[Anonymous]

To keep a long story short, I’ve basically been unable to work in the US due to immigration issues (through no fault of my own) and they’ve recently been resolved. I graduated college in ’07 with a finance concentration and I wasn’t able to intern anywhere due to the aforementioned problem, so I went on to take accounting classes at another university so I could sit for the CPA exam and make myself more marketable in the future. Fast forward to now, I’ve passed all my exams and finally have a permanent resident card and work authorization and it’s difficult to even find an internship in accounting because most of the time they’re looking for someone currently enrolled in university courses. An entry level accounting position usual wants someone with internship experience. It’s been a frustrating experience overall for me having to wait out until my resident status issue was resolved. I’m also apprehensive about explaining the immigration issue to rationalize the lack of relevant work experience when it (inevitably) comes up in an interview, since it may cause the interviewer to have a negative perception of me.

Any advice on what I should do? I feel like at this point I should just ask any CPA firms in the Milwaukee area if they would like an unpaid intern/employee to train and work for them. I really want to start building my work experience! Thanks for reading this and letting me vent my frustrations a little.