<p>@wailingconstant I am not planning on studying a language, Spanish is the first language spoken in my home so I have grown up with it although my grammar could use some work, I was just hoping it would provide some benefit.</p>
<p>Totally didn’t see this thread, when I posted a thread earlier! Im new to the site and theres some great info in here.</p>
<p>Are most of y’all planning on specializing in taxation or audit? What’s the better choice career wise?</p>
<p>Hello everyone, I’ve been arguing with my family lately. Between University of San Francisco and SFSU, my parents wanted me to go to USF because the school appears to be more “well-known” to the people. I was trying to explain to them both schools are accredited by AACSB. And students from these two schools would have the same job perspectives given the grades are equal. They keep telling me USF grads have better job outlook than SFSU grads. After all the arguments with my parents, I’m kinda in doubt if that’s true, and I might just attend USF just in case. I’m confused…Since then, my uncle agreed to pay everything if I go to USF…But not SFSU 
Please HELP!</p>
<p>As someone who’s been involved in the recruiting process for a Big 4 in the Bay Area, I can say from experience that SFSU is a very lightly hit school by the public accounting firms here. There are some years when some of the Big 4s/second tiers won’t even show up to their Meet the Firms, which I’d say is the best opportunity for students to network with professionals at an accounting firm. Historically, even when we do show, many of the students there haven’t made much of an impression on the firms and as a result, there’s a negative perception about the candidates there and a waste of resources to recruit out of the school. That being said, there are a handful of people from SFSU who get into a Big 4 so it all goes back to the point of if you network, can hold a conversation, and maintain good grades, the opportunities are available regardless of what school you go to. But USF and SFSU are viewed upon completely oppositely from one another by the accounting firms here in the Bay Area and USF offers a better job outlook. That’s just the reality based on employer perceptions of the schools.</p>
<p>Not sure if this has been asked among the 171+ pages, but how important are extra-curricular activities to Big 4 firms? (Or smaller firms, for that matter).</p>
<p>My reason for asking is, I’m just not intrigued by most (well, all…) extra-curricular activities and couuuldn’t care less about them, to be honest.</p>
<p>I have pretty good social skills though. I mean, I’m no salesman, but I can hold a conversation. I’ve always been the well-liked, funny black guy lol. So I’m likeable, I’d like to think (as far as I know).</p>
<p>Thanks in advance, to whoever answers!</p>
<p>^ Very. Both for resume padding and networking. </p>
<p>Beta Alpha Psi is VERY important. It got my face in front of all the firms, I ended up getting a PT Accounting job from someone who was graduating that I met in BAP, which really helped my resume. Come recruiting season, I had already met all the recruiters several times through BAP, and I ended up getting several offers. Granted, at that point I had superb grades and work experience as well. An officer position would be even more helpful.</p>
<p>Awesome, thank you for the reply domrom1.</p>
<p>I have another question, I was looking over my resume - I’ve worked two customer service type jobs. I know work experience is looked upon positively when you are giving out your resumes during recruiting and such, but does that pertain to ANY work experience or work experience/internships regarding Accounting? Are grades more important than work experience?</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>^ Work experience/internships in Accounting>work experience any>grades, but I believe they are all factors and grades would possibly be #1 on list if we are discussing big4 &/ having the 150. Better to list the work experience you have then gaps. I helped screen accounting resumes once and work experience becomes especially more important when the bachelors degrees and gpas are nearly the same. Looking back, well at least I did a good deed during my accounting club president days. I was waiting to hear back from a dual-degree and MAC for grad school, not very interested at the firm or getting experience yet, wasn’t CPA eligible for work experience yet.</p>
<p>@Kelley: Language may be important if the location you will work is more diverse, ex. Miami. </p>
<p>Florida does have weird requirements, I can attest to that. I finished the 36 accounting hours in the spring (147), now 150 credits once grades post next week. So, All of my credits ended up being B-school except for liberal arts math I took for elective this semester in 6 weeks, to help prepare for GRE. Other states are just 24 accounting hours, my bachelors only required 24, so I did the additional 12 as an undergrad. I had applied for both masters and dual-degree simultaneously around a year ago at my local university, got lousy advice, learned my lesson and have researched my options more over the past year. So, while in Florida you may be able to sit with 120 if you have the 54 business hours etc checklist met, the smart options are to do 5th year as undergrad or dual-degree or MBA- Accounting where I live anyway. I am competing against a lot of grad dual-degree accounting students and there are at least 2 other state schools which may be more heavily recruited from UF and FIU is closer to cities for HQ. I believe that I need to take CPA next &/ grad school. I may possibly have to spend even more money on grad school at a better school. I was super outgoing just never got recruited or internship in my undergrad. I’ve technically been accepted for 2nd bachelors and am doing academia work as tutor and SI. I’ve never been able to secure an internship or worked a day in my life in accounting. I am willing to sit for FAR in October and sink in another 2,800 towards prep costs & exam fees, if necessary. I am planning to take the GRE within the next couple weeks over the semester break. I am preparing to apply early for an elite mba pt online program for next spring and go through recruitment again. But at the same time, I also am going to prep in fall in trig &/ precalc; I want to try the actuarial science route within the next 1-2 years if accounting doesn’t pan out. I always loved stats. I do enjoy fraud and audit but it seems hard to break into when as a student most of my work experience is years tutoring accounting theory. I was prepping for FAR last summer but stopped when I couldn’t get eligible to sit until December because of an area deficiency despite my having 24 accounting hours completed last summer. I figure that an MBA is versatile for accounting and actuarial science paths. I just don’t know how many more years and much more money should go into my accounting recruitment efforts. With a masters / mba, I can at least adjunct in that given subject if all else fails. I am also willing to teach in math/stats for stipend, but I can go through the calc courses at community to save. It troubles me because from my school the CPA is needed for full-time. I’m hoping having the hours, maybe I can get FAR passed but I will be post-bacc in the fall working pt with 150 hours which probably isn’t good enough. I will have to go back at least 6 hours for fall to keep 17k subsidized loans in deferment. How important is it to the recruiters that I am still “in school” status? I took my bachelors last May. Hope things pick up.</p>
<p>Well, I can tell you that they will love anything if you can sell your story. Big 4 audit is very customer service oriented. Its up to you to make sure that in your interviews and on your resume that it sounds like your customer service jobs have prepared you very well for Big 4 audit. On my resume, I did have two accounting/finance jobs, but also had a team leader at a used car dealership on there. They absolutely ate up the leadership role more than the accounting stuff. Its up to you to sell yourself. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t say one is more important than the other. You need both to get an interview. That said, there is definitely a cut off for grades (most will not consider anything below a 3.2 or so, but 3.5 and up is much more preferred), whereas with work experience there isn’t a set criteria. But you will likely not get an interview with JUST grades or JUST work.</p>
<p>I have an office interview with EY soon. Any tips on what bases to cover to get a job offer? Had a low uGPA, but my Macc GPA was 3.5+. I think I’ll be fine on the social front and am researching the firm, but don’t want to come off as too rehearsed/cheesy during the interview.</p>
<p>Also am studying up on drafts/team history of local professional teams rather than accounting details (currently studying for FAR, so I figure that covers it). Figure it’s better to talk about NFL training camps (minus Riley Cooper) than IFRS, right?</p>
<p>“I have an office interview with EY soon. Any tips on what bases to cover to get a job offer? Had a low uGPA, but my Macc GPA was 3.5+. I think I’ll be fine on the social front and am researching the firm, but don’t want to come off as too rehearsed/cheesy during the interview”</p>
<p>If you have an interview your GPA is no longer an issue or a benefit. It’s all about how you interview. Just be yourself, have some experiences from work/school/ECs that you can apply to several situations, but be natural. Don’t research the firm, theres no need.</p>
<p>“Also am studying up on drafts/team history of local professional teams rather than accounting details (currently studying for FAR, so I figure that covers it). Figure it’s better to talk about NFL training camps (minus Riley Cooper) than IFRS, right?”</p>
<p>It’s definitely better to be a normal human than talk about IFRS, but one, you’re in an interview, odds are sports won’t come up. Two, as a major sports freak, I can tell you that anyone who knows about sports can tell when someone is pretending to know about sports, and you’ll seem like an idiot for faking it. So if you’re not into sports, don’t “study up” on them…</p>
<p>Fair enough. I didn’t mean studying up like the episode of Big Bang Theory where they have no concept of how football works, I meant more on whether X pick will be beneficial in the upcoming season. Stuff that I look at for fantasy sports anyways, but geared more to the specific city. </p>
<p>Will the interview be more conversational or behavioral questions, or does that depend on the interviewer?</p>
<p>Any insight into using military college credits to satisfy the 150 credit hours requirement for the CPA?</p>
<p>I have been trying to find the answer to this, but have not been having much luck. Unfortunately, my school is not very familiar with working with veterans either, so they are not much help. My B.S. as it is will satisfy all the accounting/business specific courses required to be eligible for the CPA. For the 150 credit unit, however, I am hoping that my military college credits will satisfy that requirement. They are ACE certified, so I’m thinking that they will count.</p>
<p>I am from California btw, and getting hold of anyone in the state department for this question has been infuriating.</p>
<p>^ email California board of Accountancy</p>
<p>I have emailed them a few times and have tried calling them, no luck with either. I will keep trying, but figured it couldn’t hurt to ask here.</p>
<p>“Will the interview be more conversational or behavioral questions, or does that depend on the interviewer?”</p>
<p>Will depend on the interviewer, but they tend to have a mix of both. They have a list of questions they try to get through, but odds are you will at some point get off on a tangent and begin discussing random things. I.e. one of the things on my resume during my Big 4 interview was a team leader at a motorcycle repair shop. The interviewer’s husband was big into bikes, and we talked about that for a little while.</p>
<p>Depends on the interview. I’ve had one Big 4 interview go into discussions about sports and another interview go deeply into how pathetic the Kardashian’s are (and yes, I did receive a job offer after that interview). Obviously, I wouldn’t suggest that be a subject you bring up, but the point is that the interview is really a conversation and sometimes in the normal course of an interview, subjects like the Kardashian’s or how much the Dallas Cowboys suck will just naturally happen. It’s ultimately about showing who you are and whether they think they’ll enjoy working with you. That’s all it is to interviewing.</p>
<p>While working my way towards the 150-hour requirement, and taking the “30 hours” of Accounting Courses required (not in a Master’s Program), will employers look down on my resume if I completed the 30 required Accounting Courses at a Community College rather than a 4-year University? as long as I am getting my CPA License, does it matter where I got my Accounting Credit hours from, whether it be a University or Community College? Will it be very difficult/competitive finding a job?</p>
<p>Hello I have a question for advance degrees. Does anyone know the benefits of pursuing a Master of Taxation or other specialized field after already obtaining a Masters of Accounting? Are those specialized fields required for any certification/licences?</p>
<p>Hello all</p>
<p>I currently a 25 year old married with 3 kids. I am currently in community college hoping to transfer to old dominion university sometime in the near future. I use to work for the accounting firm Dixon Hughes Goodman llp in their client services department (tax process etc.) Before they had a reduction of forces that I was in fortune to be a part of due to cutting their budget. I was there for almost 4 years and even though I wasn’t a staff accountant I do know how the office works during tax season and other tax deadlines. While I was there I decide to change up my degree program and try to become a staff accountant since I was there. I was hoping that since I was a worker there I could possible avoid having to intern and just get brought on fulltime. But being that I’m not currently working there would I still have to intern once I get my degree in accounting? I am just worried that if I have to intern I would have to quit my current job and i am not even guaranteed to get a job offer after interning. I have a family and I don’t want to risk giving up a job that paying my bills to intern and I’m not guaranteed to get a job and be jobless. I was also wondering being that I worked for a respectable cpa would that be enough to somehow bypass the process?</p>