I didn't read too many of the responses, so hopefully I am not repeating myself.
Having your CPA completed is irrelevant even though it sounds like it should be a plus. Someone with a internship at a public accounting firm would be better since they have public accounting experience. These people are CPA's already, so they know that learning from a book and experience are completely different. They know that you will be starting out behind someone with the experience, and that the person with experience will be able to pass the exams on their own time rather than, time they are paying for.
That being said, don't feel like you wasted your time/money passing the CPA exam before getting a public accounting job. When you hit busy season you will be glad you didn't try to pass a test during it, and studying right after busy season would also be miserable.
When coming out of school I had all of my requirements for the CPA without a masters degree, no experience(except for a night audit job at a hotel I took during my last 3 months of college…really is not too relevant to accounting, but it was more than I had for experience so I did it. Every job has asked about it, and when using the correct terminology, it sounds technical. Really it was running a program and fixing any errors it finds at 4 am.), and a sub 3.0 GPA. It took me 6 months to get a job in public accounting which, believe it or not is the average for finding your first career job after school.
If you do not have a 3.0 don't waste your time on regional/larger firms. A small firm will still get you experience to become a CPA and has it's own pluses. For one I was able to get a lot of experience in different areas of accounting, in fact I did everything except for A/R. That experience allowed me to find an in industry job after almost two years, which I did not even apply for, they came to me through LinkedIn. I also had the opportunity to go to a Big 4 afterwards mainly through networking, but I chose the in industry path instead due to the opportunity (never stop networking, if you have free time, read Never Eat Alone.)
I had a good amount of interviews/rejections during 6 months. My interviews came from networking with friends, finding a list of CPA firms in my state and bordering states and emailing them my cover letter/resume (all of them), and lastly Craigslist. I eventually received my job offer through Craigslist and it was a small CPA firm which had 2 CPA's and 2 staff accountants which was growing every year(after I left they replaced me with 2 more CPA's.) The pay was not great but I was there for experience. I used job search sites like Monster and jobs.com and never heard back from those, mainly because the traffic is so high, I was receiving rejections 8 months after starting my job.
The key is really to just apply to every CPA firm you can find. A lot of places will at least give you a call and give you a phone interview especially if they don't have anything advertised because the volume of phone interviews they have to make are so small. After each interview you go to that you don't get the job, make sure you email the person you interviewed with and ask if there was anything that you could do to improve your interview skills. One firm told me to ask more about their clients, when I finally got a job, I spent about 15-20 minutes just talking about the different clients they had.
Also if you have any customer service skills, or worked in a restaurant or something add that to your resume if you don't have accounting experience. Public accounting is a customer service position especially at smaller firms since you will be dealing directly with the clients. If you worked in a restaurant it also shows your ability to multitask and will be noticed by someone else that has done so. I left this off my resume at the in industry job I am at now, and I mentioned a story about working in a restaurant and they told me that they like hearing about people who have worked there because of the multitasking skills you gain there.
One last thing is to find a place that offers free tax services to low income individuals. They are always looking for help and although you won't be paid, you will gain experience with basic 1040's.
But really try to get as many interviews as possible and learn from them. You will pick up new things at each one and seem more comfortable. I assure you that they will notice and take the impression you perform well under pressure.
Also, I am sure your resume/cover letter was reviewed a couple of time before being sent out. Your post has grammatical errors here and there, these things can cause someone to toss your resume immediately. Small errors can cause big problems in public accounting and they will pin it against your lack of attention to detail.
Good luck, hope this helps, but my laptop is about to die.
I took my first exam in AUG 2013, so glad they have access until you pass material updates
AUD - 56, 59, 65, 74, 62, 69, 70, 74, 70, 74, 81
BEC - 74, 73, 75
REG - 74, 74
FAR - TBD
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