[runincpa]

I am in the progress of applying for full time public accounting positions in both my hometown and in my college town (which has a lot of firms). My goal is to apply to 6 firms in my hometown (they are all midsize) and 6 in my college town (big 4 and midsize). I am not expecting to getting interviews with all 12 firms, but hopefully get first round interviews with maybe 6-8 of them. I am not sure how optimistic to be since in applying for internships, I only got 2 interviews out of about 8 applications. I attend a small private college (less than a dozen in my accounting class), 3.7 GPA and did a summer accounting internship with a real estate development company. Any tips are appreciated. I don’t want to overbook myself with interview scheduling, but I also don’t want to strike out and not land anything.

[MaLoTu]

How are you applying? Are you planning on going to any meet the firms events?

There may not be many more than 12 for you to apply to. Depending on the job market it may or may not be practical to expect half of them to call you back. You will increase your chances by reaching out to a recruiter, a current employee, or going to meet the firms (where you can likely talk to both).

If you want to put more resumes out there, you can look at another city that may be feasible for you. However, I think that how you are applying is more important than how many resumes you are sending out.

[runincpa]

I am applying on their website career page since my college does not have any firms that recruit on campus. I have been able to make a few connections with some of the firms, and have attended careers showcases. I agree that how I am applying is important, but is also difficult to connect with many contacts from my hometown which is 5+ hours from my school. I have already applied to 9 firms as of today (4 in my hometown, 5 in my college town).

[SuperAccountingGod]

Apply to as many firms as you can. Talk to as many professionals as you can and try to go to as many networking events you can. Don't bank on the Big 4. Consider all firms. It's all about making new contacts in these firms.

[runincpa]

Thanks for the tips! Does anyone out there have experience with applying for careers in another city? It is about a 5 hour drive, and I have a light enough course load, and enough communication with my professors to make trips there for interviews and events. I reached out to several recruiters from those firms, but I'm skeptical how they react to students in another city.

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