If you are like me and are from East Texas or some other small town area of Texas you may have found it hard to get a job paying over $20,000 a year without traveling to a larger city. I had a pretty hard time finding a decent job until moving to Dallas and once I made it to the big city I was pleasantly surprised to find that I easily landed a good paying job even prior to graduating from college paying $11 an hour. This was a desk job dealing with computer tech support and suited me just fine. The company was called Knowledge Brokers and as far as I can tell is still in business.
At the time I worked at Knowledge Brokers they were supporting PC support for a line of computers being sold on TV ads around Christmas time. These PC’s were Barbie and Hotwheels PC’s geared to the younger folk. The PC’s in a very large part were being bought by these kids grandparents as Christmas gifts. The grandparents knew nothing about computers but surprisingly most of the younger kids new plenty about computers. Half the time I would be talking to an 8 year old instead of an adult and it made for some pretty funny stuff.
Prior to Christmas day we received a lot of calls from grandparents and parents a like calling Knowledge Brokers for help setting up the PC’s. At that time Knowledge Brokers was located in Carrollton Texas. There were a few of us there who would field these calls 24 x 7. The tech support field is easy and a great way to get your feet wet but eventually it becomes pretty monotonous. I do give Knowledge Brokers credit and thanks for getting me started and on my way in a career path direction.
After about 6 months I left Knowledge Brokers in Carrollton TX to pursue other opportunities. I soon found myself with enough experience to move up the chain and over to Accenture. At the time I started work at Accenture it was known as Andersen Consulting which was a controversial break away from Arthur Andersen. At that time the firm was considered a partnership. There were several hundred if not over a thousands partners and prior to me coming there the company had split the partnership in half. Andersen Consulting split from the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. Immediately after the split Andersen Consulting rebranded to become “Accenture”.
Not soon after the split and rebranding there was the Enron Energy scam breakdown. The US government zealously came after Arthur Andersen and destroyed the largest accounting firm in the United States. About a year later it was determined that Arthur Andersen was innocent of any wrong doing but by that time the firm had been vilified and was no more. Many of the partners and employees moved over to their competitor KMPG and at this time an argument could be made that a large percent of the KPMG staff is likely old Arthur Andersen partners and employees.
Accenture treated me well. They are located in the Dallas Infomart very close to the American Airlines Center and downtown Dallas. I eventually graduated with my college degree but by that time I was making plenty of money with Accenture and the degree meant noda to them. I stayed on with Accenture for about 5 years but the monotony of technology and IT work grew on me until I could not take it anymore. I was well attached to this Dallas employer due in a large part to the fact that a job like what I had in Dallas could not be found in a small East Texas town. I really could not see very many more options than just staying put at Accenture no matter how much I hated it.
Eventually patience wears out and you have to make a break for it. I left Accenture and immediately started my own company. I am now back in East Texas but Dallas will always remain the land of opportunity in Texas where you go and earn a little money and than leave and do what you really want to do. At this time I want to thank Knowledge Brokers and Accenture for giving me the tools and money to pursue my dreams. I hope both companies continue to do well and prosper in this hard economy even though Texas is doing a little better than everywhere else. At this time Accenture stock is at 42.81 which is not that bad.
