“When I was applying for jobs, I would get the interview, but not the job. And that’s like them saying, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ So, I was getting frustrated. So I was like, what do I do now?”
When Alice* and her husband married in 2015, their shared drinking habit didn’t seem like a big problem. However, as the years went by, it became more consuming, and Alice knew she needed to adjust her lifestyle to best care for her three children.
“I didn’t want to do it anymore and I stopped drinking with my husband, and that’s when he just started drinking by himself and taking shots and doing it behind my back.”
As her husband’s addiction deepened, he had a hard time holding a steady career and was forced to turn to “gig” jobs to help supplement Alice’s full-time accounting department income.
“He got a grant to go to a rehab center for six weeks, and that was at the beginning of this year. It was good for a while, then he just started drinking again. For him, it’s just the excuse of stress, but you must figure out a different way to handle it.”
The extent of his alcoholism left him in the hospital on a few occasions.
“One day, he’s not going to be here anymore, and I’m just going to be here left trying. He’s already almost died on me a couple of times; he’s been in the ICU where he had seizures, and he had to be hooked up to the machines, and then the last time he got pneumonia as well when he was in the hospital. What is it going to take for him? I don’t know. It’s hard to understand.”
Alice was on a tightrope walk, attempting to take care of her home life and manage her husband’s disease. Her world shattered when her mother suddenly passed away in 2023.
“We would talk all the time, and she was even close to my husband because his mom had passed away. She was sick and not telling us how sick she really was, and so for us, she suddenly passed away…We thought she still had longer to live. She was my biggest cheerleader.”
As Alice processed the death of her mother, she faced another unexpected obstacle. In March 2024, the company she’d worked at for seven years was bought out, and her role was eliminated.
“I’ve been struggling with stuff, just financially. I’ve been doing gig work in between just to try and pay the bills.”
Years before, Fresh Start had helped Alice with resources. Now, in urgent need of a helping hand, she turned to Fresh Start again. With seven years of experience in an accounting department, she looked to build additional skills that would make her resume standout to employers.
“Banking and finance were something that I would be interested in, as well as learning how to get my finances under control and then being able to help others.”
In January 2025, Alice began Fresh Start’s Women in Finance program. For four days a week over the next seven weeks, Alice learned the fundamentals of the finance industry and improved her interview skills and resume. It was a time commitment for Alice, but she knew the time she put in would be worth it.
“I felt like if I didn’t do this [program], I would just be doing the gig work until I could find a real job. I was doing DoorDash. I don’t want to do that for the rest of my life. I’m used to working and always working overtime, too.”
Missing her mom’s positive encouragement, Alice felt low a few times, particularly on days when her husband expressed his lack of belief in her choice to do the Women in Finance program.
“There were moments when I felt like giving up, especially when my significant other was talking crap and saying that I’m not getting paid. But it’s worth it for the result at the end of it. I could’ve said I’m going to give up, but I need this.”
All the seven-week program lessons culminated when Alice interviewed with Bank of America: “The woman interviewing me saw my resume and was impressed with it. Fresh Start helped me with that part, too. She said it was one of the best resumes she’s seen. And that’s really nice to know. It’s thanks to Fresh Start!”
Alice is excited to have graduated from the Women in Finance program and looks forward to a new career in finance.
“I’m proud to have finished this program and to actually get some good news with some of the employers I’ve applied to, so hopefully one of those applications will pan out.”