[Anonymous]

Alright, i live in new york and I passed the CPA exam in April. I had an online business going so I never bothered to look for a job which I regret now. for the past month I have been trying to reach out to friends and network and nobody has been able to find me anything.

I do not have any accounting experience other then preparing taxes 2 years ago.

I have been applying on monster , the big 4 and craigslist with no luck.

I’m really not sure where to look at this point and regret not trying harder in college.

If anyone has any advice or suggestions I would appreciate it.

thanks in advance

[Anonymous]

@bkkguru I also had an online business and knew a lot about marketing for small businesses using FB, YouTube and Twitter. I researched a few small local firms in my area and targeted the ones that had webpages but no social media. I offered to work free during tax season as an internship and help them launch an FB page and LinkedIn Company page. Out of the five emails I sent out I got responses from two of them and was hired within three days. They insisted on paying me and a year later I am still working there. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Hey CPA driven, I think you are right, I'm just going to do that and see what happens

[musicamor]

Have you reached out to recruiters in your areas? Robert Half, Accountemps, etc?

Texas CPA - licensed in 2012!!!

[Anonymous]

@bkkguru.

Make sure you put your business down on your resume. Prospective employers will look over a lack of history if you can demonstrate that you are not waiting for it to come to you. That you are willing to go out and get it says a lot about you.

One other suggestion, if you have the time call up your local AARP and find out about doing taxes on a volunteer basis.

This is a great way to help out those less fortunate and will also be a differentiator on your resume that will say a lot about who you are and what you are willing to do.

Lastly, sounds like you are somewhat tech savvy. http://www.dice.com has many IT jobs that demand accounting knowledge and background

[acamp]

Its tough to get into public accounting with no experience when you're no longer in school (some tax prep is probably not going to get you in as an experienced hire). You probably want contacts for “campus recruiters” for the various firms you are looking at.

You might try hitting a few events, out here we have CalCPA, I'd imagine NY might have something as well–they usually offer deeply discounted or free memberships to prospective CPAs. When I was on the hunt I emailed some people directly from the CalCPA registry, first explaining where I got their email address and a brief description of what I was about and if they had any suggestions on getting in with their firm–you might say something like, while running my own business I missed the campus opportunities but wonder if you might be able to forward my resume to those people. The email I sent was reviewed and polished several times by other professional friends of mine to ensure it had the highest chance of not going straight into the bin. One of emails I sent was forwarded to recruiting, which turned into a phone interview, office interview and a Big4 offer! [which I didn't accept lol]. Of course this approach can also see it as spamming random people of a company you want to work for–I used this approach only for the one Big4 firm that I hadn't found any other contacts with.

Start by hitting some events, good in-person conversation with just about anyone who works at a firm should be enough to get your foot in the door. [For these I actually made business cards with “Future Auditor” as the title and my brief resume, degrees/GPA and sections of the CPA that I had passed to date; people really got a kick out of it]

Ninja + Wiley Test Bank: [FAR - 81] [REG - 76] [BEC - 88] [AUD - 73](doh!)

Becker Videos: [AUD - 82]

California CPA

[Jimabbott50]

The experience requirements vary among the states.

Feel free to contact the ND Board of Accountancy, at 800-532-5904.

Jim Abbott

[Author]

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