Sunshine at last

Today we had sunshine in North London, at least briefly. It's gone grey again now, of course, but it was nice while it lasted. Frankie and I walked over to Highgate and had coffee. I washed my car and took some photos (if anyone wants to buy it, please let me know). It was generally a good day.

Something which has been troubling me for some time is how to effect the move to Florida which I have been hoping to make. There isn't long to go now until I qualify, and I still have no better idea how to actually go about the move. There are a number of problems, which centre around work and my career, as follows:

1. Professional qualification. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Florida Board of Accountancy do not recognise my Institute or my qualification. In order to even apply to study for the Florida CPA exams, I would need to obtain a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from an approved school - and that's before taking the professional course. This would take years and cost many thousands of dollars - neither of which I have.

2. Finding a job. Given the above problem with the qualification, and the fact that different taxation and business regulations apply than in England, finding a job is going to be tough. (This interfaces with point 3 regarding immigration regulations). I have considered taking a secondment with my present firm's partners in Orlando, CBH; however, even if I could arrange this (and it's by no means guaranteed) it would likely be for 6 months, and under the terms of the arrangement I would then have to move back to the UK and work for my current firm in London for at least a year afterwards. And after that time, what's to say I could return to CBH or any other firm in Orlando? It's not in my firm's interests to try and arrange for me to move, since they're so short of staff, and there's nothing in it for them. Incidentally, this would be the same situation if I moved to Deloitte because, although a firm of that name has an office in O-Town, none of the major accounting firms of the world is actually one firm. Deloitte USA and Deloitte UK share a name, an international "advisory board" and some marketing and branding features, but that's about it. So it's not in their interests to help me move either, and I could hardly join them and immediately ask to move in any case.

I suppose the other point is that I don't really want to stay in public practice. My strengths are in report writing and the more "open-ended" assignments which one finds in internal audit and/or consultancy. This is the major upside of not having the right qualification: these sort of jobs don't actually require one anyway (except at the preference of the employer). Systems of internal control are the same the world over, and I have no doubt I could adapt very quickly to U.S. business practice. However, it is by no means clear whether there is any firm that would want to employ me in such a role - they're unlikely to be advertising for a person matching my description, put it that way. The other main problem is --

3. Immigration. From what all I've heard, U.S. work visas are extremely difficult to obtain. Although I'd be willing to wait, jump through the required hoops etc., I'm still not guaranteed to be able to move even if I do find a job.

I really do want to make this move. On both of my visits so far, I've found Floridians to be nothing but friendly and welcoming. I enjoy the company of everyone I know there, especially Andrew, Thurston and family. Compared to London, I think I would like living in Orlando far more; that's not to say I don't like London, but despite having a number of good friends here, it just isn't really me. That's not to mention the weather - I find the set-in greyness that prevails over London to be almost debilitating; it's amazing how much difference sunshine makes to the way I feel.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens once I've qualified. One possibility I've considered is doing Internal Audit for an international bank, which would involve travelling almost constantly for a year or two, followed by settling in a location of my choice once I've been promoted. It's frustrating that there's no clear answer at this stage. I just pray that everything will be sorted out in time.