I'm not sure what board this goes to but I do want some responses so please don't just move it to a board that no one visits.

I need some advice on my career. I thought I was doing fine in my current job, but I am not happy. Yet that seems to be a common thing for me. I can't hold down a job very long. The longest I have ever held down the same job was 3 years, and that was a movie theater job in high school. The longest I've held down a "real" job (post-college) was 2 years. I have been fired twice, both times related to my mental illness. The first time, I was skipping out on work doing crazy things in a manic episode (although at the time I was not yet diagnosed, still thought it was depression). Refused to tell my boss where I was, and I got fired. Then in 2008, I had a serious mental breakdown with multiple hospitalizations, and missed so much work that my boss let me go for too many sick days. I was fired in January 2009, and unemployed for 9 months.

I finally found my current job in September 2009. But I was grossly overqualified for it. I am a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) with part of an MBA degree, and 8 years of corporate accounting experience. I'm making $12.75 an hour. That job I got fired from in Jan. 2009 I was making $48,000 a year, and that was before I got my CPA license - with that license I would likely have been making over $50,000.

But here's the deal. We moved to this small town 3 years ago, for that job. There are two types of accounting - public, and corporate. In public accounting, working at a CPA firm, I'd have to do taxes, and work the crazy hours during tax season, and probably do audits. In corporate accounting, it's steady 8-5 hours all year long, with only a little bit of overtime. And just the actual work I'm doing...I actually prefer corporate.

But in this small town...there is only ONE company big enough to do the type of corporate accounting I want to do. And that's where I'm working now, for $12.75 an hour. I know I could probably pay my dues and work my way up and get a promotion - it's a big company. But that could take years. And it's not just the pay. I am bored to death. The job started out as a part-time temporary position, but they liked me so much they hired me on permanent full-time...but never gave me any more work to do! So for the last 2-3 weeks of every month, I'm sitting on my butt with nothing to do. It drives me insane. And I've once again developed my internet addiction, at work. It's not good. I need to be challenged at work. I am not. I feel like I'm wasting all that knowledge I learned, studying for the CPA exam. I'm going to lose it all, if I don't use it. I feel like my CPA is wasting away.

But if I go for a job at a small CPA firm...is that wise? What if the stress of tax season kills me? I did have that MAJOR mental break right after my first tax season in 2008. That can't be just a coincidence.

I've thought of opening up my own CPA business from home, and setting my own schedules...but there's so much risk involved. How do I find clients, startup costs, all that.

We are drowning in debt, thanks to me. When I was manic I racked up a lot of debt, plus there's medical bills from the psych ward, and we dipped into line of credit while unemployed. We have $75,000 in debt including both cars and my student loans and other debt. We're almost bankrupt. The thought of making close to $50,000 is very tempting. Should I go for a job at a small CPA firm?

They probably won't be hiring until late summer, anyways - it's the slow season right now. But I have time to think about it and get my resume put together.