Finance/Accounting or Banking jobs in Huntsville & Decatur? (Birmingham: transplants, how much)

[duker8012]

Hello all,

I'm currently living in MA and I'm quite tired of it. The only thing keeping me here is the fact that I truly enjoy my job (believe it or not!). However even that isn't enough anymore and I've finally had enough of MA. I have some friends that recently moved to Madison and they seem to really like it there, and my wife and I have been entertaining thoughts about relocating to the Huntsville/Decatur area. However, our friend is more of a computer/techie guy and it seems as though jobs like that are more plentiful down there than accounting and finance jobs. My question is...what is the job market like for accounting/finance professionals in Huntsville? I did some quick searches on Monster and Career Builder but wanted to see if anyone from the area might have a better feel for what's out there. We will not be moving until June or July 2010 so I'm not sure how much things may change between now and then, but I just want to get a basic idea of what to expect. We're going down to visit in June to check out the area, so if anyone could point me in the direction of a good recruiter or agency I would really appreciate that too!

[Southlander]

My advice would be to try Birmingham. There are more accounting-type jobs there. My nephew is getting his master's in accounting and he was turning down job offers last year...but that was last year. The cupboard is a LOT barer now. His former girlfriend was just downsized out of a banking job in New Jersey (she was formerly in Charlotte, N.C.) and is back home to work and go back to school.

Don't forget to consider the big difference in pay. Yes, living costs are much cheaper in Alabama. But so is the pay scale.

[friday13]

Previous posters' observations are accurate: there are not a lot of Finance /Accounting jobs around anymore. That's not to say there's none, but there are not as many as engineer jobs. I back up my statements with the email notifications I have been receiving for 5 years now from monster, careerbuilder (I set them up 5 years ago, and while the criteria remain the same, the number of matches I get are far less than 2 years ago) and stories of people I know that have been laid off.

Now, it depends what industry you aim for and what kind of Finance/accounting job-financial analyst, accountant, auditor, CPA, AP, AR, collections or more of the finacial advisor type-seen quite a few but was never interested. Government (direct-Redstone Arsenal or City and (defense) contractors are mostly prevalent for this area. There are also a few not-doing-so-good manufacturing companies due to the outsourcing and current market conditions-Continental (supplier for the crippled auto industry), Toyota, Sanmina, Cinram. Telecom is another industry represented here-CenturyTel, Deltacom, Verizon (I hear is more of a call center). There are CPA firms too. Let's not forget the medical field-HSV Hosp, Crestwood, private practice and just about any other small business, mom-and-pop for bookkeeping, jack-of-all-trades office administrator type of jobs.

Since you don't plan on settling down here for about another year, I would suggest the following:

1. setup job search email notifications from the more traditional careerbuilder, monster, usajobs.gov and whatever out-of-the-box job websites are in fashion now (LinkedIn, Craigslist) and see for yourself how the market is/will be fairing.

2. Hsv Chamber of Commerce has posted a file with most of the Cummings Research Park (CRP) tenants-where most of the companies are located-and then go on line to each one by one and search for jobs/get familiar with the company (some of them have a job search and email notification feature) Huntsville Alabama USA - Cummings Research Park

3. Temp and placement agencies (Coast Personnel, Manpower, Savela, Randstad, AL career center Welcome to CareerLink)

4. the classifieds online - Alabama Local Jobs - al.com, Madison Chamber of Commerce (http://www.madisonalchamber.com/employment.php - broken link)

[Southlander]

I just noticed that Federal Mogul in Athens is looking for a couple of accountants.

BRAC is often cited here for bringing in lots of transplants. If you look at the various articles on al.com, most of those jobs are in accounting and bookkeeping.
And apparently the current holders of those jobs are unable to move because of the housing market.
So there might be a lot of opportunity there, especially if you want to work for the government.

Then again, we ALL work for the government, don't we!

[duker8012]

Thanx for the great info...I appreciate it a lot!! :-)

[financelife]

I wouldn't move here because your friends moved here. But good luck!