[Anonymous]

Hello Ninjas! I am a recent graduate (May 2013) with a BBA in Accounting. I am having the hardest time trying to seek employment in a public accounting firm. I’m sure a lot of people are. I didn’t have the best of grades my gpa was 2.7 but I was heavily involved as president of my business fraternity, ambassador for the business school, worked in the business school under faculty, senior investment analyst for a student run portfolio organization managing over $1 million dollars. I felt like I was over involved and had less time for focusing on my grades. On top of that personal family issues, such as my parents being homeless after losing their jobs due to the economy and the house. So I worried a lot on where to stay when it was time for winter and summer breaks. I am seeking advice on how to break into public accounting because I am confident that I will excel in the career. Currently, I work for a private company as an accounting clerk (which it’s mostly accounts payable) and studying for the CPA (which i’m scheduled to take AUD in November 2013). I am very stressed about my future as I have been through so much in the past 2 years I do not want to end up being a failure to society. Please help or any words of comfort!

[tough_kitty]

Ever considered working for the state? Or federal government? It's not ideal but it's not bad either! 5% raises every year and a possibility of a promotion with a 15-20% raise every several years. And you'll have plenty of free time to enjoy life and study for the exam. And after you get your license you can try applying for public accounting jobs.

Just something to consider. I'm no expert. I'd love to work for public accounting myself but I have a lot of friends who aren't so happy there so no job is perfect but at least I am not afraid of lay offs….

FAR: 81 (May 2013)
BEC: 81 (July 2013)
REG: 83 (August 2013)
AUD: 82 (November 2013)
California CPA since 1/30/14

[tough_kitty]

Ever considered working for the state? Or federal government? It's not ideal but it's not bad either! 5% raises every year and a possibility of a promotion with a 15-20% raise every several years. And you'll have plenty of free time to enjoy life and study for the exam. And after you get your license you can try applying for public accounting jobs.

Just something to consider. I'm no expert. I'd love to work for public accounting myself but I have a lot of friends who aren't so happy there so no job is perfect but at least I am not afraid of lay offs….

FAR: 81 (May 2013)
BEC: 81 (July 2013)
REG: 83 (August 2013)
AUD: 82 (November 2013)
California CPA since 1/30/14

[futureCPA12]

Gov't jobs are actually harder to get than public accounting jobs. The government preferably wants 2+ years experience from their accountants.

[futureCPA12]

Gov't jobs are actually harder to get than public accounting jobs. The government preferably wants 2+ years experience from their accountants.

[tough_kitty]

Really? Which state is that? CA hires a lot of auditors right out of college with zero experience. Or maybe not “lots” and I should consider myself lucky 🙂 I had 7 years of full time work experience, just not in accounting.

Bottom line is, apply everywhere you can and the right job will “find” you…right?? At least it's something I keep telling myself… Cuz apparently big 4 wasn't in my future but something better happened instead….

FAR: 81 (May 2013)
BEC: 81 (July 2013)
REG: 83 (August 2013)
AUD: 82 (November 2013)
California CPA since 1/30/14

[tough_kitty]

Really? Which state is that? CA hires a lot of auditors right out of college with zero experience. Or maybe not “lots” and I should consider myself lucky 🙂 I had 7 years of full time work experience, just not in accounting.

Bottom line is, apply everywhere you can and the right job will “find” you…right?? At least it's something I keep telling myself… Cuz apparently big 4 wasn't in my future but something better happened instead….

FAR: 81 (May 2013)
BEC: 81 (July 2013)
REG: 83 (August 2013)
AUD: 82 (November 2013)
California CPA since 1/30/14

[barelystayingsane]

“Bottom line is, apply everywhere you can and the right job will “find” you…right??” Couldn't have said it better myself. Filling out a lot of applications is the best thing you can do!

In the meantime, does your school have a career fair that you can go to as an alumni? I think you may have a better chance of finding a job if you talk with someone face to face, rather than just applying online. The reason I say this is that with online submissions, I feel like people may look quickly at GPA first to weed out candidates. Granted, I'm a fresh college grad whose only experience with job-hunting is with campus recruiters, so this may not necessarily always be true.

I don't think that your low GPA is necessarily a bad thing, given all of the insane extracurriculars you were involved with. I had many friends who are very successful and capable, who were also in a similar situation with a low GPA but lots of extracurricular involvement. However, I do think you have a better chance of getting interviews if you can explain to someone (while you have their undivided attention) why your GPA was low, rather than having an automated computer process weed you out based on your GPA or having a recruiter skim over your application, see your GPA, and ignore the rest of your application.

Best of luck to you!

[barelystayingsane]

“Bottom line is, apply everywhere you can and the right job will “find” you…right??” Couldn't have said it better myself. Filling out a lot of applications is the best thing you can do!

In the meantime, does your school have a career fair that you can go to as an alumni? I think you may have a better chance of finding a job if you talk with someone face to face, rather than just applying online. The reason I say this is that with online submissions, I feel like people may look quickly at GPA first to weed out candidates. Granted, I'm a fresh college grad whose only experience with job-hunting is with campus recruiters, so this may not necessarily always be true.

I don't think that your low GPA is necessarily a bad thing, given all of the insane extracurriculars you were involved with. I had many friends who are very successful and capable, who were also in a similar situation with a low GPA but lots of extracurricular involvement. However, I do think you have a better chance of getting interviews if you can explain to someone (while you have their undivided attention) why your GPA was low, rather than having an automated computer process weed you out based on your GPA or having a recruiter skim over your application, see your GPA, and ignore the rest of your application.

Best of luck to you!

[Anonymous]

@DSP4Life Here's a true story… My classmate in college.. had about the same GPA as you.. he didn't have a 3.0.. But he had extremely good people's skills.. He basically kept on going to those “meet the firm events” and kept on meeting recruiters one after another… He didn't stop even though he kept getting turned down.. Then a year later, when he had already graduated.. 1 recruiter from a regional firm emailed him back.. And they kept in contact, and then he invited him over to have a lunch to meet his team..

After meeting the team, my class mate emailed them again, and this just kind of went on back and fourth for a little bit.. Then came time for the firm to hire somebody. My class mate (out of college; when they recruit heavily ONLY college students)… He got hired.. I was kind of surprised myself.. He told me, he had asked the management there how many people he was competing against, and they told him.. don't worry, you're already hired. no competition..

So this just shows.. Networking is the way to go.. sometimes, you just got to do everything you've got.. you have so many resources around you.. especially the internet today, where google has literally eveyrthing and anything u want to find.. how to improve interview skills, writing good resume, etc… everything.

[Anonymous]

@DSP4Life Here's a true story… My classmate in college.. had about the same GPA as you.. he didn't have a 3.0.. But he had extremely good people's skills.. He basically kept on going to those “meet the firm events” and kept on meeting recruiters one after another… He didn't stop even though he kept getting turned down.. Then a year later, when he had already graduated.. 1 recruiter from a regional firm emailed him back.. And they kept in contact, and then he invited him over to have a lunch to meet his team..

After meeting the team, my class mate emailed them again, and this just kind of went on back and fourth for a little bit.. Then came time for the firm to hire somebody. My class mate (out of college; when they recruit heavily ONLY college students)… He got hired.. I was kind of surprised myself.. He told me, he had asked the management there how many people he was competing against, and they told him.. don't worry, you're already hired. no competition..

So this just shows.. Networking is the way to go.. sometimes, you just got to do everything you've got.. you have so many resources around you.. especially the internet today, where google has literally eveyrthing and anything u want to find.. how to improve interview skills, writing good resume, etc… everything.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your support! I will take you up on this advice. Right now it is really emotionally frustrating trying to figure things out. Hopefully by having two parts of the CPA passed by February 2014 should help some!

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your support! I will take you up on this advice. Right now it is really emotionally frustrating trying to figure things out. Hopefully by having two parts of the CPA passed by February 2014 should help some!

[Author]

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