[Anonymous]

I graduated in May with degrees in Accounting and Finance and my 150 but moved back home for family reasons. This is a small town where everything is politics and family and despite having a great gpa and already working on my CPA I can’t find any employment. I’ve had a few interviews but most positions don’t even ask for that. I’ve even had one interviewer apologize to me cause they just interviewed me to meet an interviewee quota and they already offered the position to someone’s nephew. Needless to say I’m starting to feel crushed and am about to resort to working retail or fast food cause I need an income.

Since this is a small town most everything is word of mouth I was debating getting a phone book and just calling CPAs about work. Would anyone know how to go about this? Should I call, email, actually go to the offices? I don’t want to bug people but I need a job that can count toward the experience so what’s the best and most professional way to go about trying this. Any advice is greatly appreciated especially if you’ve been in the same position.

[CPA50]

Hi Donna,

I can relate. The town I'm in is about 8,000 people. I have been here about 12 years and feel like I know everyone. I picked up the phone for a few people, emailed a few people. Did not walk in anywhere, cause I'm a little shy like that.

I found several contract gigs and CPAs willing to have me do work for experience hours + a bit of pay. I reached out a bit farther from home where there are larger populations and also got a pretty good response, although some were just interviewing me because they wanted to know who this old lady is looking to intern.

Word of mouth is good – start making a Kevin Bacon list of your Six degrees – who you know who knows someone, etc.

I did it and found out I am two degrees from the Queen of England, not that she calls or even writes me, and certainly has not offered me a job!

Best wishes! It can be done.

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The adventure continues...

[Anonymous]

Hi Donna,

“Town” of 3000. My family moved here right about when I started college, so I wasn't here long enough to be part of things before I was looking for a job. Almost everyone here is related to almost everyone else one way or another (not an area with much moving into or out of town), and my family was outsiders with an accent that you could tell from across the store was *not* local. Job postings are rarely advertised here unless they're a big company (like the Pilot gas station or the State advertises jobs online, but all the CPA firms are smaller and more local, and I've never seen a job posting from any of them). I found my first accounting job by dressing professional and visiting every accounting firm in our tri-county area (included a city of 7000 and a city of 8000), which was as far as I was willing to drive. I got an interview within days at one location, but they were looking for an experienced hire for tax, so basically the interview was just to confirm that I my resume really was my job experience (office work, bank, and grocery store), that there wasn't some hidden tax experience, and that was all they were concerned with. Another small firm had said they'd be hiring in the fall (visits were Spring), so after a couple follow-up calls, one August afternoon I got called in for an interview and offered a job. Granted 2 opportunities in a few months isn't great, but that's the job of small towns. What's more important is that neither job was advertised online (I know for sure that the one I got was never advertised in any way shape or form), but I apparently made an impression on the firm when I dropped off my resume so 3 months later he hired me. In a big city, I think the door-to-door thing wouldn't work, but I'd strongly encourage it for small-town firms.

Good news is, in a small town, there's fewer applicants so less competition. I think the job I have now (Controller at a small college) is thanks to being in a small town, cause I don't have enough experience to have competed for this job in a pool of 300 applicants in a big city…but in a small city, they gave me a chance, cause out of the candidates, they thought I was the best. I humbly think they made a good choice 😉 but know that with more competition I would've never even been interviewed. So enjoy the benefits of a small town!

[Anonymous]

I decided to move to a small town from a big city. I called all the local accounting firms, asked for the HR person (i either found their name on the website, linkedin, or just generically asked for HR). I sent resumes and established a relationship with them that when one of the firms had an opening i was “the first one called” to come in for an interview.

I may have been called first because she didn't want me to bug her anymore (called about once a month for 5 months), or maybe she thought i was well qualified…doesn't matter, i was first on her mind, got the interview, and the job.

[Author]

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