My First Real Job : ‘Things I Thought Were a Minus Became a Plus’

PAMELA A. NADER

This 30-year-old tax accountant emigrated from Poland in 1983 and has been working at Ernst and Young since 1991, at present in the Century City office.

As far as jobs are concerned, I have done just about anything you can think of--a shop here, a shop there, selling jeans. I got this job a year before I graduated. Cal State Northridge has one of the best accounting programs, and almost all of the accounting firms recruit out of my school. The competition is incredible because of the limited possibility of getting a job. And because I was older and from Poland, I never really thought I would get any offers.

All the things I thought were a minus became a plus because employers were looking for people who were older, who had done things in their lives. They were very impressed with the fact that I was bilingual and that I pretty much put myself through school without anybody’s help. The fact that I come from a different culture was very important to them because that made them think my interests were broader than other people.

We often work 70 to 80 hours a week. It has been a little disappointing because I don’t seem to be able to keep any kind of a steady schedule outside of work. I am grateful that I have the job, of course. And I still have about 500 (hours of auditing work) to complete to become a Certified Public Accountant.

I came to the United States because I thought the opportunities were much greater here than in Poland. At that time the family left, we had martial law. There was nothing to do there and the economic situation was horrible. There was so much I wanted to do with my life and so much I could accomplish here. The myth of coming to America and being the best you can be--the cliched sayings--appealed to me. And in a way, it’s true.

Of course it required a good deal of work. And often I was given a second look. When I was compared to American-born students, they always expected me to be not as good as them, and if I was better than they were, that was kind of surprising. I hate people coming up with an impression that because you’re an immigrant and don’t have any family here, you’re supposed to be working at a fast-food place.