negative reporting

Maybe it’s time all of us long term unemployed stop reading the “experts’” articles. They’re not helping. “Folks above the age of 15 will never work again.…if you’ve been out of the workforce longer than two weeks, your skills have slipped….you’re a fossil…you’re irrelevant.” And on and on they go. Today's article in the Star  is a prime example.
You can’t you won’t you never you shouldn’t you don’t.
I heard enough of that kind of talk when I was married. The negativity is toxic. It can work on you, if you let it.

And yes, for the record, I do think there is discrimination going on when an employer won’t even look at a candidate whose work history and skill set match the job opening in question.

Last week, I got the chance to prove the pundits all wrong.
Let me back up and just say that somehow, I became known as a solid troubleshooter of spreadsheets and data bases while working at my favorite job ever. I’ve also prepared more financial statements in my accounting career than I care to admit. The opportunity came via an operations director/MBA I’d had a phone interview with a few weeks back. Nice guy. Liked him a lot; we mentally track alike, and he didn’t sound like a plodding relic either. His company needed someone on site daily; we both concluded it was crazy for me to drive that far five days a week, and he’d asked if he could use me, contractually, for some “heavier” work, if needed. Sure. Absolutely.

So that call came last Thursday. Three year projections had been prepared in house, but something was wrong with them. Balance sheets didn’t balance. Cash flow statements showed negative millions. They needed a fresh set of eyes, and had a deadline. He emailed it all over.
Tabs upon tabs of data. I hadn’t seen spreadsheets this complex for several years. For a fleeting moment, I was worried. Then I jumped in. First, I isolated and corrected all the issues in the balance sheet, both data and formulas. After that, it was easy to locate the flaws in the premises for the projected growth. I was done and sent it back in three hours.

I love this stuff. I know, I know, it doesn’t sound creative or sexy, but you throw down a puzzle like this in front of me, and I can’t resist and I won’t quit until I figure it out. Go ahead and call me boring if you want, but it makes me glad I decided to become a CPA.

That’s what a potential employer would get from me. Does that sound alike a lazy, out of date fossil to you?