[ZCPA2]

I’m currently an auditor for a national public accounting firm (Top 6, non-Big 4) with a CPA and a BS/MS in accounting. I was recently promoted to audit senior, but I plan on leaving in about a year after I have one busy season under my belt as a senior.

In about a year, I’ll be looking to leave for a senior internal audit role in private (not internal audit consulting), but most of the job postings I see say “3+ years of public accounting experience strongly preferred”. I was a January hire (January 2014) and I did not intern, so I’ll have 3 busy seasons of experience (2 as staff, 1 as senior), but only about 2.5 years in total.

When I was still in college, I interned with a much smaller firm for about 6 months, and I had an 8 month co-op as a staff accountant for another company. Does this experience even count, or should I be looking to stay for 2 busy seasons as a senior instead of just 1?

[Mayo]

As has been said before, job “requirements” are a wishlist. If the hiring managers have public experience, no one is going to balk when you equate 3 busy season = 3 years. Just understand that the more structured the company is (aka large), the more HR requirement crap they'll have to fulfill. If they really like you they'll try and bend the rules/find exceptions.

I know this from personal experience in my recent job search. Their pay for my experience in years is say…$80k, but the market is paying $85-95k. Which is basically what I told them I'm looking for. They balked, and I wrote them off and moved on to other opportunities.

Last week I get an email that the comp has been adjusted upwards to $85k+…just like that. So don't worry about fitting the exact parameters. Just make sure you really customize your resume to the position and kill the interview, and you'll be fine.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[Author]

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