Ed. note: While we can’t go rough up recruiters on your behalf, we’re happy to give you advice on how to make them do your bidding for you. Get in touch, we’ll put our team of trained monkeys on your problem right away. Also, I apologize in advance for the length of this letter.
Good evening Adrienne,
I’m a senior at the University of Michigan due to graduate in 2012 with a double major in accounting & finance with over 150 credits. I recently went through the recruiting process at the University to try and land an internship and I happened to land a couple.
My issue here is that I didn’t get any internships with any of the firms that I was really looking forward to interning with GM, Chrysler, another Fortune 500 corporation, Baker Tilly, Plante Moran, and another regional public accounting firm. My favorites which were Plante Moran and Baker Tilly didn’t seem to like my performance at the interviews and so I never heard back from them. But I did get offers from the regional public accounting firm for a winter and summer internship with a large Fortune 500 corporation that I did accept.
The reasons why I did not perform well during my first few interviews was because it was my first time having job interviews of this sort and so I was unprepared. I have since had numerous mock interviews with family and friends and I am now very good at interviewing, but I feel that it is a little too late because the damage has already been done, all of the firms have already gone through the recruiting process at our University.
I did apply for PwC, Deloitte, and E&Y early on but I never heard back from them. KPMG does not recruit at our campus. I thought that I was a very solid candidate with an overall GPA over 3.8 and a 4.0 accounting GPA which I have maintained while holding a part time job throughout my college career. I think the area where I am lacking is the volunteering department but I have been active in Beta Alpha Psi which I do volunteer work through. I have participated in programs such as Junior Achievement amongst others. I would have done a lot more volunteer work but I am the oldest child from a single parent home. We have 5 younger children in our family whom I help my mother take care of (if you’re wondering where our father is, I am too; we haven’t heard from him since 2001)!
My dream is to work for a Big 4 firm but I am having a hard time landing any interviews with them. Considering that I will be interning with a regional this winter and a large corporate firm during the summer of 2012, do you think I will ever break into the Big 4? They say that once you start working for a regional firm, it is extremely tough to move up into a larger firm such as one of the Big 6. I have worked very hard over the past 4 years and I feel that I deserve it, but I understand that I am not entitled to it just because I have worked hard up to this point. If it is at all possible to break into the Big 4, do you have any advice on how I should go about doing so considering that I will be graduating soon? I only have about 4 classes left before I graduate so I won’t be in school for that much longer.
The regional accounting firm is a great firm but I just don’t feel like it would be a good fit for me. I’m not ungrateful, I do realize that there are hundreds of students in the same position that I’m in who interviewed with numerous firms and didn’t get a single offer. I’m happy that I got 2 offers from different firms. I just feel that I would be much happier with either a Big 4 firm or maybe even BDO or Grant Thornton. Can you give me any advice about breaking into any one of these firms?
Also, I feel that since I didn’t do well at the interviews with Plante Moran and Baker Tilly which are 2 very highly regarded firms, I will never be able to work for these firms in the future. Do you think I have a chance of redeeming myself with them? What advice do can you give a person such as myself?
In case anyone finds this to be TL;DR, I’ll save you a few minutes and sum up the predicament: soon to graduate, 3.8 GPA, flopped Plante Moran and Baker Tilly interviews and wants to get into the Big 4, BAD. You’re welcome.
Anyway, I have to admit I’m a little stumped. On paper, you sound great. High GPA, u spell gud, Junior Achievement and BAP experience, able to express yourself… wait a minute, maybe that’s it. You know how to express yourself.
I’m going to go way out here and wonder out loud if your lack of success with the firms you want centers around the fact that you have a pretty good idea of what you want. You probably also have opinions you are not afraid to express. You realize that scares the crap out of firms looking for a blank, unquestioning canvas they can mold into their own private workhorse, right? You use words like “I feel,” which you are not allowed to do when you work for the Big 4. I kid. Kind of.
Your point about being unprepared for interviews should serve as a lesson to the junior accounting students out there reading this: interview skills are critical for landing a gig in public before you leave school. Anyone who actually works in a public accounting office can confirm that you don’t even have to be much of a step above completely awkward to get the job, you just have to know how to shine at an interview.
Are you doomed forever? Doubtful. There is not some master list the firms share amongst themselves that brands you as a loser for the entirety of your life in public.
My suggestion to you would be to fast track the CPA exam as having that done will definitely make you more marketable. Also make sure you are discoverable to recruiters by having a strong LinkedIn presence once you have some work experience under your belt, and try to do as much networking as possible both online and in the real world; any professional events you might be able to sneak off to will allow you to make personal impressions with those in positions you are working toward.
In the meantime, try not to feel too butthurt about the regional firm gig (try this discussion earlier about mid-size firm opportunities). On the bright side, you actually got an internship, so use it.
Can anyone else help this guy out? I’m kind of stuck for ideas.
I didn’t submit the requested assessments, instead I submit this comment:
“Wtflol if you want me to do the work hire me”
I had to do 4 interviews and a technical test for a good sized accounting management software only for them to turn me down (before the potential 5th and final interview no less). I really do think I should have emailed them an invoice for my trouble. (Might have also dodged a bullet if I took them 4-5 interviews to determine if I was a good fit or not…)
My last position, I had nine interviews between Sept 2011 and March 2012. I was hired. They were scared because they had hired many before me where the job did not work out for them. I am persistent
It worked for me because I am persistent in getting the job done no matter what obstacles I face.. They had been trying to get a credit line since 1973. I got them their credit line within 4 months of my hire date. It took persistence in digging through messy books and financials and fixing them first so that the info given to the bank VP was accurate in every direction. I did acquire them a $26M line of credit with a major Pacific Northwest Banking Institution. I was there for three years and left in very good standing.
You have to want to do it and you must have the skill set to get the job done. Especially in difficult industries. Thanks for listening.
I made the mistake of assuming anyone just coming out of college is miles better than me at excel. We had an intern and I gave them an excel based work assignment. His classic response was “Do I need to use formulas or can I just type the numbers in?” I swear that is a true story.
At a company I used to work for we gave candidates an attention to detail test when trying to fill a staff accountant position. It was literally two lists of words side by side and the candidate had to circle the lines where the two words did not exactly match. When I first saw the test, I thought it would be stupid because it was so easy, especially for college graduates. Needless to say, I was shocked and depressed when so many of our candidates had multiple misses (errors) on the test. My faith in humanity has not been the same since.
Anway, I don’t have a problem giving candidates a basic, short test to help determine if they can do the job. 1.5 hours is a bit excessive though.
I agree that is a bit excessive,
Market forces > personal opinions. If the labor supply/interest in the role is deep, the employer can ask whatever they want. Someone will be willing to jump through the hoops. opposite also true is labor supply is tight.
I had a long virtual interview for a bkpr position at an accounting firm. Although I never had to take an assessment from previous employers, I agreed.
“This is an invitation to take our brief assessment.
Please visit the following links:
1) eSkill Standard Accounting and Bookkeeping Principles (US)
2) eSkill Standard MS Office 2013 – Word®”
Microsoft Word for bookkeepers – really?
Took the tests, then they ghosted me.
I did a 15 minute assessment of Excel skills at a previous public company that involved knowing how to put together a pivot table and do a vlookup. 15 minutes is what gave me confidence they knew Excel – not 1.5 hours.
We used to give an Excel assessment at my former public company on vlookups and pivot table creation – 15 minutes tops and same test to everyone. Then the rest of our 30 minute interview was about culture and any other knowledge we wanted to ask about. We were able to identify several candidates who SAID they knew Excel but hadn’t mastered the skills we needed. (15 minutes vs. 1.5 hours).