Carrying CPA credentials, these bounty hunters in demand

Have spreadsheet, will travel.

Think of veteran accountants and financial analysts Emmy Perrizo and Debra Deanovic as today's corporate versions of Paladin, the legendary TV gunfighter who chose his, er, engagements, carefully.

"Have Gun Will Travel" read Paladin's business card. And he was beholden to no single employer. (He actually gunned down a couple of bad bosses.)

Perrizo and Deanovic are financial gunslingers. No longer are they hostage to reorganizations, a new manager's whims and extra work on nights and weekends just to hang on to their rungs of the corporate ladder.

"I can count on myself and I don't have to worry about doing some work or some job that I don't want to do," Perrizo said. "In a permanent position, there are fewer options. I had more seniority in some of these consulting positions than anybody on the staff."

These two women work through placement agencies to choose tax, merger, foreign or other projects of their liking, lasting for several months to more than a year. Demand has never been higher in the Twin Cities and nationally for veteran financial analysts, accountants and even information technology professionals at some companies, according to a study released Friday by Robert Half, the placement and recruiting firm.

And Salo, another Twin Cities firm that places financial professionals, last month commissioned research with the Minnesota Society of CPAs that revealed that there will be a shortage of about 7,300 accountants in the Twin Cities within several years.

"Salo orchestrates the matching of consultants and skills with the needs of clients based on skill sets and experience," Deanovic said. "I also might interview for a given position to make sure of the fit."

Deanovic, a CPA and MBA, worked in public accounting and at Allianz Life and Thomson West for 18 years before turning to contracting through Salo in 2005. She took a three-month planning-and-analysis project at the Ovations unit of UnitedHealth Group Inc., the big insurance consolidator, which has evolved into an eight-month-and-counting assignment.

"The No. 1 reason I do this is that I have more control over my life; how much I work and where I work," Deanovic said. "At some large companies, I sometimes felt that I never could work enough long hours to get the job done and advance. I generally turn down projects where they might need somebody to work 70-hour workweeks. I prefer 40 hours, and once in a while 50 hours."

Perrizo worked as an accountant for Control Data for 25 years, including stints with successor companies Ceridian and General Dynamics, which bought her government-systems unit from Ceridian a decade ago. She's witnessed the corporate equivalent of the gunfight at the OK Corral over the years.

"I do a lot of work with companies that have been acquired," Perrizo said. "As a contractor, I can distance myself a little. I don't know the people as I did at Control Data. I have worked for one company multiple times. It has high turnover. And I understand why."

Deanovic is essentially an employee of Salo, which contributes the employer portion of payroll taxes and provides health insurance and a 401(k) plan. However, Deanovic chooses her engagements. The risk for her is that there may be a slack time with no work.

"I have to make a house payment and pay toward health insurance," Deanovic said. "But I haven't had any of what's called 'bench time' so far. There seems to be a need among companies for the work I do."

That's an understatement.

Jeff Meacham, a senior account executive at Robert Half Management Resources who also lost a high-caliber accounting job at ADC Telecommunications during the technology downturn of 2001-02, said his professional-placement group continues to set records in terms of numbers of folks plugged into temporary positions.

"Plug in and play," he calls it.

For the Robert Half report, send a request to: twin.cities@rhi.com.

The Salo/Minnesota Society of CPAs research is at: www.salollc.com.