I've been trying on and off for years (others in this forum are in my shoes as well). Outside of campus recruiting, it's incredibly difficult.
1) Networking is the best way, but my guesstimate is they hire 95% of entry level staff from internships and campus recruiting. I have campus recruiting available, yet once you graduate, those options seem to “go away.” Even though you can apply through the school, even after graduating, you likely won't get interviewed. I've spoken to HR people, who used to work at the BIG 4 and they agree. Wish I had known that in college.
2) Your best bet is to aim for a smaller to national firm. Again though, national firms will lean heavily on campus recruiting, and interns. Just for a number, lets say national firms are 80 (campus)/20 networking (better odds at least). The smaller you go the better your odds, but the less likely you are to do audit. I managed to get 2 offers last year through it, problem is, I've had a huge struggle and essentially been out of work (i basically have a book-keeping job) for over a year. I”m about to start emailing 5 people a day requesting informational meetings, expecting 5-10% to respond back.
4) Get involved with your state CPA societies and attend networking events, where there are bound to be plenty of CPAs.
-Then again, I can't find anything, despite using all these methods, but hey… it EVENTUALLY worked the first time. I think it's likely just a numbers game to even get someone to respond back to you to say they're too busy; it's even more difficult to get a yes response to a 10 minute phone conversation.
B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it
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