Goals and the Unknown

I've almost finished up my class for this quarter. I just have my essay left to finish which I will be working on later this evening. As this quarter finishes up, I find myself looking towards the future. My goal when I started to school was that once I get close to having around 3 years left to get my BA, I wanted to find a job with a CPA firm to go ahead and get my experience in so that I can go for my CPA exam very close to if not just after graduating with my BA. I still maintain this goal.

If I had not taken two years off to have my daughter, I would be very close to being on track. I am not unhappy about taking the time off, just as I'll have to take time off for the next one if/when it decides to make it's appearance. As it stands, I have approximately 3 terms left before I will graduate with my Associates. That means by this time next year, I will be looking into which school I want to transfer my credits two. I have two schools in mind and it's just a matter of which one fits my life better at that time. In the meantime, I believe it is getting very close to time for me to make that decision to step out of the known and start sticking my toes into the ocean of the unknown.

This is going to be very difficult for me as I cannot afford to take much of a pay cut from what I'm making now. There's also the current economy to consider as well. I plan on taking my time as I do have a job (providing nothing goes wrong with it of course) and as such, I can afford to be picky. My biggest obstacle is that I don't even have the beginning knowledge on how to get a job within a CPA firm. I mean do you just call them and ask if they're hiring? Are there online job markets that feature jobs with CPA firms? This this point, honestly, I'd settle for an accounting position for a private company even. Just so I could have some experience under my belt.

Another obstacle I have to face is that I will only have my Associates. Even so, I will have a lot of the same skill set of the people going for their BA. This is because my school is geared towards giving their students the skills necessary to make it in the business world. So how does one show that even with an Associates, they can do the same job as someone with a BA? How do I sell myself? This is not something I'm very good at, even though I know I can do a good job. When I started with the company I'm at now, I was told by one of my superiors that the only reason they hired me was because I could start immediately. That won't be the case this time around (knocking on wood about this one). I owe my company a two week notice.

And now for a little bit of shameless begging. So if anyone knows someone that can help me revamp my resume and/or can help me learn what I need to do to get the job I really really feel I should be doing, that I feel so very deeply is where I need to be, I would not wave away the help.