[shellgirl]

Just had an phone interview today with Big 4 for an experienced auditing positing in financial industry.

Unfortunately, I was told even though she think I might be a better fit for commercial, they are looking for someone with at least some exposure in financial services industries, since new york is big in financial.

I’ve been at the current job for almost a year and half as an auditor, but our clients are mostly not for profit and private, how can I make the switch to a different industry??

CPA CLASS OF 2012!

[Snausages]

Network as much as you can. It's best to create personal relationships with people. I find that recruiters, HR and related people are a total waste of time. Try your best to bypass those people and go straight to the decision makers. The way to do that is network, meet a lot of people, join groups, use LinkedIn, etc. It's amazing what one face-to-face meeting with a good business contact can do for you. If they like you, it doesn't matter necessarily what industry you are from, but rather the functional strengths and skills that you possess. If you have good public, private, non-profit and government accounting skills, there is no reason you can't transfer over to one or the other. Personal relationships will remove those traditional “hurdles” in the hiring and job hunting process. Sure, you may meet plenty of impersonal people, but you will meet a lot of good ones too. Keep in contact with them all, but work the good ones. Meet them for coffee, lunch, drinks, whatever. It will work, trust me.

[Snausages]

Oh, and don't forget to use current contacts and their contacts in your search! Also, search college or graduate degree alum as well. Alumni and members of similar groups you are active in are SUPERB ways to network.

[Anonymous]

Hi shellgirl, switching industry may be challenging at first, but it is definitely do-able if you make sure you have the right things covered.

The recruiters want to see if you can leverage your experience and skills developed at your current employer into the new role. Switching from non-for-profit to financial services may be less than traditional, as there aren't a lot of overlap in skills.

However, as you are still junior in your career, you should leverage what the CPA curriculum has to offer and try to learn as much relevant knowledge about financial services as you can. Although these will not constitute direct experience, they definitely help pave way to making the transition. In addition, try to phrase your experience in such a way, that it shows you have relevant experience to the recruiters. Recruiters will give you a shot if they are somewhat confident you can pick up the job and get it done, or at least learn quickly enough on the job to get it done.

[Author]

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