<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I am a college Junior who has about a 3.5 major GPA and a 3.8 accounting GPA at Stony Brook University. I have held 3 past internships 2 with accounting firms/offices and one doing medicare reviews and analyzing bank records. I am also a RA at my University. The internship I last had was my third and it was amazing. It had great pay, experience, and was close to the school but sadly my boss unexpectedly passed away and I can no longer work there. Now I am stuck in the situation of finding an internship for the summer because I refuse to not try to advance my career. The problem is that Stony Brook is not looked at favorably by accounting firms because of its lack of accounting credits. I would like to land a big 4 internship but I do not have many contacts so here are my questions:</p>
<p>A: With my credentials can I land a big 4 internship? I have applied but I really feel like I need to know someone to get my foot in the door. Is this true?
B: My Career center is fairly ineffective in helping to find internships in the accounting field. What are some good websites that I can use?
C: Right now I am applying to everyone of the top 50 firms as well as smaller accounting firms on Long Island and NYC...does anyone know of any specific firms I should focus on?
D: Sorry for this ridiculously long post, I am just freaking out a bit because my internship was one where I was going to be hired upon graduation. It was for a corporate tax firm which is what I want to do. </p>
<p>Thank you everyone and I apologize once again for the abundance of questions!!!!</p>
<p>I think you definitely have the credentials to land an internship with one of the Big 4. The most important things they care about are someone being intelligent, someone having leadership experience, and someone they can put in front of a client. From what you have written, it sounds like you have all of the above - you would most likely pass your interviews. </p>
<p>The challenge comes with landing one, since you say they do not look favorably upon your university. Do they recruit at your university at all? Do they host on-campus interviews? Usually that is the best way to go. You don’t need to know anyone in the firm at all, especially if you have a great GPA and resume, which it sounds like you do, and if you write an awesome cover letter. They will speak for themselves. The only problem with the Big 4 is that their summer internship recruitment is over. I would say see if you can get in touch with the main recruiters for your area and ask them. You can also always apply on the Big 4’s websites.</p>
<p>They do not recruit at my University at all. Are you sure summer internship recruitment is past because I applied to two positions listed on Deloitte’s website for their internships.</p>
<p>Are you sure those were internships and not summer leaderships? Having just gone through recruitment myself in Los Angeles and San Francisco, first round interviews were held in November and January, with second round interviews being held around now. It may be different for NYC, though. I would say see if you could somehow get in touch with a recruiter and explain your situation. It’d be much easier than applying through their website.</p>
<p>I believe they were. I sent a message to the firm asking how I can get in touch with a recruiter since my college has none.</p>