Question

This question in from federal Taxation class. Please respond to this question and talk about and interesting topic that you found in tax course.

Think back over all of the material you have learned so far in the course. What have you found to be most interesting, or surprising?

Answer 1

I’ve had a 30+ year career in which I’ve been a branch manager (at 23) and commercial loan officer for a bank; had tremendous success in sales leading to a position as CMO in a $30M+ company that employed 1,000 people; started three businesses in retail and consumer goods; been a COO for a coast-to-coast brewing business, and worked as a management consultant in eCommerce, manufacturing and logistics.

I went to night school and earned an MBA along the way. I’ve spent 1/3 of my career in finance, 1/3 in operations, and 1/3 in marketing, all at high levels.

So why am I virtually unemployable? For most of the past 15 years, I’ve worked for closely-held businesses. Part of that was my plan: I wanted to see if I could survive by my own wits. Part was necessity. If you suddenly lose your job, you’ve got to do something to pay the bills. Consulting in particular is a quick start that pays well, but it’s not steady.

Couple the fact that I haven’t recently worked within a large organization with my stubborn refusal to specialize (finance - marketing - operations), and corporate folks can’t figure out what pigeonhole to put me in. Now pile on the fact that I’m over 50 and have held CMO and COO positions, and they feel like I won’t work for the salary they’re willing to pay.

It’s been a struggle, but I’ve been cobbling it together. I never thought that I’d be scrapping so much at 50+ years old.