Do you think the fact that I owned my own business for four years would give me some valid qualification for a position as a County Economic Developer?
Asked by
Val123 (
12739
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October 1st, 2009
Some history…when I owned my own business I wound up hooked up with the South Central Economic Development folks. Above all, I remember that the two reps I had were a) quite young, mid to late 20’s and b) were completely clueless about what running a business actually entails. They seemed to have the assumption, as many people do, that if you own your own business, you have plenty of money. They had a lot of book learning, loved to play with imaginary dollar figures….but at least once sent me down the very worst path for me and my business. The second gal was intent on showing me how smart she was, and how good she was on the computer, and I stupidly let her get into the books and change about $400,000 worth of large equipment sales (from the time we first started selling them, four years earlier) into another account. Boy she was just so fast and cool…..and when all was said and done my books were so F’d up, and not only for that year, but for all the years prior, that it took me a literal month, including Sundays, to fix them…
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6 Answers
Do you want an answer, or validation?
An answer…do you think it’s worth anything on an application? I have degree, albeit in education not in business or economics, but with any four year degree you pick up a little about economics and business along the way….IDK.
I don’t see how the details match your question statement.
In general, self employment does not qualify you to work for the government. This is because there is really no way to prove that you did in fact do work while you were self-employed and/or there is no way to tell if you were any good at it. With a regular job, they can contact your supervisor and/or they believe that a company in good standing knows what they are doing.
This is not to say that owning your own business won’t help you find a job, but I would say it matters a lot more for you to be networked to the people hiring you. You need to find someone who can put in a good word for you before they will consider you above a stack of other applicants with more traditional experience.
Good luck.
@timothykinney I have references out the ears! For the shop I have two Vice President’s of banks (who had full access to my books,) customers, etc. That also isn’t the only job I’ve ever held, and I have good references from those jobs others as well. That isn’t a problem. I guess the thing that I neglected to specify was that the focus would be on small business development within the county…...
Certainly it would help show your interest in small business and, if your business has always been successful, your ability to take care of all the myriad details that come with any job. Now if you have other experience, such as getting to know the building codes people, the mayors of any towns in the county, and have been a member of something like Rotary, that will all be helpful as well.
However, without seeing the job description or knowing all of your qualifications I don’t know how many other skills and experiences are required for the position.
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