Strange Days Indeed

I've started job searching over the last couple of days, and it is a different environment than it was even six months ago. I met with the head of a well connected, well known CPA recruiter back in April. Then we got together at a swank little restaurant in uptown park (across from her Post Oak office) for breakfast, and she advised me to finish my exam, then we could take over the world. Then she rode off into the sunset with her designer bag and her bright red designer suit.
Just 6 months later she has moved her office to a co-op on the second floor of an out of the way office building between a retirement community and an apartment complex. She has also traded in the uber-stylish red for a gray pinstripe pant suit with a poly chiffon scarf.
The story has been just the same in the other two agencies that I have visited. Offices that used to bustle with excitement are now hush, and feel more like doctors offices. I met with Carol yesterday. She has hooked me up with two of my previous jobs. She did a great job of trying to be enthusiastic and up beat, but there was a change in her tone.
Don't get me wrong, there is hope. I need to submit some references, and tweak some things on my resume. But the work that I have put into kicking up my qualifications will pay off.

The ironic things is that having passed 3/4ths of the test instead of all of it works in my favor. Actually being certified would price me out of the market. I am not so desperate that I will give up any money, but I am hirable at atleast what I was making before.