[dgg135]

Good afternoon all:

I am a licensed attorney and I am trying to get into public accounting, preferably in Tax. I am trying to find ways to improve my resume and better prepare myself for the position. I am thinking about a few possible ways to try to attract attention to myself. First, I am trying to figure out a way to volunteer to get experience in taxation. Do you have any suggestions? I signed up for the IRS volunteer assistance program today.

Second, I am considering volunteering in general so i can put it on my resume. Third, I am considering getting certifications in various parts of Microsoft office. Are these good ideas? Please let me know your thoughts.

Thank you.

[chandler]

Hi @Dgg135,
Are you looking to volunteer because you genuinely want to (that's great, if so) or just to help you land a job? If its the latter, I would think that you should have no problem finding a tax associate/accountant position with a CPA firm before the upcoming tax season. Being a licensed attorney and having passed all the CPA exams will already place you far in front of most other candidates.

This is an awesome time to be looking as a lot of firms will be loading up before the next busy season.

[dgg135]

Hi Chandler :

Thanks for the positive encouragement. I enjoy volunteering but I am also interested in doing everything possible to improve my resume. I guess you’d just recommend that i apply to the firms as entry level. I was hoping for something a bit higher than that.

[chandler]

Sure no problem, I completely understand that you are overqualified for an entry level position. However, I think you'll have a hard time finding a public accounting firm to bring you in higher than entry-level if you don't have actual public accounting experience. I'm afraid in my experience that most public firms will not view volunteer work/VITA as valuable as other public experience- although it is for sure better than nothing.

There really is no amount of education or certification that can replace hands-on experience. However, given your background it sounds like you'll have no problem picking up the experience and excelling upwards very quickly with it. Good luck.

[Sam]

Honestly with your qualifications I do not think it would be worth doing VITA from a career standpoint. I started doing VITA because I was new to tax and still in college and wanted to see if accounting was for me. I did VITA and really enjoyed it, it helped point me towards my career in accounting and it taught me valuable concepts about tax law. With where you are at (having passed the CPA exam!) you would probably better off finding a position in an accounting firm especially with tax season not yet starting.

However, if you do want to volunteer just for the sake of helping people be my guest. While with VITA I loved meeting the people and learning their stories and helping them in a concrete and tangible way.

[Author]

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