Fine tune your career: industry answers the question, "what else is there?".

• Author: McCrary, Deanna

The alarm rings. It's 6 a.m. Monday. Before you jump in the shower,--linger a moment and imagine: If you could be heading to work anywhere, doing anything, where would it be and what would you do?

It's the classic career question. Have you really stopped to consider it? Your education, skills and experience as a CPA show that you have what it takes to manifest your dream job. But have your career dreams taken flight? Do you feel jazzed when you hear that morning alarm? Or is it sounding more and more like a siren call, urging you to change your tune? What else is out there anyway?

Whether it is taste-testing the latest flavor of premium ice cream, listening in on San Francisco Symphony rehearsals or getting a behind-the-scenes tour of the Natural History of Tequila, today's business and industry careers may be the path your Monday-morning soul has been yearning for.

FINDING THE RIGHT FIT

San Francisco Symphony Senior Accountant Aletha Biedermann-Wiens' career path is as multifaceted as the dazzling gems she once set in gold as a jeweler in downtown Oakland. A degree in linguistics from the University of California, Santa Cruz led her to graduate studies in library science at UC Berkeley. That master's degree landed her a job as a news files research librarian for KRON-TV in San Francisco--a position she found interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying.

"It was a great big title and almost no money," Biedermann-Wiens reflects. "But it was a fascinating job."

Biedermann-Wiens then went to art school at the California College of Arts and Crafts, and later worked in downtown Oakland at a jewelry store where she crafted gold jewelry. But again, the pay wasn't great.

"I thought, 'What else is there?' I had several friends who were bookkeepers and they could work at home, take care of their kids and make cookies. So I started taking bookkeeping classes," says the mother of two teenagers.

But she wondered how to prove to herself that she knew what she was doing. "I went to a counselor and she said that since I already had so many degrees, she figured that I needed to take just seven classes at Hayward State to have all the education requirements to fill out the Form E--so that's what I did," she says.

Biedermann-Wiens then landed a job at a small accounting firm in Walnut Creek where she worked as an auditor for nine years.

When her kids were older, the career question reared its head again. That's when the San Francisco Symphony position opened up.

At first Biedermann-Wiens was job sharing with another working mom while continuing to work at the Walnut Creek firm. She now works full time at the symphony.

"When this job became available it seemed like a perfect fit and they seemed to feel that way too," says Biedermann-Wiens. "It is a cool place to work."

ALL ABOUT QUALITY OF LIFE

"I enjoyed public accounting, but eventually...