Have a degree in Accounting and Finance but 10 years old. Ran a fedex home delivery business and pretty much lost everything in that so that is two years gone can’t use on Resume.
I can’t think of a reason you can’t use the time spent running your business as an item on your resume. Lots of businesses fail, for lots of reasons. Surely there is experience that you can highlight out of that.
You should try to start writing in complete and grammatical sentences. It will help your search.
Why not put it on there? Many small businesses fail and for many reasons. It’s still valuable experience, even if you failed. It’s really more about how you present the experience of running a business and how it failed. Many people will admire that you attempted to get out of corporate america and at least tried to make it on your own.
What is a fedex home delivery business? Why did it fail?
Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I took it to mean that he was drop shipping items (like pantry goods) and got run out of business by some big time service like Amazon Prime Pantry. If so that wouldn’t be a bad thing to have on the resume, run out of business by company that purposely low balls prices in order to run the little guy out of business.
The OP can explain better but what I’ve read is that the “Fedex Home Delivery” drivers are independent contractors who bid for the routes. I think they can own multiple routes, and hire others to service them.
But I agree that the business experience can be highlighted on the resume, despite the failure.
Try the Peace Corps. They’re open to applicants of all ages who have teachable skills.
A ten-year-old degree in something as basic as Accounting and Finance shouldn’t be a hindrance - not a hell of a lot changes in that field. But the job market is glutted in place with such generic qualifications. I’d suggest some quick classes or certifications in something collateral that you’re interested in; that plus your business-related degree might open some newer doors.
But I sympathize: I’ve been essentially self-employed and business owner for almost 15 years, and it’s really hard to get past things like references and an employment history that means you don’t pass the first review of resumes.
Running your own small business plus accounting degree equals business manager for a small-midsized company. Look for smaller non-profits and companies with 20-30 employees, play up the variety of things you did for your own business, especially any sort of tax or other compliance filings, solid bookkeeping knowledge, and general administrative skills. Many $1M-$10M companies need someone who can do it all, especially with the accounting skills.
Use agencies, both accounting specific and general office agencies. Also, the way you present things on your resume can be important. Mine is not in chronological order, rather I have my most relevant jobs first, with shorter-term and temp positions in a section of their own.
As far as I can tell, we don’t have much information that is relevant or useful in the OP.
Having a small business can be a positive or a negative whether it fails or not. On the positive side, you’re running the whole show and can list your job duties. On the negative side, you’re not accountable to any supervisor who can verify whether you did a good job or not. Don’t focus on the outcome of the business. Don’t even volunteer an explanation except that you chose to pursue other options. In any event, do focus on what you did - sales? management of employees? accounting and tax filing? Owners often do all of those things.
What would be relevant is to know your prior experience. If you got your degree ten years ago, and spent two years with the FedEx business, then you have eight years of work experience we know nothing about. Surely that’s relevant?
You’re also not telling us what you want to do. A resume should at least indirectly cater to the position you want to acquire. If your new dream job is in a CPA firm, highlight the accounting you’ve done. If the dream job is in customer service, highlight that. If you are sending resumes out for many different types of jobs, then I’d recommend having many different resumes.
You’re right that the OP doesn’t provide very much information. But the title uses the term “unemployable” and based on what he’s said here, that’s certainly not the case. So he shouldn’t feel discouraged by the business failure.
Have you considered graduate or professional school?
An MBA could get you into a management position, especially given your prior experience owning and running a business.
Law school is certainly a possibility - have you considered it?
Med school (or another professional health degree) would probably be more difficult considering that you don’t have a degree in a hard science, but it is arguably doable.
Do you have any idea what FedEx charges to deliver a home? I’m surprised he lasted two years.
It must be very tough what you are going through. I had a similar experience when I was a little younger than you. I felt sort of like I had the stench of failure all over me after closing my business, but I was able to find work afterwords - although nothing really exciting. I was kind of dreading going on interviews in which I would have to explain things, it turned out not to be as bad as I was anticipating.
Nick, the situation may be desperate, but you need to stop looking at this as a negative. This is actually an opportunity.
You are certainly very employable with your current level of education and life-experiences.
My advice to you is to talk a walk outside, and think of all the local or national companies that you do, or did do, business with in your life. Which ones sound enjoyable to work for? Which ones fit your personality? Then, start going through them and see who needs someone who can handle all sorts of financial stuff - and needs someone who has the life-experience to prove it.
One good thing about your degree is that there are always accounting jobs everywhere you look.
I noticed that a few years ago when I was unemployed
they have job(s) out there than train you …
it may not be in your field of interest, but its an income coming in
once you have established an income coming in, look around for job(s) that your interested in and try the market out …
or
you can go to a temp job office, they always are looking for job(s) to fill
open the classifieds / craigslist for job listing(s)