The hardest part about reinventing oneself is getting employers to give the new you a chance.

For about 20 years I lived in a small town and focused on raising my family. In 2000 I was ready to refocus on my career and take on new challenges. I answered an employment ad for “Financial Consultant”. Until that point I had maintained my Certified Public Accountant license, which I earned shortly after college. I worked part-time and tried to maintain industry connections. A “Financial Consultant” turned out to be a stock broker, and although I didn’t particularly think of myself as a sales person, there were very few employment opportunities in my small town, so I took the job. I also became a Certified Financial Planner and acquired multiple securities and insurance sales licenses.

I was not a sales person and never came close to meeting my sales quotas. There was a short stint with a fee-only financial advisor which ended when my husband took a job in a new city. Eventually, I connected with a large insurance agency in a major city who offered me a position with an impressive title and a good salary. I was happy to have a job where I could use my tax and financial knowledge to help clients build a better future. But that wasn’t what my employer had in mind. This was purely a revenue enhancing move on their part. They felt that they could boost their own market appeal by having someone with “credentials” on their staff. Advice that I considered in the best interest of the client wasn’t conveyed to the client unless it happened to also provide a lucrative pay-off for my employer.

I desperately wanted to find honest work that wasn’t dependent on “making the sale”. Unfortunately I fell under the spell of a nationally known “huckster” promoting “hourly, as-needed financial planning and advice.” They claimed to be the leader of a large network of professionals providing financial advice and planning to clients without conflicts of interests. In 2005 I opened my own practice and marketed heavily on the theme of independent, unbiased financial advice, without asset gathering goals or sales quotas. Too late I learned that the original mission of the network was more or less a charitable outreach to people of modest means who did not have enough assets to retain a fee-only advisor with the normal percentage of assets payment arrangement. Many network members worked only part-time. For the most part, “successful” members managed assets on a “fee-only” basis and provided hourly consulting as a side-line or sales tool. Without a supplemental source of income from sales or asset management, my business failed.

As soon as I realized my mistake I began to seriously look for a position in a more traditional accounting line. With my perspective on the financial services industry I was definitely uncomfortable looking for work with an insurance or securities firm. But the accounting world looked at me as an outsider. My small-town tax and accounting experience was old and limited. My network knew me as a “financial planner” and couldn’t see me in another other role, so I didn’t get leads on appropriate job openings. Complicating this was the fact that what little income I had came from the planning practice, and the same network that could have provided job leads was providing planning client referrals. It was impossible to make a clean break from planning to accounting.

I decided I needed to reinvent myself with fresh credentials. I went back to college to get a post-baccalaureate certificate in paralegal studies. It took a year. I stretched it to two to keep the student health insurance while I searched for a job. Potential employers thought I would be difficult “to manage” because I had owned my own business. They did not seem to think that my resourcefulness could be harnessed for their benefit. After one job interview, where the employer told me that they could not hire me because I might know more than they did, I wiped 30 years of experience off my resume. Except for Certified Public Accountant, I dropped any references to my hard won licenses and prior accomplishments. I took a seasonal low-paying tax preparation position, appropriate for a college student, so I would have a good reference. Eventually I found a part-time entry level job with a small law firm. A year later, with a stylish new hair cut, with no hint of gray, and a fresh take on my wardrobe, I finally interviewed with a large law firm in another city where my reputation as a financial planner was not known. The attorneys there were confident enough in themselves to take on someone who might challenge some of their ideas. I’ve been there a year now, and without intending to I have “shaken things up at the firm” but we all seem to be the better for it.

So I have been re-invented. I am delighted to have an honest job and thrilled to have health insurance. I’m not making what I was making 10 years ago. My savings are gone—and retirement is not that far off. I am incredibly grateful to the attorneys who were willing to be challenged themselves and take a chance on me.