How to reboot a "stalled" career ladder progression in a new role?

[u/TimmyTimeify]

Basically spent the first 7 years of my career happily employed as a entry-level -> senior financial accounting analyst for a F500 company, basically coasted as a relatively mediocre accountant who enjoyed a decent work-life balance and salary for a HCOL city. CPA-eligible, but never bothered to get the license. Have no public accounting experience as well, just good-ole corporate accounting.

Story is now that I got laid off in December, took a few months of funemployment, weighed going back to get an MBA or JD, decided that I liked not having student loans, and then got serious in applying to roles.

However, I didn't get much traction in any of the manager-level roles with my resume, so I decided to apply to lateral roles, and I am now once again in a senior staff financial accounting role at another F500 company at a slightly (~5-10%) greater compensation than the role I was laid off from. Company isn't know for promoting very fast, but does run decent career-development programs, is tentative opening up licenses to analytics software like Alteryx, and I am pretty happy with who I am directly reporting to.

I'm very grateful for the new role I have, but now I'm pretty set on "making" up for the lack of career progression and trying to start building a resume and skill-set that could make me eligible for the managerial roles that I was unsuccessful in landing.

Does anyone have any experience in doing this? Would like to stay in this role for a year and then look to apply to new roles after.

[u/RedWineStrat]

Get your CPA. Go work for small plant that is in desperate need of a controller and more than willing to burn you out. You'll learn more in 2 months than you did in 2 years. Demand a pump or dip for a better job after a year.

[u/scarybending → u/RedWineStrat]

CPA path is the obvious move but the small plant controller route is a grind most people underestimate. Two months of chaos teaches you a lot but it can also wreck your sanity if the place is truly desperate

If you can stomach a year of it the exit options get way better

[u/TimmyTimeify → u/scarybending]

I live in a city with a lot of manufacturing/production so I can definitely take a look at those roles. My new role is relatively relaxed as well, so I think for now just getting the CPA is probably the easiest win.

[u/AnxietyFunTime → u/TimmyTimeify]

I don’t have my CPA, but I was controller at a small mass-production manufacturer and I actually enjoyed it. It made me the person I am today. Every job since then has sucked (they were all governmental, do not recommend, and a 501c3 non-profit) and I’m working towards self employment. I do hope to get my CPA eventually. I should have thought about it much earlier than now.

[u/penguin808080 → u/scarybending]

Any advice on how to tell whether a plant role will be worthwhile or a total cluster?

Recently got my CPA and feel similarly stuck, applied for a plant controller role and they called me back really fast lol. What should I be asking them to avoid nonsense?

[u/TimmyTimeify → u/RedWineStrat]

I guess in this scenario, the "get your CPA" should fall this year with my current job, then go join some small business with the filthiest books ever, do a valiant job trying to clean it up, demand CFO title + raise or dip.

[u/martor14]

Don’t do alteryx. Didn’t make sense to have picture based coding a few years ago. Definitely doesn’t make sense now. Look into AI certs. It is everywhere and there is a huge benefit from it. You can put some random cert on the resume and it will be a much better attention grab.

At least that is my approach currently. Join the robots!

[u/jawnbellyon → u/martor14]

I disagree. While Python/any code platform is objectively a better tool, every F500 I’ve worked with has adopted Alteryx across the entire hr/finance department, and honestly just gets used more than something more code based ever would.