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Maguel
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Joined: 29 Mar 2012
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Posted: 29 Mar 2012 at 01:09 \| IP Logged

I'm at a crossroads in regards to beginning a career.

I graduated in 2010 with a BS in accounting with a 3.1 GPA, no real work experience of note, no Big 4 came for OCR.

I started attending a target school in Fall 2010; originally, I planned to do a MS in accounting, but this degree wasn't being offered to incoming students with a BS in accounting, yet.

Instead, it was suggested that I do a MS in finance, as it would still allow me to sit for the CPA exam. I am currently very close to finishing this program, but I feel I've been overlooked in OCR for the Big 4, because of a perceived lack of passion for the accounting field (I guess it seems sketchy for a MS in finance student to be applying for audit).

The overlap in some courses between programs has me wondering, should I switch to a MS in accounting? I could finish the program relatively quickly, and be able to hit up on campus recruiting hard (I believe all Big 4 come to campus, as well as other large firms).

I have a 3.5 GPA currently, with the potential to raise it even more with additional accounting classes. I've been interning at a large private REIT in NY directly under the controller for about 6 months now, gaining relevant (I think) experience with internal audit, Quickbooks and such. If I switch majors, I plan to rush Beta Alpha Psi in the Fall and hopefully do another internship over this summer/fall.

I'm quite adamant about going into Big 4, or at the very least a large public firm. With my GPA, experience, and extracurriculars, would I stand a legit shot at getting a Big 4 offer at 24 years old?

Thanks to those of you who read this for bearing with me. :D

WSPcpa
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Joined: 29 Jun 2011
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Posted: 29 Mar 2012 at 08:27 \| IP Logged

If all big 4 come to your school then yes, you have a good
shot. Make all A's this semester so you go into fall
recruiting with a 3.7 or so (idk how many classes you've
taken). Get in BAPsi, put pledge on your resume if it's
your first semester. Go over your resume over and over and
over and you should be good.

I would think making the switch to the acct side would be
worth it - especially given what I imagine is the lack of
opportunities for the MsF (tons of legitimate competition).

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db729
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Joined: 22 Apr 2010
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Posted: 29 Mar 2012 at 13:01 \| IP Logged

Assuming you're getting a MSA at a target school (which sounds like you are), you have a legitimate shot at at least interviewing with the major public accounting firms, including Big 4. MSF is meant to segue into quantitative finance jobs like sales & trading, quant trading, hedge funds, and traditional investment banking (albeit Corp Fin tends to be less common). Without taking the time to talk to you and understand your story, it's much easier for a Big 4 to assume you're using Big 4 as a backup coming from a MSF. You could just active network with the recruiters yourself and get your name into the pipeline early on. If you decide to switch into finance later on (which some auditors do want to do), a MSF would be helpful. But if you know accounting is what you want to do, a MSA is probably the right decision.

At the bare minimum, maintain your 3.5. If you can raise it, great. If not, not a big deal. There's so much more to an application than just GPA. The most important thing is to maintain your GPA while working. If you can manage to intern during school year and during summer, you'll have a very good shot at Big 4. Work experience trumps everything else on your resume. You don't necessarily need to worry too much about if you're getting the relevant work experiences/skills or not. As long as you can vocalize how you brought value in your internships, that's all it matters. Everything in public accounting is on the job learning. By the way working during the school year is looked highly upon. Summer internships are great, but expected. You don't find guys working during the school year and maintaining solid grades as often, and that will get noticed. Extracurriculars like BAP and whatever other business related clubs won't hurt, but unless you're actively involved in a leadership role, it's not really going to help your resume too much. And again, work experience matters way more.

Maguel
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Joined: 29 Mar 2012
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Posted: 29 Mar 2012 at 15:24 \| IP Logged

db729 wrote:

MSF is meant to segue into quantitative finance jobs like sales & trading, quant trading, hedge funds, and traditional investment banking (albeit Corp Fin tends to be less common). Without taking the time to talk to you and understand your story, it's much easier for a Big 4 to assume you're using Big 4 as a backup coming from a MSF. You could just active network with the recruiters yourself and get your name into the pipeline early on. If you decide to switch into finance later on (which some auditors do want to do), a MSF would be helpful.

Yep, this is what I originally feared. However, I'm one class shy of getting the MSF, so I may just get the MSA and MSF, as I'm interested in hedge funds (controller or some sort of financial analysis maybe) as a possible destination down the line.

The internship I've been at has been during fall 2011/spring 2012; it's unpaid, however, which is making it a tough choice to switch majors and delay income for another year. Pace has a pretty strong e-recruiting program for internships and jobs since it's in NYC, so I have a great shot to do another internship (hopefully paid).

I'm also a part-time BJJ instructor for the academy I attend, so I guess I could have some talking points about leadership and team building and whatnot during an interview. Since I would only be a pledge for BAP while OCR is going on, I guess I could see how it would have a minimal effect on my application, but I'm looking at my options.

The more I think about it, the more I think I'm gonna go ahead with the switch.

WSPcpa
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Posted: 29 Mar 2012 at 17:50 \| IP Logged

Absolutely finish the MSF if you have one class left.

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