[Anonymous]

I’ve been in accounting for 8 years, a CPA for about 3 and am considering a career change. My firm isn’t doing well financially but the local market is so over saturated with accountants that no company wants to pay decently. There was an accountant position posted and within 2 weeks there were over 80 applicants. I’ve been job searching for 3 years with no luck.

My town is small and is 60+ miles from a major city. Due to some life circumstances I’m unable to move to another town at this time. There are a lot of IT jobs located about a 30 minute drive away. I’d be interested in IT but a large motivating factor behind any changes is the prospects of more opportunities. I understand being motivated to make a career change largely pushed by a desire for a higher salary and more job opportunities isn’t the best motivation but I sure didn’t envision having difficulty paying bills or finding another accounting position. Any suggestions on making a change or any others fields to consider that there are more opportunities/better salary opportunities?

[Mayo]

“Any suggestions on making a change or any others fields to consider that there are more opportunities/better salary opportunities”

…..well..considering that

“My town is small and is 60+ miles from a major city”

…is probably your biggest obstacle to a better career/pay, then I'd move. Simple as that. However, if you're really wanting to make a career change, I'd consider Engineering. For a good job it pays $80k with a Bachelor's from what i hear. Obviously, you'll want to do your due diligence.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[musicamor]

If you're going to make a move into IT, I would suggest it be more of a functional IT role, like a Financial Systems Analyst or business analyst within the finance department that is a blend of IT-finance. You'll continue to leverage your financial/accounting background while working in the IT department. If you needed to get back into Accounting/Finance after a stint in IT, it will be easier to do so in an IT-Finance role.

Texas CPA - licensed in 2012!!!

[Anonymous]

I drive 75 miles one way to work. 60 miles is doable. Especially if there is an increase in pay. You don't necessarily

have to switch career fields. If you like what you do, consider making the drive into a larger city. Just a suggestion

[Zuly]

I currently work for an IT company and we use Oracle as our ERP system. We have a couple of consultants and IT project managers that work on implementation, upgrades, maintenance that used to be accountants. It's great because they have both the IT and accounting experience to do their work well. I'd look into the more popular ERP systems like SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle. I'm sure there's plenty of information on the Internet about education and experience working with these types of systems.

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[fuzyfro89]

Since you've restricted your opportunities by being unwilling/unable to move, that sort of limits how lucrative a given field can be.

Even engineers may not do incredibly well if the supply/demand of skills isn't matched or if there is not any shortage. In the short term, I'd encourage you to look into training programs or certificates to increase the systems knowledge you may have. Finance and IT knowledge combined is very valuable given how expensive and complex the systems can be and the fact that nearly every single company needs that expertise… either in house or via consultants.

If moving is not an option… then you'll have to partially deal with what you're able to find nearby. I'd start by looking at job boards, recruiters, survey of companies, searching through company job boards, etc, to get an idea of what types of positions are needed and in demand nearby.

[Tuffy11111]

@WannaBeCPATX16 woah…I thought I was the only one! The only good part about the drive is that it allows so much time to listen to Jeff's soothing voice in his lectures.

Being in a small town is probably your biggest issue. If I were you I would suffer through the commute for a year or two until you are able to relocate closer to that town.

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[Author]

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