[Anonymous]

Hello all,

I am currently a rising junior at the University of Texas – Austin as an accounting major. I completed my sophomore year with a 3.25 GPA increasing from a dismal 3.0 GPA from my freshman year (although the point increase is not very impressive). As far as my career goals/interests go I would like to see myself getting an internship in industry/fortune 500 (GE or Boeing ideally) or at a Big 4 in their corporate finance division (Transaction Services or Valuation) and then hopefully working at either place full time.

There are a few problems with my career path though. Firstly I have no major significant work experience. The only remote business related experience I have had was as a corporate relations/development intern at a non-profit firm and that was the summer prior to my freshman year in college and also I served as a Tax intern this past spring at a Tax firm locally. This year I started to heavily recruit using our online recruitment system and some local places (literally applying daily and consistently) but with no luck I didn’t receive any interviews and I also got the same response from the HR people “Sorry we are only look for juniors. Try again next year”. With this I couldn’t find ANYTHING for this summer and so I spent this summer traveling and I don’t know how this will fare when recruiters see that I haven’t done anything finance related this summer. This was a little sample of my terrible luck.

The other issue is my GPA. Although I have a decent alibi for it being fairly low in the beginning (I took all my hard major classes in the beginning like an idiot) I feel like its still going to kill my chances slowly. The good thing out of this though is that now I don’t have any necessarily difficult classes now that I knocked them out, but this still puts me at a disadvantage because I feel like I am automatically booted from all the company positions that I would like to apply to. For the companies that I am interested in I have noticed that the GPA requirements are a minimum of a 3.25 (and some even 3.5 especially Deloitte and PwC) so that automatically puts me at the lower end of the range almost realistically killing my chances of getting an interview.

This fall though I plan to hopefully get a finance related/accounting related internship locally and then see where my chances are but I don’t know how far that will get me. As you can see time is slowly running out to make a difference in my performance and I feel like obviously I am doing something wrong. With this I am asking you all for some guidance and direction to help me reach my corporate finance goals.

Any suggestions, tips, help is very much appreciated

Thanks

[wizards8507]

Keep your GPA going in the right direction. I had something like a 2.9 after freshman year and graduated with a 3.5. I used it as something positive to talk about in my interviews. Something like “I was immature my freshman year and didn't realize how much work it would take to be successful at this level. I've really learned the value of hard work and I think that's someting that many of my peers won't truly appreciate unless they've had a similar failure early in their studies.”

NY CPA

[Tawilkins]

I think you are worrying too much about this. Sure… PwC and Deloitte require 3.5 or better GPA's, they have to weed through the masses of applicants somehow, However, I graduated with a 3.0 and landed a job with Chevron two months before I graduated and I never did any internships. A year after I worked for Chevron, we were asked to go to some of the university career fairs to help recruit new talent. The criteria we were given were to look for nothing less than a 3.0 GPA at a minimum to weed out some candidates as “everyone” wanted to apply and interview.

I can tell you from experience, that sure your GPA plays a large role, but so does your personality etc. They will certainly consider you as long as you are close to what they are looking for, but more importantly, they look at the overall package. They want a smart trainable person who can get along and work as a team to reach a common goal and to do that, you can't just have the grades…. don't underestimate the power of the individual!

I hope this helps.

AUD - Done
BEC - Done
FAR - Done
REG - Oct.

[Tncincy]

@tawilkins,

I love your comments. Yes, grades give an indication the you can comprehend the subject but personality goes a lot farther. I don't have a problem with raising the bar as far as gpa, but sometimes it is depended upon too much. Sometimes all a person need is a chance…….I know time is money and etc, but I know many people with high gpa's and just wish they would go sit down. I worked with some that had high gpa's but could NEVER come to work on time, ALWAYS had an excuse for incomplete work, and ALWAYS had a reason to go home early. Don't forget, being a team player and being able to apply what is learned. I know some that think the gpa is an excuse to be absolutely ridiculous In the work place. Point? High gpa is not always the best fit for the job, but you can't sample everyone either.

It begins with a 75
Been here too long as a cheerleader....ready to pass

[evesocal]

The more time that goes by, the less the GPA matters until it really does not matter at all. I'm surprised it's even a topic in hiring but I guess if firms are looking at students or recent grads, it's something to look at.

Personality, experience, attitude, having a resume free of spelling and grammar errors (yes, sadly this has to be said as I've seen many that were written so badly it was pathetic) – IMO all of these are far more important during an interview than half a point or so in a GPA.

Good luck! Keep persevering and you'll get there.

CA CPA

B: 75
R: 80
A: 77
F: 81
Ethics: 84, 92 and done!
Licensed in California

[P or F.. I think Im gonna BARF]

Fellow graduate from UT Austin here… Austin is a great town, but not so great for accounting professionals (especially if you're looking to get into industry). The Big 4 are present in Austin, but majority of them have smaller satellite offices there. If you're open to moving, take a look at the Dallas and/or Houston markets. Also, try looking at the smaller, regional accounting firms.

B - (08/29/2013) Passed
A - (07/02/2013) Passed
R - (10/17/2013) 73 - Rematch
F - (05/29/2013) Passed

[Nivek]

Network, network, network.

It is amazing how many people get interviews/jobs just from barely knowing someone. It makes a big difference. Talk to any upperclassman who may have already had an internship just for some advice/ possible reference. Send emails out to smaller firms explaining your situation and how you would be willing to help out during busy season/ do whatever. It may be uncomfortable to be extremely outgoing but people are out their with good advice and who would be willing to help you that you haven't met yet. Send emails to companies who aren't even posting jobs, they may not have anything available but would be willing to refer you to a friend as “a go-getter who is eager to work” since you contacted them and showed initiative.

Officially done.

[Author]

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