<p>I'm an undergrad at high point university, a small private school in north carolina. I'm looking into becoming an accountant but I'm worried I wont get any job offers after college. I plan on getting my cpa, and would love to get an internship or hired by one of the big 4. What are my chances? Do larger accounting firms even acknowledge smaller colleges, or would I have to transfer to a well known school?</p>
<p>Any feedback would be nice</p>
<p>The Big 4 firms recruit at many smaller schools, but not all of them are targets. I would ask your career services office to see if students have been placed in those firms in the past. Either way, your school’s prestige should not have a huge impact on your career in the long run.</p>
<p>Jaysorenson19, PLEASE, PLEASE read post number one in the thread,“Everything you wanted to know or should know about accounting.” It will answer your question. The bottom line is that your school prestige is immaterial. What matters is your GPA and your interviewing skills.</p>
<p>I believe you meant to direct that at Copat16. And if so, that is good advice.</p>
<p>Well I wouldn’t say it is immaterial. </p>
<p>Big 4 recruit at many, but not all colleges (especially smaller private ones), but that’s something you’d really need to find out: if they recruit/interview at your school. </p>
<p>With that said, I agree with taxguy that the benefits, of which there may be some, of going to a nationally well-known/prestigous school are marginal, and are often not necessarily worth it (especially if your spending big bucks). However I do think its worth it to go to a school that is well known/respected in your region and has decent recruiting opportunities especially if the recruiting at your current school is lousy.</p>
<p>Going to a prestigious university makes it much easier to land an interview.</p>
<p>Going to a small college, you really need to network:
You should look up alumni who do accounting (either through your career office or through LinkedIn/Google search), then ask them (email or phone) if they would be willing to talk to you (preferably personally, but in this case you would need to travel to them) about what they do and give advice to you and if also if they would be willing to look at your resume. (mention, of course, that you are very interested in accounting). Be sure to have a good story to tell.</p>
<p>Then after talking to them and getting to know them for a while you can ask them if they can refer you to HR or whoever does the hiring.</p>
<p>If you don’t have good social skills this may be difficult to do…</p>
<p>Since you go to a small college, there aren’t likely to be that many alumni. BUT, the alumni that do exist will likely be helpful and very happy to connect with someone from your college, since they probably never talk to people like you.</p>