get an interview or two. I really don't want to sign up with these crazy headhunters. I've heard so many crazy horror stories.

Thanks again

[Guingirl]

I would rethink the "crazy headhunters"...every really top of the line position uses placement agencies to cull through the amount of applicants. A lot of times you can get into places that you wouldn't think you could because you don't have the connections. Mind you..I am talking about employer paid headhunters, not ones that you pay, but some good staffing agencies would definately cull out some good prospects.

You might have heard some wacky stories, but I certainly don't think it it should be something where you throw the baby out with the bath water.

[ladyjay73]

I have dealth with a few of them & some of them truly have issues. But you are right. I shouldn't judge all of them by the bad experiences that I've had. When I move to Dallas I will be without a job, so I will need all the help I can get to secure one.

Thanks.