Relevant Stats: 2011 graduate; Economics major; Accounting minor; 3.4 overall GPA; 3.8 major GPA; 630 GMAT; No work experience relevant to finance or accounting.

Bio: I recently graduated from a very non-target liberal arts college with a degree in economics and a minor in accounting. After many failed attempts to obtain a full-time job after graduation, I realized that it would be a mistake to continue applying to jobs.  So I decided to take the GMAT, enroll into an online accounting program that will provide me with a few needed prereqs, and apply to the few MACC programs in my home state(s) with admissions deadlines in July and August.  Since doing so, I've been accepted into 3 MACC programs--all three of which are recruited by all of the Big 4 and are also essentially free for me to attend (because they are in my home state).

Though I recognize great value in the MACC and am excited about the potential to obtain an internship in the field of public accounting as well as the CPA, none of the MACC programs that I was accepted into are geographically located or recruited by firms in areas that I would prefer to spend the next few years of my life. Additionally, I have no intention of pursuing a long-term career in audit or tax, for I personally do not enjoy audit or tax. 

With all of that being said, my plan was to pursue an MSF next year following the MACC (and in a different region of the USA) so that I could work in a job field that would undoubtedly be more rewarding for me than audit or tax would be (such as: transaction advisory, corporate finance, management consulting, or i-banking), all the while working in a city that I want to live in.

Then why obtain a MACC? Until very recently, I assumed that it would be simple to obtain an audit internship while attending a MACC program.  My rationale was that the MACC would, through on-campus networking, enable me to obtain an internship within public accounting. And that that public accounting internship, coupled with a finance internship obtained the following year via the MSF, would enable me to obtain a full-time position within one of the aforementioned job fields.  Additionally, I realized that a CPA (which I could only attain via the MACC) would provide me with a pretty solid Plan B if the MSF didn’t work out and also that it was a far better option than continuing my job search.

For about a week, this seemed like a pretty nice plan. However, after reconsidering this plan, I’ve realized it has a few holes. More specifically, I’ve come to realize that no public accounting firm (Big 4 or local) would want to hire an intern that a) wasn’t an accounting major; b) lacked relevant work experience; c) had no real interest in audit/tax and was not qualified for anything else, such as advisory; and d) had no interest in physically staying within the specific city for very long, (unless it was one of the aforementioned positions).

So to recap: I do not want to pursue a career in audit or tax. But, lacking work experience, I see value in obtaining an accounting internship and enhancing my credentials through the MACC.  Unfortunately, I am not able to do so without lying, and that is due to the fact no public accounting firm would want to hire an intern in my position—about to leave and with no passion for accounting.