[DeterminedDaph]

I graduated from a top Big 4 recruiting public institution with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance with a 2.8 GPA. My low GPA was unfortunately due to my poor performance in Financial Accounting & Cost Accounting one specific semester (stress, death of a friend etc). I ended up switching out of Accounting, went into Finance and graduated.

I got accepted into an online MAcc program and completed all of the accounting pre-reqs (I had to start ALL over again – 7 accounting classes!!) and finished with a 3.0 GPA. During that time, I was interning full-time at a Fortune 200 company as an Accounting intern. Unfortunately – I didn’t get a full-time job after my internship. I really think it was due to my poor GPA. I don’t even know how I got that internship without them ever asking about my GPA. The interview went well and my internship went extremely well because it was originally set for 3 months and they extended it for another 5 months with great reviews. When I applied to their full-time rotation program (the only FT job that was open at the time), it had a 3.5 GPA requirement so even though the managers told me I’d be fine, HR pulled me out of the pile within 2 days of submitting my application. 🙁 I tried applying to several other jobs but had no luck with those either.

Fast forward 9 months later, I’ve been working in a part-time accounting job at a local university and I just transferred into their MAcc program because I didn’t want to pursue a MAcc online and I wanted to capitalize on recruiting season. I also did individual taxes this past season with a small tax company and I currently have a 3.7 MAcc GPA. 🙂 The fall recruiting season is upon me and I’m currently trying to figure out what would be the best route for me. After being exposed to tax, I would love to either work in the tax department of an awesome company or take the Tax route in public accounting.

Should I go for a tax internship? Or should I go for FT?

Current credentials…

– Bachelors in Finance

– Current MAcc student with 3.7+ GPA (3 classes completed with graduation is set for August 2015)

– 1 year of non-profit budgeting/accounting experience

– 8 months experience – accounting internship at a Fortune 200 corporation

– 3 months individual tax preparation experience through a small tax company

** Hoping to pass REG before the recruiting season….

I got sick and tired of my poor undergrad GPA being an embarrassing topic during interviews so I’ve worked REALLY hard to boost up my grades & gain valuable experience this past year. I just want to be confident and fully prepared for the new recruiting season. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

[lalap]

Wow, what an amazing story! Kudos for your hard work!

IMO, aim for the FT position, but still apply to companies that only offers internship position. I was part of Fall recruiting season in 2012 and graduated in December of the same year. I applied for internsip position at PwC (that's the only position they offered) , then the recruiter told me that I'm not eligible for internship because of my graduation date. However, she asked if I would like to interview for FT position instead. I said (heck) yeah! I did not get the job though. lol. You have great experience and awesome GPA. Just be confident! Good luck!

Passed

[Author]

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