[Anonymous]

OK i’m going to make this as short as possible since thinking and writing about this experience will only make me mad haha.

-I graduated with a bachelors degree in accounting from a consistently high ranked college with a 3.33 gpa 3.45 in accounting.

-I have about 3 years (mostly part-time work since I was in school) of accounting and finance experience.

-I am graduating with my MBA in May, concentration in Finance GPA of 3.83

-I had an internship with a local firm doing some tax and administrative work during busy season.

-I passed the CPA exam a couple months ago.

-Involved with Accounting Club

I have applied to 11 different CPA firms, 3 of the big 4 no PWC, and numerous ads on Craigslist/Indeed. I have actually applied to a few firms more than once.

To make it worse I also keep seeing Deloitte recruit for entry level tax and audit positions (I’ve applied three times once through an inside contract) and have heard nothing. It’s like getting punched in the nuts every time they relist the position haha.

With that said I have gotten absolutely nowhere…not even an interview!!!

Any advice on why I am getting nowhere fast would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Anonymous]

I am so sorry to hear that, I was actually in the same position as you last year, I applied basically everywhere and got no response back, however, after I passed my CPA exam, I interviewed with 2 firms and both of them gave me an offer. You said that you passed the CPA couple months ago. For this coming up recruiting season, I think you might have a higher chance of getting hired then those who don't have their CPA exam out of the way.

Best Wishes. 🙂

[Anonymous]

I am going to say that it must have something to do with your resume. Your credentials sound great.

Have you had anybody look over it?

[Anonymous]

Yea my first guess is it may have something to do with your resume. Take it to career services and have them review it, or to an old employer and maybe they will help sharpen it up.

Also are you applying to Big 4 and other firms through your school? I think Big 4 mostly recruits new staff from university career fairs

[Mayo]

Can you post a copy of your resume?

Also, networking is your best option to get an employment offer. You mentioned you were involved in an accounting club. Anyway to reach out to some alumni?

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[Texas27]

Here is my .02 cents… I have worked for career services in the business college at my school part-time for two years and had about 15-20 interviews with all sorts of accounting firms and companies, so I know quite a bit about this stuff.

The number one thing I see from other students that come in to career services is that their resumes are very disorganized or poorly written. You should have someone look over your resume that knows what employers is looking for on a candidates resume. The average recruiter spends less than 30 seconds looking at your resume the first time. It is extremely important that the format and the content will catch their attention and can be easily read.

Secondly, where are you applying for these positions? If you applied on a big company website without a connection or something, you might as well have just thrown your application into a black hole (even if you are well overqualified). I'm not trying to be rude but these employers get thousands of applications through their website for entry level positions and most of the time they fill these from campus recruiting anyways (especially accounting firms). Almost everyone who gets a job at my school starts out by applying through the career services hire-system for on-campus interviews. If you meet the qualifications you are then pre-selected and can pick a time to interview on-campus. If you do well, then you are asked for a second interview which usually consist of an office visit. Most of the time, either before or after you interview with an employer on-campus, they will ask you to apply via their website. This is when they manually go in there and pull your application for employment from the other thousands of applicants. On campus recruiting is like cutting the line for employment, it is a really sweet deal if your school has a decent career services office. If you have already graduated… most schools allow access to career services for a while after you complete your degree so you should still be able to do on campus interviews.

Lastly, you have great qualifications and it should not be hard for you to get a job at a Big 4 firm if you wanted to once you at least get an interview. However, this is a really bad time for recruiting because it is the end of the semester and most firms have everyone they need for the summer already. In fact, at the Big 4 office that I will start at in the summer, I haven't seen a entry level job posted in a couple of months. This can be attributed to the fact that almost my entire intern class from spring 2011 will be graduating in a few weeks and starting with the firm in July. Firms start their next recruiting season towards the end of summer and it goes until about Oct. or Nov. The fall recruiting season is the heaviest because they are hiring for numerous positions and start dates.

Just keep trying and you will get there… you are already many steps ahead of 95% of most college graduates and an employer will eventually realize that. You just have to keep taking steps in the right direction like you are doing.

BEC - Feb 2012: 80
AUD - Feb 2012: 84
FAR - Apr 2012: 78
REG - May 2012: 90

Thanks Becker!

[Anonymous]

First of all I want to thank you all for your suggestions and comments.

Obviously this is a rough version of my resume without any of the formatting. With formatting it is very clean, with certain things bold to draw attention, and fits 1 page and I also have a header with my name and similar info. I first created it with the help of some Columbia MBA students when they visited my undergrad for one of the programs our business club put on. They held like 30 minute meetings with students who signed up to work with them on their resume.

Please point out anything and everything you see, be as critical as necessary I'm a big boy…plus were all behind computer screens anyway haha.

EDUCATION

XXXXXXXXXX – XXXXX,XX

Masters of Business Administration – Finance, May 2012

• Overall GPA: 3.83

XXXXXXXXXX – XXXXX,XX

Bachelor of Science Business Administration – Accounting, May 2010

• Major GPA 3.45

LICENSE

CPA Candidate: FAR-Passed, REG-Passed, BEC-Passed, AUD-Passed

RELATED COURSES

• Intermediate Accounting 1 and 2

• Managerial Accounting

• Income Tax

• Auditing

• Investment Analysis

• Financial Management & Strategy

• International Financial Markets

• Information Systems Management

• Strategic Management

• Intermediate Corporate Finance

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

XXXXXXXXXX –XXXXX,XX

Tax Intern

• Prepared individual tax returns with the program ProSystem fx Tax.

• Produced filing and client copies for individuals, corporations, trusts, and other entities.

XXXXXXXXXX –XXXXX,XX

Accounting Assistant, Feb 08 - May10

• Introduced a weekly budget analysis to keep the director informed of all financial activities.

• Established internal account records which were made accessible to all employees.

• Constructed and managed $30k budget.

XXXXXXXXXX –XXXXX,XX

Financial Analyst Intern, Jun 08 - Dec08

• Prepared forecast for 2009 and produced $1 million budget.

• Created and presented monthly financial statements to executive board members.

• Recorded bills, payments, grants, and all other transactions.

ACTIVITIES

Member: Accounting Club, 2011-2012

Member: XXXXXXX Basketball Team, 2006-2010

Member: XXXXXXX Golf Team, 2006-2010

Member: Mortar Board, 2010

Volunteer: Habitat for Humanity, 2011

Volunteer: Surfing the Nations, 2012

[Anonymous]

Not sure what happened on the dates but you get the idea. As far as I know when it comes to Accounting our career services offers absolutely nothing which I find rather strange since its a large school.

I thought that the Accounting club would have been an excellent opportunity to get an interview on-campus or something like that but no events like that happened. I did go to multiple firms for their meet and greet type deal and other Accounting events and made some connections and followed up but nothing came about.

I should be able to find some alumni through linked in or possibly career services that work in the industry, so should I just send them random out of the blue emails asking for help?? Is that how that works??

[jenuno01]

1. Get rid of the classes you've taken (an employer could care less)

2. Add strong action verbs/ adverbs to describe what you did as part of your job experiences… this is a good link for some examples : https://www.okstate.edu/education/career_services/documents/actionverb.pdf

– Also, consider beefing up a little more the descriptions of your duties (don't exaggerate or lie though)

3. Have you added some references? I have my college advisor and my bosses for every past jobs at the end of my resumer (include name, business, relation to you, phone number, etc)

4. Don't detail out the CPA exam sections. Just maybe mention that you've passed and your license is pending.

Class of 2012

[Anonymous]

One more thing!! I went to Robert Half the other day and somewhat interviewed with them and they told me to expect 30-35k maybe 40k on the high side, does this sound right!?!??!?

[jenuno01]

Um seems a little low considering your years of experience. What type of job is it? If it's investing consulting, it doesn't surprise me…also, your location will also dictate your salary level.

Class of 2012

[Anonymous]

Thanks! and no, I was told it would be an entry level position with a CPA firm.

[Texas27]

@808CDR… the content you have in your resume is pretty good. If you wanted to put more emphasis on your experience I would put one more bullet point for your tax intern position. You should also put your position for the company you worked for first and bold it so it sticks out. Also if you wanted to add anything else you can take out the coursework section. Most of the time we tell people to put coursework info if you have limited experience (mainly for sophomores or juniors that might only have taken a couple of accounting courses). Since you have passed the CPA exam that is enough to satisfy that you have met the coursework requirements at any firm. You can also expand a little more on your bullet points.

As far as applying for jobs, I would try and contact the recruiters for the firm directly. If you know someone that works there just ask for their email address and send them an email letting them know you are interested in a position and attach your resume and a cover letter in a PDF. Many large companies have recruiter info on their websites. Also, you can check with your career services and get the recruiters information. It might take a while and you might not hear back from any but it is your best shot to getting an interview.

BEC - Feb 2012: 80
AUD - Feb 2012: 84
FAR - Apr 2012: 78
REG - May 2012: 90

Thanks Becker!

[Anonymous]

Great list of verbs!!!

[Texas27]

@jenuno01…. haha your link is for career services at my school.

BEC - Feb 2012: 80
AUD - Feb 2012: 84
FAR - Apr 2012: 78
REG - May 2012: 90

Thanks Becker!

[jenuno01]

bahaaha it was a quick Google search 🙂

Class of 2012

[Author]

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