On Campus: The forensic accountant

campus_tim.jpgTimothy Bonner, originally from Brooklyn and now a Minneapolis resident, knows firsthand the woes of the mortgage industry. He was the guy who called potential customers for a mortgage company until the company went bankrupt and tossed him out of his job.

“I always felt, not just the mortgage business but the economy as a whole was getting too big,” he said, rattling off a list of recessions he’s weathered over his 42 years.

So he’s trying to get a degree in business administration, taking general courses at Minneapolis Community and Technical College before transferring, he hopes, to the University of Minnesota.

He’s been trying to pay for college by working a minimum wage job. “I had to let the job go. Thanks to the school I qualified for a scholarship and I just have to concentrate on being ready when the economy does recover, having the skills and resources necessary for this recovery. I don’t just want to do sales over the phone, I want to do things that are more meaningful.”

One area he’d like to concentrate on is one area that should be in big demand: forensic accounting. “It’s just like a forensic will look at a crime scene, a forensic accountant will find things that maybe you don’t want to be found,” he said.