[Peanut Butter is Good]

I applied to all the visiting public accounting firms who recruit at my school. I got accepted for an on-campus interview at a midsize firm. That was my first yes/no answer. Then, I got my second, which was an EY “we have decided not to interview you”. My resume, I thought, was pretty good. Is this a bad sign; does that mean the other Big 4 and most Big Regionals will probably think I don’t warrant even consideration?

[Anonymous]

seriously why are the ppl from big 4 so damn attractive. it seems discriminatory

[cool_kid]

I had the same thoughts as the OP as I'm in a similar situation right now. Campus recruiting just started and I had an interview with Deloitte but was rejected by E & Y. I'm still waiting on KPMG and PWC is not offering FT positions at my school. I've applied to some regional firms as well which I'm also waiting to hear back from. After reading these posts, I've realized its best not to worry about why or why not I didn't get chosen over somebody else and to do the best I can at this moment.

But my question is: is still possible to get an interview with a firm you were rejected by for on campus interview by having a current employee refer you? I talked to some people I know who said that they would be willing to refer me and forward my resume.

[abranaugh]

I was rejected by most of the big 4 while I was going through campus recruiting. I took another job and worked there for about a year. I recently just had interviews with 3 of the big 4 because of employee referrals. I would not worry too much about getting denied now. If you can have someone refer you down the road, there are still many opportunities to go in later as an experienced hire.

[Peanut Butter is Good]

I want to update my information, from what I said before.

Earlier, I speculated that maybe they were going on just GPA and not looking at almost anything else. Well, I'm not almost positive about this. Why? A classmate/friend of mine, took his very first accounting class with me last semester. He's non-matriculated, so technically he's not even an official student yet. His undergrad degree is in something totally different, and he didn't have good grades. Anyway, at the career fair, he gave EY his resume, giving himself a 4.0 GPA on it, because of the ONE class he took with me, and we both got A's, so his average is technically 4.0. This guy is so new to the accounting game that he doesn't even know who EY is. So, his resume with one class and a 4.0 from it, vs. my resume with a 3.6, and all kinds of accounting related activities……… You guessed it. He got selected for the first round interview, and I did not. They seriously must have just ordered the GPA's in descending order and picked the required number of candidates that way without checking any other details. It must be. He showed me his resume, and if you look closely at it, it's obvious that he doesn't have a clue yet what he's even applying for.

[abranaugh]

Peanut Butter, it is not just the Resume they will be looking for at a career fair. I've done recruting in the past and we look beyond just the resume when deciding who to interview or not. When you were at the career fair, they look to see if you can hold a conversation with them, they look at the questions you ask and whatnot. They want to make sure that you fit in with the culture at their firm, they want someone they will be able to be around for 60+ hrs during busy season. I would stop trying to figure out why they didn't select you for an interview and focus your efforts on applying to other positions.

[Anonymous]

Here's how Big4 recruiting works at things like meet the firms in my area. No idea if this applies across the board, probably not.

A few weeks before an event, people who are usually alum from that school get asked if they want to participate in events like career fairs, meet the firms, and the interviews. If they get enough people from there, great, if not, they ask other people to just fill in. The people you are talking to at the events range from staff to managers. If the managers are there, they will usually be the ones doing the interviews in the following weeks. NONE of these people are the “recruiter.” The recruiter may or may not be there as they have a million other events to be at.

As we talk to you, the potential candidates, we make notes on your resumes and in general have conversations about who stood out afterwards and relay all of this to the recruiter. The recruiter will be the one who filters your applications and resumes and takes into consideration our comments, and then they will send out interview invitations. After, the recruiter will discuss with the people who did the interviews and send out office visit invites. By this point the recruiter's influence is not as much as the committee of senior managers/partners in each department will finalize selections.

[Author]

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