<p>I'm a 4th year accounting major at a business school(ranked top 10 in accounting; top 15 in business). My GPA is 3.6 and should rise to about 3.7ish by the time I graduate, and my Accounting GPA is 4.0 at the moment and it will probably be like 3.8 or 3.9 by the time I graduate.
The Only experience i have is about 2 years as a sales associate in retail and being a server at a restaurant. The only club I am a part of is the Accounting Association at my school which i rarely if ever attend.<br>
I have strong microsoft office skills and I am current reading a book about quickbooks.
I am trying to find a part time accounting position until i graduate next June, at which time i would like to find a full time job.<br>
I live in Columbus, OH; so its a fairly big city. I am not open to moving at least not for 1-2 years after i graduate.</p>
<p>My questions are:
1:How appealing am I going to be to an employer who is looking for a part time worker?</p>
<ol>
<li>How appealing will i be to employers once i graduate? I am not looking for a big 4 firm job, but i am looking for a salary accounting job with no particular field in mind.</li>
<li>Is learning quickbooks something that will actually help me find a job?</li>
</ol>
<p>Your stats could easily get you a couple Big 4 interviews. How well you perform in those interviews is dependent on skills we cannot assess on these forums.</p>
<p>Your stats are impressive. You should have a great shot at landing interviews. Quick books is a very weak tool and not something corporations use. Stop being a nerd and reading a book about quickbooks. =P</p>
<p>It’s ok if you don’t want to do Big 4 but you also make no mention of taking the CPA exam. You WILL not advance in any accounting field without the CPA. Corporations want it just as much as accounting firms do nowadays. In my opinion, an accounting degree to go in to accounting is worthless without the CPA. You need to consider taking it.</p>
<p>Aren’t most full time positions at this point by and large already filled?
At least at my school, big 4 stopped recruiting months ago.</p>
<p>I don’t really know the accounting industry well, but from the sounds of it, he/she basically has no extra-curriculars, no relevant experience and doesn’t really seem sure of what he/she’s even looking for. </p>
<p>I’m not trying to be a dick, but realistically, it doesn’t sound like a great position to be in at all. </p>
<p>Unless you’re leaving things out, it sounds like the op you by and large blank resume and very little to talk about in interviews.
You do, however have a decent gpa and school. Perhaps grad school + looking for an internship now is your best bet?</p>
<p>well as for the cpa exam, i am going to be 19 credit hours short of being qualified to take it. my plan was to take online courses at a local community college while i am going to work and then take the cpa exam after that. would it be hard to get a accounting job if i wont actually have my cpa certification by the time i leave college?</p>
<p>also its not that im against working for the big 4, its that i think most of them have basically found what they r looking for for next year and it wasnt a huge deal for me to work there is the first place. my ideal job would actually be like a regional size tax/audit firm. would a place liek that pretty much expect me to have my cpa before i start?</p>
<p>No, no one is going to expect you to have a cpa before you start. It is something you would get while working.
Do you have any extra curricular activities or anything else that you do during your free time?
In my mind, this is a much bigger concern than learning quickbooks or preparing for the cpa.</p>
<p>Um…what kind of attitude is this? You just didn’t apply because you figure they wouldn’t want you? Why didn’t you apply when the job openings were up?</p>
<p>And they do not hold it against you not having your CPA but with a strong accounting program like yours I can guarantee there are a LOT of students taking a CPA review course offered through your school who are starting work with all 4 parts passed. It has become the majority in Big 4 and most large accounting firms that new hires come in with most, if not all parts passed.</p>
<p>actually my school has an online recruiting and i submitted my resume for all the positions i was qualified for, including big 4 firms, but i only heard back from 2 companies total. i only meant to say that now that its December, most of the big 4 positions are probably filled up so im not holding my breath for a big 4 job for next summer.</p>
<p>I dont really have any extracircular activities. Im an inactive member of my schools accounting association, but ive decided that i will start attending all the meetings after winter break. I realize that since im a senior im pretty late when it comes to extracircular activities and getting involved, but is there something i can start doing now that will help me out, like some kind of volunteer work?</p>
<p>Oh I see what you’re saying now. Yes, any internships or jobs would be filled. </p>
<p>Have you gone to recruiting events and met recruiters of any firms? If you haven’t find out if your accounting group does any recruiting events in the winter. If they do - go to these, bring a resume, and talk to recruiters. You have worked during school do highlight this on your resume and be able to sell how it has made you a potential asset to the firm. You don’t have time to suddenly become involved so you have to find a way to sell the work experience.</p>
<p>If you can afford it, I would strongly suggest getting your MAcc. Get an internship this summer, go back for a year to get your MAcc, take the Becker Review course, and try to pass the CPA. This will be your best route to getting another shot at big 4 or even other firms.</p>
<p>Not being close to the 150 credits at graduation probably severely limited the number of companies that you could interview with. No big fours, that’s for sure. And at a good school like Ohio State, probably lots of the companies that recruit there are non-big four national firms and the better regionals-- the vast majority of which want you to have 150 at graduation. Did you even read job descriptions on your career services website? You will find the 150 mentioned as a requirement over and over for the firms that recruit oncampus. Smaller companies that will accept less than 150 at graduation don’t often have the resources to recruit a good accounting program like Ohio State. They recruit lesser programs, and have probably already filled their positions for June graduates.</p>
<p>You messed up by not getting an accounting related internship. It should have been easy to do in a big city like Columbus in summer between junior and senior year. Any accounting related internship would have looked good on your resume, even unpaid at a non-profit. Having said that, not having the 150 at graduation hurt you more than anything for OSU oncampus recruiting. </p>
<p>You have an excellent gpa; anybody with your academic record, an internship, and the 150 from a school like OSU would probably get interviews from all types of firms, including big four if they are on pace for the 150 at graduation. </p>
<p>You might look at postponing your graduation until December 2012. Use Spring recruiting to look for an internship in the summer; get your extra 19 credits by Dec. 2012. Do like six online credits this spring, six this summer, and six next fall. Take easy classes and just get a C or whatever in the community college classes so that they transfer to Ohio State; or just take very easy classes and get them on your cc’s transcript, if Ohio accepts that as all that is required to sit for the CPA. Next Fall put on your resume the summer internship and that you will graduate with 150, and you should get plenty of interviews next fall. This is a far less expensive route than getting a masters in accounting, and you really shouldn’t need a masters with your good ugrad academic record. </p>
<p>One of the advantages of going to an excellent program like OSU is the oncampus interviewing, and you need to give yourself a chance next Fall for interviews, as it is very, very difficult to get a good job on your own after you graduate. Oncampus recruiting is one of the best reasons for going to a good school; you need to take advantage of it, even if it means going an extra semester.</p>
<p>“KPMG asks that candidates meet the educational requirements needed to be eligible for a CPA license as required by New York State prior to starting employment at KPMG.”</p>
<p>Correct me if I’m wrong, but most programs don’t start until August/September.
Wouldn’t this give you the entire summer to catch up on coursework? 15 credits over the summer is definitely feasible.</p>
<p>He could finish the 150 in the summer after graduating. Problem is that he didn’t get hired during this Fall’s oncampus recruiting, so he could finish the 150 this summer but probably wouldn’t have a job and no access to further oncampus recruiting, except this Spring, when not much full time recruiting will be taking place. KPMG and most everybody else is mostly finished hiring for May/June and summer 2012 grads.</p>
<p>My questions are:
1:How appealing am I going to be to an employer who is looking for a part time worker?</p>
<p>Probably not very. In my experience most part time accounting jobs require a lot of experience in this economy, unless it is an internship. </p>
<ol>
<li>How appealing will i be to employers once i graduate? I am not looking for a big 4 firm job, but i am looking for a salary accounting job with no particular field in mind.</li>
</ol>
<p>I suppose that depends on the job market in Ohio. With that said, your grades are goodish and your work experience is common for a lot of students. However in this economy, it’ll still be difficult if you don’t stay on top of it. Overally, it doesnt look like you will stand out, and that’s important when HR is looking at hundreds of resumes. Talk to your career center, make sure your resume and CL sell yourself better than this thread does, and apply apply and apply. Extracurriculars are not necessary but if you choose the right ones, they can help you stand out from the stack. </p>
<p>You do not need a CPA if you are going to go into a corporate position. Anyone who said that is full of it. A CPA or 150 credits is not needed for the very large majority of corporate accounting jobs.
With that said, if you want to get into public accounting (which is the industry that most heavily recruits accounting grads without alot of experience), most all firms (even the smaller ones) generally require you to have the credits, NOT the actual certification, by the time you start working and will encourage you to pass it within your first couple years at their firm. </p>
<ol>
<li>Is learning quickbooks something that will actually help me find a job? </li>
</ol>
<p>In most cases, no. </p>
<p>The year is young, it sounds like you go to a good school, there will probably be alot of career fairs and recruiting events coming up with employers that are targeting accounting undergraduates…you’ll probably have plenty of opportunities but they can and will pass you by if you don’t put in the effort.</p>
<p>-way- too late on recruiting. I’m from the same “region” (Michigan) and as far as OSU all the way up to our area go, recruiting starts late summer into fall which brings in everyone they need through the next summer. We just met with a group of recruiters from regional and Big 4 firms who all work on the same schedule, basically. </p>
<p>If you can, I would contact your local community action center to see if they need tax volunteers. Honestly, we had a large number of Ohio firms knocking on our doors just a couple of weeks ago so I know there is work in your area. Good luck to you.</p>