Work From Home with Kimber

Show Notes | June 1, 2021 | Episode 105

Have you ever been caught in the experience paradox? It's when you can't get the required experience from not having enough years of experience in the first place. Frustrating!

That's where milspouse Ellen Harrison found herself after staying home for 7 years to raise her small children. Same for Army wife Kimberly Grant-Holliday, who had gaps in her resume from frequent PCSs, all while homeschooling her 3 children.

After discovering VirtForce, Ellen and Kimberly underwent online training, became certified, and ultimately got #hired at QuickBooks Live and TurboTax. 

Last year, Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mint, partnered with VirtForce in an effort to hire more military spouses like Ellen and Kimberly. Since then, Intuit received a lot of feedback about how milspouses would love to be a bookkeeper with QuickBooks Live, but they can’t fulfill the 1 year of experience requirement.

So, Intuit decided to take action and do something about it. 

Intuit is putting an end to the experience paradox by CANCELING the 1 year of bookkeeping experience requirement for its remote QuickBooks Live bookkeeping roles.

Intuit has heard military spouses' struggles with resume gaps, so they are partnering with Coursera to offer a FREE 80-hour, self-paced bookkeeping course that will replace the 1 year of experience requirement for the military community. 

Tune in to hear more about how this major player is listening to the challenges of military life and setting a new standard for the bookkeeping industry.

If you are a new listener to VirtForce podcast, we would love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] and let us know how we can help you today.

Links and Resources

VirtForce Job Board

Kimber Hill LinkedIn

Intuit LinkedIn

Register for the Bookkeeping Certification Course - http://bit.ly/VFBKCERT

Register for the Intuit Talent Community - http://bit.ly/VFINT

QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor Certification Instructions

Enrolled Agent (EA) Credential Assistance Program 

In this episode, we mentioned the following resources:

Resume Boot CampFreemium Course (Episodes 47-60): https://bit.ly/RBCEp47Premium: http://bit.ly/vf-bc

Remote Virtual Assistant Certificate Program

18. Intuit® Partnership Reveal98. How to Get Your Next Career Cert Paid For103. Bookkeeping Side Hustle Certs

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About Our Sponsor

Stay At Home Profit provides education, consulting, scholarships and career opportunities for military spouses and veterans in remote work through virtual assisting & digital marketing in an authentic and transparent environment. Stay At Home Profit spent 4 years developing and perfecting multiple certification programs that enhance military spouse's and ve...

Show Notes | May 17, 2021 | Episode 104

Do you love planning for the future? Has working virtually for a banking, insurance or investment firm ever crossed your mind? Then, it may be time for you to become a certified financial planner, sell life insurance or get your Series 65 registration.

Today, we have two guests to fill you in on the registrations and certs needed to be successful in this field. One comes from the corporate side and the other from the entrepreneurial side.

Our first guest Sheiva Dadkhah is an Army Ranger spouse who pivoted her career from banking to working as the Housing Manager for the US Army Management Command at Fort Story in Georgia.

Her career journey started as a bank teller at age 16. Sheiva worked her way up in the financial industry by obtaining the Series 6 and Series 63 registrations, which enabled her to sell annuities, mutual funds, stocks, and bonds.

After obtaining the Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC) Certification, Sheiva had the opportunity to advance to other positions within Navy Federal Credit Union. When Sheiva married into the military four years ago, she had peace of mind that she could continue her career since there’s usually a branch near each duty station.

AFC is a cert that will always follow you. If you lost your job or had to PCS, you can find so many different job openings seeking an Accredited Financial Counselor.

Sheiva is also an adjunct instruction. It is her passion to one day become a fulltime professor. It was Sheiva’s certifications, licenses and ultimately real-world experience that landed her the opportunity to teach a masters level course in an MBA program.   

With the Series 6 and 63 military spouses can become financial advisors, financial reps, and retirement reps with life insurance and investment companies. Accredited financial counselors can obtain positions such as financial counselor, financial advisor, and budget analyst.

Sheiva also sells life insurance as an addition to her primary job. As a state license, military spouses can easily obtain a new license without having to find a primary job right after a PCS.

Throughout your career if you ever have the opportunity to obtain a cert or license, go for it, Sheiva said, especially if the organization you are working for is wiling to pay. Even if you do not think you need it now, you never know where a cert will take you in the future.  

Our second guest, Scott Tucker is a 2002 West Point grad who left the military in 2008 and has been working with Active Duty and veterans ever since.

As the founder of US VetWealth, a lifestyle and financial consulting brand that helps service members go from paychecks and government benefits to wealth and liberty, Scott refuses to confirm to the way we “should” live and work.

As a former financial advisor working for a big firm, Scott used to have to smoodge with people on the golf course. Now, he doesn’t have to convince anybody. People come to him for the kind of financial advice they are after.

Usually, success comes to those who are the most well-known, Scott says, like Dave Ramsey or Dr. Phil. However, in this day and age if you have enough digital skills and are willing to put yourself out there, you can share the value you can bring to others via YouTube, podcasts, and social media.

Instead of saving for retirement and hope the stock market works out, US VetWealth finds service members are getting out of the military in their 30 and 40s. With a whole life ahead of them instead of following the traditional model of replacing one job with another,

Show Notes | May 10, 2021 | Episode 103

If you are looking for a side hustle (or a full career) that is perfect for virtual work look no further. Today, we’re talking about bookkeeping certifications that will get you #hired.

Bookkeeping is an early adopter of the remote staff augmentation model. If you look at the past 5 to 10 years, companies realized they could be so much more profitable if they got rid of the expense of the office and let their team members work from home.

With the organization and discipline, it takes to run a military household, the military spouse community is made up of a lot of people who would be a natural fit for bookkeeping. It is a broad field for people who are organized, and who have an interest in numbers and client service.

If you have administrative skills and you like technology, accounting and bookkeeping are becoming tech-focused fields. And the best news about that is, the software used in bookkeeping is all very learnable.

“It is a skilled discipline, but lots of spouses want a hard job where they can use their brain,” says Kate Josephine Johnson. “It is high stakes because you are dealing with people’s livelihoods.”  

After getting two bookkeeping certs, Kate started her own bookkeeping business – Heritage Business Services.

She also created the Bookkeeping Side Hustle Group on Facebook for people who are interested in learning more about bookkeeping as a side hustle (or a main hustle) to earn more income.

Kate’s mentor was an F-18 pilot, who taught himself bookkeeping a few years before he retired. He was a bookkeeper for two years while still in the military. Now, he has a brick-and-mortar practice with a few employees.

You don’t have to have a degree to do bookkeeping. Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mint, has two bookkeeping certifications – QuickBooks Online and ProAdvisor.

Kate encourages anyone interested in bookkeeping to start by getting their QuickBooks Online certification.

“The brand recognition of QuickBooks Online is huge. Everyone has heard of QuickBooks,” Kate says. “It’s a great place to start. Also, if you try to get the cert and you hate it, that’s a good signal that you are not right for this career field.”

If you already know accounting and principles of bookkeeping, you could achieve the QuickBooks Online cert in a weekend. If you don’t, Kate encourages you to take the time to learn the software through free online resources.  

Kate got her QuickBooks Online cert about three years ago. She then got Intuit’s ProAdvisor cert 18 months later.

It was time for her to become a better bookkeeper and she found studying for the ProAdvisor exam was some of the best bookkeeping education she has received. There have been different points throughout having her own business that Kate needed a push to know she could do it. Passing the ProAdvisor was certainly one of them.

Intuit offers training to obtain both the QuickBooks Online cert and the ProAdvisor cert. There are two options for studying and taking the exam – self paced or a webinar.

Kate encourages you to sign up for the webinar because it includes recordings and searchable resources. The training enables you to sit and study the module and then immediately take the test. Don’t try to study all at once.

The ProAdvisor exam is much more advanced. One of the modules for example is multicurrency for clients who do business all over the world. It took Kate two hours a day for 10 weekdays to pass. The slower you go the better because it is a tricky test.

Show Notes | May 3, 2021 | Episode 102

What does laser tag have in common with landing a remote bookkeeping job?

In this episode we’ll hear from Sara Core whose experience opening a family fun center made her a small business owner AND a remote employee at a Fortune 500 Best Places to Work company.

In this installment of Certs That Get You #Hired we’re exploring two certifications in Finance that can make you more marketable, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned since digging into the remote work space - it is very Finance friendly.

We have two military veterans who are telling us how the Enrolled Agent license and QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification helped their careers. They’ll cover:

How did you get your cert?Why did you pursue it?Where did it lead you?Why is it so effective in maintaining your remote career?

These certifications are requirements to landing a role with VirtForce hiring partner Intuit, who offers some amazing professional development opportunities as well as fully remote, salary W-2 careers.

Intuit actually pays for you to study for the courses you need to obtain these two certs, if you qualify for the position. That was the case for Sara when she pursued the ProAdvisor cert with Intuit.

Sara was in the Army Reserves as a heavy equipment operator while going to school to become a brain surgeon. After she got married and had a family, she decided to pivot her career goals and find a job that would be better for a mom who wanted to spend more time with her kids.

Sara and her sister decided to go into business together and open a family entertainment center with laser tag and bumper cars. To run the books for their business Sara learned QuickBooks, an accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit.

After getting the family fun center up and running, Sara wanted a job she could do from home so she could also homeschool her children, so she investigated becoming a ProAdvisor for QuickBooks Live.

ProAdvisors offer live bookkeeping services to small and medium-sized business so business owners can spend more time focusing on running their own companies.

Those who are interested in obtaining this free certification can use Intuit’s online learning modules and take the exam up to three times.  

At first Sara wasn’t sure if she had enough bookkeeping exposure, but she soon realized by balancing the books for her own business she had a lot more experience than she thought.

On a day-to-day basis, Sara has appointments with clients who have questions about QuickBooks, or issues with their books.

In the middle of her career she moved from California to Florida and kept her job through it all, so this is a great option for military spouses who often PCS.

For anyone sitting on the fence about becoming a QuickBooks Live Bookkeeper, Sara says go for it!

She is now part of a team and has bonuses and incentives through Intuit while getting exposure to different clients and companies.

Tune in to also hear the story of Vikki Crawford, an Air Force veteran who after obtaining her Enrolled Agent license – the highest award bestowed by the IRS – landed a role as a remote full-service tax expert with Intuit AND runs her own tax and accounting business.   

Intuit did not hold Vikki back or lock her into a position where she couldn’t be an entrepreneur.

Intuit offers a way for employees hired in the non-credentialed tax associate role to get their EA license through Fast Forward Academy....

Show Notes | April 26, 2021 | Episode 101

This episode is sponsored by our military spouse employment partner Stay at Home Profit. 

What is the career certification that can make a one-man team feel like a robust department of 100 people firing on all cylinders? CRMs! That's Customer Relationship Management systems, a resource that tracks where a person or business is in the buying cycle.

CRMs give companies a road map to know where the customer is and forecasts what their next move may be. They also take a lot of the manual labor out of the process by collecting information about customers and automatically sending them ways to interact with a company or brand. 

Our guest Francisco Oller Garcia has built a career out of learning tech certifications, like CRMs and social media, that support the digital marketing industry. He currently designs innovative group health strategies that transform the idea and culture of health care.

He is an MBA with a marketing concentration who has been recognized as a 2020 “Rising Star” by Employee Benefit Adviser, named a “Top 10 Marketing Operations Leader” by Chatfunnels and recognized as a LinkedIn Sales Star.

Francisco is always on a roll – literally – because he is in a wheelchair. Francisco does not shy away from the fact that he is a person with a physical disability. He is proud to share his story and his success.

If you are trying to break into remote work now, digital marketing is a great way to go. Some digital marketing certifications can be achieved in less than 24 hours and give you the unique edge you need to land a remote role.   

Up until the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest challenge over the past five years has been trying to get companies to realize the opportunity and value of remote work. Since there are now so many people out there looking for remote work, you must find new ways to differentiate yourself. That is where certifications come in. 

CRM certs are great for people who:

Are intentionally curious.Enjoy testing, experimenting, and repeating.Are good at simplifying processes.

A lot of entry-level digital marketing positions will require candidates to be certified in a CRM tool.

There are so many different CRMs out there, but the important thing is to master at least one of them really well because most companies offer training on their specific system.

Here are a few of Francisco’s favorites:

HubSpot: One of the most popular, it not only allows you to send email, maintain your database and lists, but also connects to your website so you can see customer patterns.  HubSpot Sales Enablement: If you understand total alignment from marketing to sales it makes you a rock star! Salespeople love marketers who understand how they need the data and how they act upon it.Hootsuite: It gives you a great idea of how social media aligns with your overall marketing strategy.Drift Conversational Marketing: It teaches you how to be more conversational when crafting playbooks and strategies such as influencing the person by asking questions and making them the driver of interactions.

Here is Francisco’s advice for those who are interested in earning a CRM or social media cert:

If you take 10 to 15 minutes a day to watch a few videos and go through a few exercises before you know it, you will have a CRM or social media certification.Many of these certifications can be achieved in one day but if you space the learning out they may stick with you longer.Reach out to a CRM or social media company if you want to obtain a certification that is out of your price ran...

Show Notes | April 19, 2021 | Episode 100

Are you ready to open doors you don’t realize exist?  

That’s how our guest describes the career certifications up for discussion this week as part of our ongoing series Certs That Get You #Hired, where we explore the certs you need to land that next promotion or salary bump.  

Today, we’re talking about 2 certifications that can be achieved in 30 days or less and increase your salary by 20% - that’s what happened to our host Kimber three months after she obtained the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.  

Project Management instructor Juan Martinez, PMP, compares the PMP to the magic wardrobe in The Chronicles of Narnia – it will open doors for you that you did not realize were there. 

Juan is a PM expert who is going to fill you in on the ins and outs of the PMP and Certified Associate Project Manager (CAPM) certs.   

Here is the main difference between the two. The CAPM is an entry level certification while the PMP is a senior level differentiator.   

CAPM shows your future employer you are series about your profession. Anyone can go out and buy a paint brush and call themselves a painter. You must set yourself apart.  The PMP shows you have been a project management professional for at least 3 years. Many job listings require a PMP.  

These certs can make it more difficult for an employer to let you walk out the door when it is time to PCS. We want employers to realize, letting you go remote will be more valuable to their organization than letting you go.   

Every industry you can think of needs a PMP ranging from IT to the Department of Defense to construction. And they pay well too. The average salary for a CAPM is $67,000 annually, according to PayScale.com, and $107,000 for the PMP.  

Juan retired with 22 years in the US Air Force, nearly 6 of which were spent as a drill sergeant. His last assignment was teaching new officers how to be project managers.  

After becoming an expert on the PMBOK, a written guide for the PMP exam, people who were interested in obtaining their PMP began asking Juan to coach them.  

On nights and weekends, Juan began building a business. For the past 10 years, he has been teaching people how to get their PMP fulltime as the owner of Your PM Instructor, a company that trains people on passing business certifications and creates classes for companies.  

When Kimber did not pass the PMP on her first attempt, she found Juan who taught her a better way to approach the exam.  

The PMP exam cannot be passed based solely on what you have read in the PMBOK. Test takers must use the information from the PMBOK to figure out the answer that would be considered the next step.  

Having the PMP has been key to helping Kimber maintain a remote career because it ensures job security.  

For 18 of the 22 years Juan was in the Air Force his wife, Michelle, was a military spouse. 

As the family bounced around from base-to-base Michelle would have to quit one job and find another.  

After one PCS, Michelle’s salary decreased by $12 an hour because they moved from a city in which accountants were in high demand to a small town where they were not.  

Michelle had a master’s degree in accounting, but never got the Certified Public Accountant certification. Juan believes the cert would have helped her have more steady work through the years.  

By obtaining a cert and differentiating yourself from other employees and candidates ...

Show Notes | April 12, 2021 | Episode 99

This episode is sponsored by our military spouse employment partner Stay at Home Profit. 

What career field can have you earning 6 figures remotely and keep you employed for 10 years through 6 PCS’s? Technology!

Lindsay Herald, a project engineer with Amazon, is with us today talking about how she became the primary bread winner for her family after earning two tech certifications.

This top 10% female technology earner is going to tell you more about why CompTIA A + and CompTIA Security + are certifications that will get you #hired.

Lindsay has been a part of the military community as both a service member and active duty milspouse for more than 18 years, and she hasn’t been unemployed or underemployed the entire time.  

Jobs in tech are portable, so Lindsay has successfully transitioned through several PCS’s while maintaining her career.

No matter where her family got stationed, there was always an opportunity to work in tech. Tech is everywhere!

Take hair salons for example, to make an appointment, you may use an online booking platform. You guessed it, there is a person in tech supporting that platform.

About three years ago, Lindsay successfully transitioned to remote work.

Tech jobs pay really well. So, Lindsay is able to support her family, maintain her career and stay at home with her kids.

While Lindsay gained a lot of her experience as an active duty service member in the Army, as soon as she got out of the military, she had a civilian job lined up.

Her first job outside of the military was a government contract IT job out of Fort Campbell. She had to drive to Nashville – more than an hour away – but there was so much support and excitement about having a woman in tech the opportunity was there.  

If you’re female, you really need to be paying attention to this career field because there is a gigantic lack of women in tech!  

Lindsay quit her contract job to become a GS-9 employee. She was then told she had just 30 days to get certified in order to comply with DOD regulations and keep her new job.  

That’s when Lindsay became certified in A + and Security +, the most highly recognized certifications in tech. Since not everyone has these, she really stood out as a candidate.   

In order to work for the government, you must have a certain level of baseline skills. Those minimum skills and certifications are outlined in the 8570 DOD Directive, essentially a roadmap that shows you how to progress in a government IT career. (Linked below)

So, what is A + and Security +? Well, A + is more hardware oriented – the parts and operating systems of a computer – so people who are analytical and enjoy puzzles often succeed in this cert.

Security + is more software and cybersecurity oriented –network security, infrastructure, viruses, firewalls – so people who have analytical skills and an interest in cybersecurity and how to protect data typically succeed in this cert.

Security + will take your tech career to the next level, but these skills are challenging, so you need to be a self-starter and someone who doesn’t give up easily.  

You don’t need a degree or job experience to sit for the exams. There are easy study materials available, but Lindsay suggests working in IT to make sure this is the field you want to be in before pursuing a cert.

“You don’t want to throw your money away for something you may not truly be interested in,

Show Notes | April 5, 2021 | Episode 98

This episode is sponsored by our military spouse employment partner Stay at Home Profit. 

Are you hesitating to pursue your next career certification due to cost or confusion about how to qualify for the exam? We’ve been there!

You may be thinking how am I going to fund my next career advancement in the middle of a PCS, raising my kids or figuring out how to pivot my career?

While certifications come with a fee, they are worth it! Certifications are an investment in your future. They often have a direct correlation to your next salary bump or promotion.

Today we are talking about how you can get your next certification absolutely free.

Onward to Opportunity (O2O) provides no-cost training and one free certification to members of the military community. They will also pay your exam fee.

Between transitioning service members, veterans, spouses and guard/reservists O2O helped more than 14,000 people get certified last year.

To be eligible for O2O there are four categories:

Transitioning service member with at least six months of service leftVeterans with at least an honorable dischargeGuard or reservistsSpouses of all those individuals

Certs are very important to pay attention to because employers value them. If you present as being certified it shows the employer you have gone through a training and testing process so the employer knows you are prepared.

As a jobseeker you can be assured that when you take on training your skill level will come to a competitive level that is valued by employers who are looking for top performers.

Certs are a lot faster than getting a four-year degree, and they give you more confidence and more options in your career development.

For most of the certs you must have coursework credits to sit for the exam. O2O front loads you with the coursework you need to pass the exam, provided through free online training set up by the certifying agency.

Each O2O cohort has virtual study groups for support, so students can chat about the challenges of the coursework.

You have 180 days, or six months, to complete the course work and pass three practice exams with an 80% or better for O2O to cover the exam fee. Of all the certifications in O2O’s repertoire the most expensive is nearly $1,000.  

If a milspouse wanted to get the most out of O2O, they could potentially use the first three months to go through coursework get an exam scheduled, and then spend the last three months studying for another cert.

Before you finish the coursework someone from Hire Heroes USA will contact you about your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile and conduct practice interviews. They also have 900 employment partners across the country.

If you are moving, they will contact their corporate partners to see if they have a branch in that location or even better a remote opportunity.

Every graduate becomes part of the 14,000-member alumni program where you can network and complete additional training. Graduates are also alumnus of Syracuse University.

O2O currently offers 30-plus certs you can get for free, listed on its Learning Pathways website.

Knowing which cert to get requires you to do a deep dive to figure out what you want for yourself, your next job and your career. You should take a free self-assessment online or consider talking to a career coach.

O2O never lets anyone go down a wrong pathway.

Show Notes | March 29, 2021 | Episode 97

This episode is sponsored by our military spouse employment partner Stay at Home Profit.  

After moving from South Africa to the United States as a military spouse, Anicia Myers wanted to explore remote career options. 

An experienced teacher with a post graduate certificate in education, Anicia was looking to pivot her career with a job that would move around the country with her.  

As she was looking for help with her remote job search, Anicia came across VirtForce on Facebook.

She clicked on it and has not missed a Tuesday Job Board post since.

“VirtForce is the only thing that helped,” Anicia says.

She watched the Resume Boot Camp videos, and the questions and answers members would post on the Facebook group helped her a great deal.

VirtForce nudged Anicia in the right direction when it came to her remote job search.

After a month of looking, Anicia landed a full-time remote customer service job with Instant Teams.      

Anicia is very happy in her new role. It is helping her learn and gain experience in a different field. She enjoys the fact that she is helping people on a daily basis.

“Knowing that I am helping people makes me feel like I have accomplished something,” she says.

Anicia is giving her new job her all, and hopes it will open new doors for her career.

For those who are still looking for remote work, Anicia advises them to take advantage of all the resources VirtForce has to offer.

“They are priceless gems,” she says.

Anicia encourages jobseekers to never give up. There is something out there for everyone, but also to never settle.

Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone, she says, and make sure you are happy with the jobs you are applying for.

Tune in to hear Kimber's note to Anicia. 

If you are a new listener to VirtForce podcast, we would love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] and let us know how we can help you today!

Links and Resources

VirtForce Facebook Group

VirtForce Job Board

Kimber Hill LinkedIn

Anicia Myers LinkedIn

Resume Boot CampFreemium Course (Episodes 47-60) – https://bit.ly/RBCEp47Premium Course – http://bit.ly/vf-bc

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Check Out Recent Podcast Episodes

96. How to get 1 Year of Tax Prep Experience95. #Hired: Milspouses Can Handle Anything94. Travelers Partnership Reveal93. #Hired: Jobs That Make You More Courageous92. Join Reconciled's Remote Work Culture91. #Hired: Research Before You Apply

About Our SponsorStay At Home Profit provides education, consulting, scholarships and career opportunities for military spouses and veterans in remote work through virtual assisting & digital marketing in an authentic and transparent environment. Stay At Home Profit spent 4 years developing and perfecting multiple certification programs that enhance military spouse's and veterans' skill sets and experience to get hired ...

Show Notes | March 22, 2021 | Episode 96

This episode is sponsored by our military spouse employment partner Stay at Home Profit.  

Getting told you have too much education and not enough experience is a hard place to be.

That’s where Navy veteran Rachel McNary found herself when she used her GI benefits to go back to school to get a master’s degree in accounting after she took time out of the workforce to raise her children.

With so many years out of the workforce and an advanced degree Rachel hit a wall. She kept being told she was over educated, and she had no experience.

Rachel was determined to put her education to good use and began volunteering with VITA – the IRS’ Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program that offers free tax help to those in need.   

After four years of volunteering, Rachel took the exam to become an Enrolled Agent, the highest credential the IRS can bestow, and got #hired as a Credentialed Tax Expert with Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mint. 

Rachel loves helping people, so taking those calls - especially from stressed military members - to help with taxes has been very fulfilling.

Getting one year of tax prep experience is more important than ever because this year, Intuit recruiters are considering candidates with one season of tax prep experience instead of the typical three seasons for the Non Credentialed Tax Associate role.

Originally Intuit was looking for three tax seasons of paid tax prep experience. Now, just one year – or 30 tax returns of experience – will qualify you to apply.

One of the main things recruiters will focus on is how many tax returns you have completed. Even if your experience is volunteer or for family and friends, talk about what you have done. Let them know what software you used.

Intuit will provide training. They just need to know you have tax prep experience. Don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself.

For those who need to acquire one year of tax prep experience to qualify for a job at Intuit, you can volunteer with VITA to gain experience. Why not help people while gaining experience? Then, next year you will be ready for a job with Inuit.

Rachel started as a Basic Preparer at VITA. The next year she stepped up to Advanced Preparer, gaining the training she needed while studying to take the Enrolled Agent exam. There are many resources out there that can help you prepare including PassKey and Fast Forward Academy.

VITA is currently offering remote work, so you don’t have to go into an office and you can still volunteer if you are OCONUS.

Intuit is also hiring QuickBooks Live Bookkeepers who help customers balance their books virtually.

Candidates also need a year of bookkeeping and accounting experience and must have the QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor certification, which you can get online for free through Intuit. Email [email protected] for a guide on how to complete the ProAdvisor cert.  

Tune in to hear more about how you can get the tax prep experience you need to land a remote role with Intuit.

If you are a new listener to VirtForce podcast, we would love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] and let us know how we can help you today.

Links and Resources

Enrolled Agent Facebook Live discussion

VITA

VirtForce Job Board

Kimber Hill LinkedIn

Intuit LinkedIn