My current company is about thirty employees with one location.
Excellent. Bigger would be better in this case but 30 people is enough for a little fluidity. How many people are above you? Like, how many levels between you and the top? Because the first move is to tell your immediate supervisor that you want something with more growth than your current position, and you're willing and eager to take on the additional education necessary to get that. This puts you in a position of being ambitious and it opens the door for you to interact outside of work. Small businesses get a tax break if they pay for some or all of your tuition so they have an incentive to help you with your retraining. It also likely increases your loyalty and improves their retention. Which is not to say you're going to work there forever but if you show that you want to stretch your wings, the impetus is suddenly on them to make YOU happy (assuming you do the work). Not having an idea of what else you want to do actually works to your advantage. That means that they can fit you in just about any position. Not only that, but many land grant schools have night masters programs; around me I can get an MBA, a JD, a masters in computer science and who knows what else all in 3-year programs that happen only on evenings and weekends. A headhunter is not going to help you. Your salary is not of the calibre that rewards a hiring professional to help you out because there are many candidates who can do your job. The trick is to become a better candidate and increase your value while also increasing your exposure. You've been there nearly four years, and they have promoted you. There's no reason not to work within the system first. Ask upstream and see what they say. I'm optimistic and curious.
Well in the accounting department, only the bookkeeper and the CFO who is my "boss" are above me. It's actually only me and the bookkeeper most days as the CFO works from home in Florida. Even when she's in Florida, her work is spaodic to say the least. The bookkeeper does a good deal of the CFO's work these days. Our CFO used to live in New York City and used to be in the office every day until she moved a couple of months ago. She will come once a month for two days or so as her family still has property in the area. Her father owns our company and a lot of my co-workers believe she is there as a result of nepotism. As the levels between me and the top, well the thing is there isn't much of a middle level to strive for. We used to have five middle managers with their own billing group but the middle managers have been reduced to two and the other middle manager positions haven't really been occupied recently. A lot of other people are pretty much just billing staff that report to the Vice President of Operations. In the past, some people would reported to their group manager but a year and half ago, we have received a Vice President and the some of the groups have dissolved and now just report to him. The thing about employee happiness is that a lot of people have come and gone throughout the time I have been there. A lot of employees have stated they aren't happy and a good number of people moved onto other positions with more pay and benefits. I could ask for a change in position but I'm not sure if they would be willing to move me out of the accounting department as the bookkeeper is pregnant and going to leave on maternity in the next couple of months. Accounting has been a revolving door in the past due to my CFO's bad temperament but with her kinda out of the way, it's been better for me as she rarely talks to me but she stills deals with the bookkeeper and the bookkeeper loathes her. I have been one of the few that has lasted almost a year in accounting. Everyday I hear how the owner and the CFO drive her crazy doing their personal crap or doing work that the CFO should be doing. I could possibly be doing some of the bookkeeper's work when she leaves for maternity but it's no guarantee that I will be given a permanent position as bookkeeper as despite her complaints, the bookkeeper has stuck around for over seven years. I mean it wouldn't hurt to ask to see what else is out there or maybe for a raise even though they gave me a $1,000 raise to my yearly salary a couple of months ago. The only times I have gotten a raise of a couple of grand is when I switched positions permanently.
Okay, got it. Hollowed-out middle, not a great company, not much above you. Yeah, that changes things. So here's a question - do you like bookkeeping? Because actuarial exams and CPAs and the like are definitely continuing ed stuff that helps the company out if you take it on. And they make you more valuable for the next place. And hey - if you step up and fill in while the bookkeeper is on maternity leave, that makes you a department head! W00t w00t! and if she comes back (maternity leave is a life-changer) you have an excuse to move on somewhere else. The raise issue isn't a good one to pursue - you aren't going to get more scratch without more responsibility and by taking on more responsibility you look more attractive to other employers. I'd get with the bookkeeper and say "I want to do your job while you're gone and if you come back, I want enough skills to do something else. What do you recommend?"
I would be open to learning bookkeeping. I'm not sure if I would love it though at my current company. I might not even like it in general as right now I have pretty much the same routine and I kinda would like to change my job for a change of pace. The current bookkeeper seems pretty miserable at working the job. She often complains about things being piled on. The problem seems to be that the owner and the CFO will ask favors at the last possible minutes or sometimes they will never respond to emails on approval for things to be done. The bookkeeper will sometimes send out an email on things that need to be paid out and sometimes they are ignored for a while. I'm surprised that she came back after the first pregnancy. I have told my company in the past that I'm willing to learn new programs and they said they will keep that in mind.