Job market in Knoxville area / finance area (Kingsport: sales, tax)

[kookiedoo]

Hello, I tried searching the thread and could not find anything in regards to this.

I was wondering how the job market in Knoxville area is. My husband has a bachelors degree in finance, experience working at banks and some finance, also has experience in general office, tax preparation, manufacturing. His preference would be finance, but could work in other fields as well.

I've been applying for some jobs in the finance area for him for about a year now, but we're not having much luck. We are out of state, trying to relocate from Chicago suburbs to Knoxville area - looking to be away from the city and more in the country. I wasn't expecting it to be easy since we don't live in the area yet, but I was wondering about the job market in general. If you live in the area, how hard is it to find a office job in the finance area, banking etc?

Thank you!

[Serious Conversation]

It's pretty difficult.

I graduated from East Tennessee State back in 2010 with a bachelor's in economics and was unable to find anything in finance, even in bank teller positions. I ended up having to move out of TN to get experience to land a decent job here. I have two long time friends in late 20s/early 30s with finance degrees from UT-Knoxville and Tennessee Tech, one in Knoxville and the other here in Kingsport, and neither have good jobs. I know several other folks in "finance" in the area, most of which are in sales roles.

I would check UT-K's corporate finance department, as well as any corporate finance departments. You may also want to check Bank of TN or First TN bank.

[onetoughkitty]

Honestly, the only place that I know that hires finance on a consistent basis are the banks and Clayton/VMF. The pay at Clayton IMHO, sucks because you are dependent on their bonus structure and they pay you peanuts in base pay so after you get your bonus, you're getting pretty much at or below market rate. I have seen some analyst positions that pay decently but they are few. Try GE Power, Kimberly-Clark and Scripps Network. I believe they were recruiting for analyst recently.