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I wonder if anyone (especially those with HR experience) could give me any input on my situation.
I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Mathematics in May 2011. The business administration degree included several accounting courses. I also received a Master of Accounting degree in May 2012. After graduation, I worked as an auditor at a government agency for 10 months but resigned in May 2013 because of performance issues.
Although I think I would not mind being an accountant/budget analyst/financial analyst in a private company, I am finding it very difficult to many jobs in these areas because I don't have any relevant accounting experience. Most of the position postings that I have seen require 1-2 years of experience in corporate accounting or strong internships in corporate accounting. My experience as an auditor is not relevant at all because it was all related to contract audits.
Knowing myself, I absolutely would hate to try to become an auditor or tax accountant based on my knowledge of what these jobs entail. Also, I think I would have a difficult time trying to get an auditing position because I was basically fired from this type of position.
Thus, I am thinking of quitting accounting entirely. I have thought about going back to school to get a post-bacc (30 or so credits) in computer science from a state university. I like the idea of being a computer scientist because there are ways that I can gain relevant experience without having an employer (i.e., open source projects and volunteering services).
However, I am scared of doing this. I think a prospective employer might be concerned about why I would get a Master of Accounting degree and then switch fields so quickly. An employer might think I did not do my research in deciding on an accounting career, so I might not put enough research into determining whether a computer science career would be a good fit for me.
I really don't want to hide the Master of Accounting degree because I was a full-time student, and so I would have a one-year gap of employment on my resume. Also, I held a job at the university from which I would get a really good reference.
Would getting a post-bacc in computer science be a complete waste of my time based on how employers might view my decision to change career fields?
I wonder if anyone (especially those with HR experience) could give me any input on my situation.
I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Mathematics in May 2011. The business administration degree included several accounting courses. I also received a Master of Accounting degree in May 2012. After graduation, I worked as an auditor at a government agency for 10 months but resigned in May 2013 because of performance issues.
Although I think I would not mind being an accountant/budget analyst/financial analyst in a private company, I am finding it very difficult to many jobs in these areas because I don't have any relevant accounting experience. Most of the position postings that I have seen require 1-2 years of experience in corporate accounting or strong internships in corporate accounting. My experience as an auditor is not relevant at all because it was all related to contract audits.
Knowing myself, I absolutely would hate to try to become an auditor or tax accountant based on my knowledge of what these jobs entail. Also, I think I would have a difficult time trying to get an auditing position because I was basically fired from this type of position.
Thus, I am thinking of quitting accounting entirely. I have thought about going back to school to get a post-bacc (30 or so credits) in computer science from a state university. I like the idea of being a computer scientist because there are ways that I can gain relevant experience without having an employer (i.e., open source projects and volunteering services).
However, I am scared of doing this. I think a prospective employer might be concerned about why I would get a Master of Accounting degree and then switch fields so quickly. An employer might think I did not do my research in deciding on an accounting career, so I might not put enough research into determining whether a computer science career would be a good fit for me.
I really don't want to hide the Master of Accounting degree because I was a full-time student, and so I would have a one-year gap of employment on my resume. Also, I held a job at the university from which I would get a really good reference.
Would getting a post-bacc in computer science be a complete waste of my time based on how employers might view my decision to change career fields?
Not unless you want to be stuck in a career you hate.
Why not get an auditor job at a company, work that for a year and then move over to the accounting/finance/other department? That's the easiest path to steady employment based on your current resume.
Why not get an auditor job at a company, work that for a year and then move over to the accounting/finance/other department? That's the easiest path to steady employment based on your current resume.
Who would even give me a chance to be an auditor? I was basically fired from an auditing job and would not receive a good reference for any of my work, so I don't understand why anyone would want to give me a second chance. It seems like it would be a lot less risk for an employer to take on an employee who has not been fired from auditing. I am not even sure I could be successful as an auditor and do not want to ever get fired again.
Also, none of my audit experience would help me very much at a company. I only audited contracts, so that experience would be useless unless I could get a job working at a government contractor.
In this economy spending more money on education isn't the answer. Hire a headhunter or start looking through temps to get your foot in the door somewhere and push the bad jobs down and away.
If you think you'll enjoy and/or benefit from the computer science degree, and can afford it, do it. If you can avoid quitting a job to do it that would be best.
If a future employer wonders why, just make it positive. At the very least you should be able to spin this as branching out and diversifying. Don't consider it a switch so much as an addition, then find work in either direction.
If you think you'll enjoy and/or benefit from the computer science degree, and can afford it, do it. If you can avoid quitting a job to do it that would be best.
If a future employer wonders why, just make it positive. At the very least you should be able to spin this as branching out and diversifying. Don't consider it a switch so much as an addition, then find work in either direction.
But get your next degree part time while working full time. You want to build continuous work experience on your resume.
I would go back and get a minor in CS. Have you ever done programming though. Its worse than accounting for sure. Mind numbingly boring and hard.
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