Striving for Balance

Okay, when I started this blog six months ago, it was a self-serving excuse of a diary. It did not serve anyone, especially me.

Now I've been laid off of the only full time job that I've had since moving to Florida. My needs have changed as has my attitude about Florida. Before it was fun to bash Florida for not being California; now with all of the unemployment and home foreclosures in both states, we're on level ground. It would be just as difficult to find a quality full time job in either place.

And then there's all the time I spend on Twitter... reading tweets from people all over the world, not just the US, that shows me how much we all have in common. One particular thread runs through the 'social media' and job-hunting posts: finding and marketing your 'brand'.

My brand? The first thing off the top of my head was Campbell's Soup. But that's not what they mean and it didn't really occur to me until I started the job search what they did mean. Who am I? What am I selling to an employer? I'm a damned good accountant. My strength is in being a full charge bookkeeper for a small to medium company; a staff or senior accountant for a large company. I love keeping 'books'. I love searching out the details to a transactions. I strive for balance!

I had to look in the dictionary to make sure that I was using the word 'strive' correctly. Strive: 1. to make a strong effort. 2. to struggle vigorously. Okay, I do strive to make the books balance, to correctly state transactions. Accounting is not for the faint of heart. Not to say that I should be met with a hero's welcome after the month-end close or the yearly audit (although there have been times..).

I just want to work at what I do best: bean-counter, pencil pusher or whatever lowly term you want to give it. Heck, my favorite pastime of crochet has accounting aspects to it. Counting, of course, but rows and columns are the same as a spreadsheet. Weaving in ends is like closing the books. I could go on but that post is for another day.

When all is said and done, my brand is producer of a beautiful set of financial records.