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I'm guessing most firms don't want hire some guy with a PoliSci degree even if he passed the CPA. I'm a history major who went back to school and am graduating this fall with a BBA in Accounting with an internship lined up this coming spring. What exactly do you mean by "a bunch of night classes"?
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Sep 23, 2013 04:22
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In California you have to take 48 accounting and business semester units to sit the exam, and 78 units of certain things altogether to receive the license. There's room in there for maybe 12 or 15 units of "general ed" type stuff, so it's basically an accounting major's worth of classes to meet the requirements. I took beginning through advanced accounting, cost accounting, business and personal tax, accounting information systems, spreadsheets, auditing, business law, management, and a couple other things. I won't argue that a lot of people might have prejudice against a candidate who doesn't have the actual major on their degree, but in subject content I don't see any big difference from majoring in accounting and just taking the classes piecemeal. In fact I think it is amusing/frustrating seeing job postings that specify both CPA and accounting major, when possessing the CPA implies extensive accounting education, major or no.
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Sep 23, 2013 06:28
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Spartan421 posted:I'm guessing most firms don't want hire some guy with a PoliSci degree even if he passed the CPA. I'm a history major who went back to school and am graduating this fall with a BBA in Accounting with an internship lined up this coming spring. What exactly do you mean by "a bunch of night classes"? I went to Northwestern University's School of Continuing Education in Chicago. They offer a program designed to meet the prerequisites to sit for the CPA exams. However, due to some campus-politics BS (it was explained to me that the MBA school their didn't want the undergraduate school to be giving business undergrad degrees), I couldn't get a Bachelors in Accounting, even if I've effectively taken the equivalent courses.
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Sep 24, 2013 00:45
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On campus interviews are next week and I've got interviews lined up with both EY and KPMG. No call back from Deloitte or PwC sadly. I'm so stressed out about it at the moment because I was really hoping to get my foot in the door at all 4. I talked to other people in my grad program and most of them didn't get interview offers from any of them or only got one. It seems the interview slots were really limited this year. Only one guy I know got all 4. Thankfully I'm pretty good at interviewing but I seriously just can not wait for it to be over. Wish me luck.
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Sep 27, 2013 18:40
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Good luck!
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Sep 27, 2013 18:43
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Good Citizen posted:On campus interviews are next week and I've got interviews lined up with both EY and KPMG. No call back from Deloitte or PwC sadly. I'm so stressed out about it at the moment because I was really hoping to get my foot in the door at all 4. I talked to other people in my grad program and most of them didn't get interview offers from any of them or only got one. It seems the interview slots were really limited this year. Only one guy I know got all 4. Thankfully I'm pretty good at interviewing but I seriously just can not wait for it to be over. In the end, you only need one to say yes. gently caress the rest. Good luck dude.
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Sep 27, 2013 18:45
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Good Citizen posted:On campus interviews are next week and I've got interviews lined up with both EY and KPMG. No call back from Deloitte or PwC sadly. I'm so stressed out about it at the moment because I was really hoping to get my foot in the door at all 4. I talked to other people in my grad program and most of them didn't get interview offers from any of them or only got one. It seems the interview slots were really limited this year. Only one guy I know got all 4. Thankfully I'm pretty good at interviewing but I seriously just can not wait for it to be over. Good luck, if you got an interview your technical skills/credentials should check out. The actual interview should be to see if you are a fit for their teams or not , or maybe shoring up any areas of concern in your resume.
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Sep 29, 2013 01:48
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Good Citizen posted:On campus interviews are next week and I've got interviews lined up with both EY and KPMG. No call back from Deloitte or PwC sadly. I'm so stressed out about it at the moment because I was really hoping to get my foot in the door at all 4. I talked to other people in my grad program and most of them didn't get interview offers from any of them or only got one. It seems the interview slots were really limited this year. Only one guy I know got all 4. Thankfully I'm pretty good at interviewing but I seriously just can not wait for it to be over. My school only had Deloitte recruiting from there, so I had one shot. So you're already in pretty good shape with two. And it sounds like you are at a target school so you should be in good shape as long as you don't appear unhireable and threaten to kill the partner's wife. Also don't ask a technical accounting question like "What do you think of IFRS" cause no one gives a poo poo, get to know your interviewer instead.
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Sep 29, 2013 01:55
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I did that with a big 4 when I applied for a SALT job. Hahaha I was an idiot.
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Sep 30, 2013 23:03
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I was doing exceptionally well with recruiting with a big 4 firm, and then during one of their dinners had the bright idea to ask a financial services partner how he felt about the loosening/suspending of bank regulations/accounting in the wake of the financial crisis. I legit wanted to know... but needless to say I never heard from them again until the latest they could possibly decline me  pro tip: DO NOT TALK ABOUT TECHNICAL THINGS you're probably right, but I literally had a staff person tell me earlier that night that I have zero chance of not getting an offer  either way I don't really care at this point.VVVVVV abagofcheetos fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Oct 1, 2013 |
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Oct 1, 2013 00:48
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abagofcheetos posted:I was doing exceptionally well with recruiting with a big 4 firm, and then during one of their dinners had the bright idea to ask a financial services partner how he felt about the loosening/suspending of bank regulations/accounting in the wake of the financial crisis. I legit wanted to know... but needless to say I never heard from them again until the latest they could possibly decline me As if THAT was the real reason you didn't get the job...
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Oct 1, 2013 03:49
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When I was recruiting I had the worst habit of saying something to fill silences at dinner tables. Leading to me telling a partner it was going to be a bummer to shave every day because it irritates my face  .Still got an offer. Probably shouldn't have.
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Oct 3, 2013 00:44
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Democratic Pirate posted:When I was recruiting I had the worst habit of saying something to fill silences at dinner tables. Leading to me telling a partner it was going to be a bummer to shave every day because it irritates my face I've looked like a bum for the past 2 weeks and haven't shaved for a month. I still have a job! 
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Oct 3, 2013 03:56
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How soon did you guys know you wanted to be Accountants? The first time I took Principles I I hated it to the point of dropping the class. I took it again with a way better teacher and now were doing stock dividends in Principles II and I'm just like  I'm just nervous because I've heard a lot about how Accounting gets grueling at some point.
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Oct 3, 2013 05:21
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I was sitting in the oilfield in the company's piece of poo poo trailer and feeling neglected and expendable and I saw accounting was on the rise from browsing the internet. Accounting isn't bad. All you need is endless amounts of time to study. My most frustrating class was probably Income Tax.
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Oct 3, 2013 05:32
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Harold Cooplowski posted:How soon did you guys know you wanted to be Accountants? The thing that the general population doesn't understand about accountants is that there are literally endless job opportunities. If you get into accounting and tell people you are an accountant 90% of them will ask you if you can do their taxes. However you can be a cost accountant, GL accountant, revenue accountant, tax accountant, fixed asset accountant, AP accountant, AR accountant, you could go into collections, FP&A, internal auditing, external auditing, etc. etc. etc.. There was never really a moment I knew I wanted to be an Accountant. I went into college as a Computer Science major, but didn't like it, and Accounting was always my backup plan. I was looking for a steady job in a secure industry with diverse opportunities. Accounting can be very very very boring most of the time. As an industry accountant I prepare the same financial statements every month, reconcile the same accounts every month, and most unique situations that come up are more often than not annoying more than interesting. However I landed a job right out of college, get paid extremely well, and lucked into an extremely fulfilling work/life balance. Bugamol fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Oct 3, 2013 |
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Oct 3, 2013 15:39
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Harold Cooplowski posted:How soon did you guys know you wanted to be Accountants? After I took Financial Accounting my freshman year, I knew I wanted to switch from a management concentration to an accounting concentration. Shortly thereafter I decided I wanted to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a police officer, but ended up spending 4.5 years in public when I graduated before recently joining the police department I've always wanted to work for. The coursework can be tough, as can the actual work after college, but there are a ton of opportunities as others have said and if I hadn't gotten the chance to switch careers this year I would have been very satisfied with my decision to become a CPA.
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Oct 4, 2013 02:12
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fuseshock posted:I've looked like a bum for the past 2 weeks and haven't shaved for a month. I still have a job! If I don't grow a beard soon I may lose my job.  Harold Cooplowski posted:How soon did you guys know you wanted to be Accountants? Probably should have known after I took Principles I and II. I had a great professor and for whatever reason I really enjoyed that it was so radically different than the rest of my courses. I was planning to go to law school at the time but I figured if I was going to have my own firm I'd need to understand the business aspects of it so I was going for an accounting undergrad degree. When I really realized it was in my junior year when I was working in a small law firm as a guy friday, spending most of my time preparing legal contract packages and doing legal research, and the rest doing all their billings and the monthly closings. I found myself looking forward to the beginning of each month as I'd have a break from spending my days going crazy writing and proofing 100+ page contracts just in case I made some stupid error. At least with the financial close, if I made a mistake it'd be easy to tell even if it took awhile to track it down. So I go school one night and before class I read these law school journal articles about how there's too many law schools and way too many law graduates and how there's not nearly enough demand for it. A couple of my friends had just graduated from good state law schools and were having difficulty picking up work. Then as I'm going to class I see a bulletin board announcement that my state just changed their CPA requirements to make it easier because the demand for CPAs was so much more than the supply. So I figured why waste a ton of money on a job I'd probably hate when I was already on track to get a job that I enjoyed and had the potential to get paid almost as well. Also it didn't hurt that all my pre-law classes were full of lovely people and my accounting classes were full of awesome folks (And hot smart ladies, but YMMV)
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Oct 4, 2013 04:56
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So I got my review materials from Gleim for the CMA exam. Very nicely put together for the price. CMA part 1 feels really similar to the BEC part of the CPA exam, so I shouldn't have any trouble with it when I take it in January. I'll keep posting updates on each exam if anyone is interested.
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Oct 5, 2013 15:27
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js86 posted:So I got my review materials from Gleim for the CMA exam. Very nicely put together for the price. CMA part 1 feels really similar to the BEC part of the CPA exam, so I shouldn't have any trouble with it when I take it in January. I'll keep posting updates on each exam if anyone is interested. That would be great. I'm going to begin working on the CMA shortly as well, so any information about what you did to prepare and how it went would be great.
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Oct 5, 2013 17:22
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I took my first accounting class and really liked how everything balanced out when done right. Then I realized my school does a 5 year masters program where I can get a bachelor in accounting, master in whatever focus I choose, and take the CPA before I start working. That, plus the 99% job placement rate for my program, convinced me to get into it. It's basically become a Big 4 farm but I can't complain about a solid starting job and a semester long internship where I made oodles of cash from overtime.
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Oct 6, 2013 03:38
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Quick half-update: interview week went pretty well. 2 really good interviews and one where I kind of fumbled a question badly. My timeline is a lot different than the other people interviewing since I'm trying for offices not in the local area. One already forwarded me on and the other I'm friends with a friend of the recruiter and know my paperwork will be moving through shortly. So hopefully I'll be flying out to those cities for second interviews sometime in the near future. That's going to be really fun and weird at the same time. E: and a silly little side thing. At one of the preinterview dinner meetings I kept trying to talk to the partner I would interview with but some other candidate cornered him for like an hour asking questions about IFRS. It was hilarious to watch. He did not get a call back after his interview. Good Citizen fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Oct 8, 2013 |
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Oct 8, 2013 19:22
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So I got past first round campus interviews for an internship and am doing an office visit with a ~Big 4~ firm. What do I do now? They aren't putting me on a plane if I don't have a strong likelihood of becoming an intern right?
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Oct 16, 2013 22:27
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Hurt Whitey Maybe posted:So I got past first round campus interviews for an internship and am doing an office visit with a ~Big 4~ firm. What do I do now? They aren't putting me on a plane if I don't have a strong likelihood of becoming an intern right? Congratulations! For the most part, that's correct that you've got a good chance at an internship, but don't take it for granted. I found (and have been told) that second round office interviews are mostly about fit. People you'll be working with want to get a feel for you and how you might fit into their culture. At the same time, you should be evaluating them and how you think you'll fit in there. It's absolutely a two way street. If you get passed over after a second round, unless you royally screwed yourself, it's a judgement that people think you won't fit in as well as other candidates. It's not personal, but for the best of the office and your career prospects if you get passed over. As for what you should do, prepare similarly as for your first round. Have questions ready for anyone you're talking to and know things about the firm. Try to be aware of what the office focuses on in terms of industry, and even clients. Just be yourself, as well. They're trying to figure out if you'll fit in and being disingenuous to that likely hurts more than it helps.
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Oct 20, 2013 17:03
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Banzai 3 posted:Congratulations! For the most part, that's correct that you've got a good chance at an internship, but don't take it for granted. I found (and have been told) that second round office interviews are mostly about fit. People you'll be working with want to get a feel for you and how you might fit into their culture. At the same time, you should be evaluating them and how you think you'll fit in there. It's absolutely a two way street. If you get passed over after a second round, unless you royally screwed yourself, it's a judgement that people think you won't fit in as well as other candidates. It's not personal, but for the best of the office and your career prospects if you get passed over. Thanks a lot, this is helpful. By any chance do you know when you would expect an offer after the interviews? Like do they offer then and there or maybe a wait a few days?
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Oct 21, 2013 20:26
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Hurt Whitey Maybe posted:Thanks a lot, this is helpful. By any chance do you know when you would expect an offer after the interviews? Like do they offer then and there or maybe a wait a few days? This really depends on the firm. Some firms will discuss and make offers that day. Other firms will discuss a few days later to allow everyone time who talked with you to write a review about you.
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Oct 22, 2013 04:55
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Hi guys, I know this may have been asked a few pages ago, but I wasn't entirely sure if it was answered. I graduated with a Bachelor's in business management and quickly realized that it wasn't for me and decided to go into accounting. I have decided to go back to school to pursue the CPA track for my state(Hawaii), which requires 24 credits of upper division accounting classes and so I have decided to take them ala carte. However, I want to ask what would be my chances of being able to find a job in say, Big 4(or rather, any CPA firm for that matter?) with my current credentials? I have decided not to pursue my second degree in Accounting but will be completing the accounting courses by next Spring. Are my chances hurt that badly if I decide to take only the accounting courses?
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Oct 23, 2013 08:39
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Nexus88 posted:Hi guys, As long as you have enough hours to sit for the cpa exam it shouldn't be a big deal. A lot of firms are starting to shift towards requiring a master's in accounting however.
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Oct 23, 2013 22:18
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Seems like you can get a master from like South Dakota State for $12k though.
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Oct 23, 2013 22:20
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Seems like the best place to ask this: I saw a job advertised at Deutsche Bank for a "FInancial Analyst." What kind of job is that? What are the day to day tasks/
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Oct 24, 2013 20:44
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It could be anything.
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Oct 24, 2013 20:52
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Got my full time Big 4 offer for Chicago starting next summer. 
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Oct 25, 2013 20:48
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the posted:Seems like the best place to ask this: I saw a job advertised at Deutsche Bank for a "FInancial Analyst." What kind of job is that? What are the day to day tasks/ Most job advertisement list job duties and qualifications. Look on their website if nothing else. Good Citzen: Good Job! Congratulations!
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Oct 26, 2013 00:05
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Does anyone in Toronto know how I might get more information on becoming a staff accountant with one of the Big 4 as someone who’s not a fresh graduate? Does this even happen? I’m actually a CMA (Canada) but I’ve been working in Real Estate in a non-accounting capacity for the past 5 years. EY might be easier for me to breach as I’ve had 2 internships with them in the past, but in fraud and not the typical audit stream, and also not in Canada. Also, I can’t see to find EY Toronto’s facebook page. Do they usually post events there?
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Oct 28, 2013 18:34
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Good Citizen posted:Got my full time Big 4 offer for Chicago starting next summer. Which of the Big 4 has hired you to be their slave?
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Oct 29, 2013 04:06
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fuseshock posted:Which of the Big 4 has hired you to be their slave? It matters not, the charge hour god is pleased by a fresh sacrifice.
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Nov 1, 2013 19:56
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Azrial posted:It matters not, the charge hour god is pleased by a fresh sacrifice. He must be appeased. (I'd rather not say what specific firm I'm with to make me less identifiable and to not associate my random shitposting with the company)
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Nov 2, 2013 07:19
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Well, I didn't manage to get an offer from any of the regional firms in my area and I am kind of at a loss about what to do now. I majored in a completely unrelated field and went into accounting as a second career, taking community college classes while working in accounting at a small manufacturer. I am finishing up my accounting studies and don't really have much left to do in that area, so the plan was to start on the CPA exams at the beginning of next year and start my work experience with a local firm sometime during the year. It looks like the work experience part isn't going to happen, and I don't think I can realistically wait a whole year to try again for jobs that start two years from now in some cases. When deciding to do this career change I had honestly not considered the possibility that I wouldn't get on at least at some tiny firm as entry level audit, so my whole plan has been thrown off. I still plan to take the exams, but I have to consider alternative paths to getting my CPA work hours. I suppose I need to find a job on the accounting staff of a company with an active CPA supervising. Problem is most job postings don't exactly advertise who your boss is going to be or what their credentials are. I did see it once, and applied to the job on principal, even though I wasn't really looking at the time. So I don't know where to begin looking for that kind of arrangement. I attend the monthly IMA meetings in my area, so that is one way to network with industry accountants, but aside from that I don't know where to start. Maybe I should just go for CMA? CIA? I have heard it might be possible to go into internal audit without public experience. Of course all I have ever heard is that the CPA is the portable credential that you need to open doors in your career. I'd like to work overseas eventually, so I'm not sure how much CMA does for me there. Maybe this was all a big mistake.
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Nov 9, 2013 03:09
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Have you taken all your tax classes? Have you looked at working for a local CPA during tax season? Work experience requirements don't usually require all the work to be performed under the same person or even in consecutive times. You could potentially work two tax seasons under a local CPA(or two different CPAs) and meet the work requirement. Check your state's work experience requirement. The thing to be careful with hoping for an industry job under a CPA is that it must be an actively licensed CPA, and I've met a lot of guys who never kept up their license once they were out of public accounting. In my opinion not getting a Bachelors in Accounting and your CPA license will be doing yourself a serious disservice if you really want to do well in the accounting field. In particular if you plan to work at big companies or internationally. Not only will it be much harder to get a job, but you'll be more likely to get paid less than your co-workers and less likely to get promoted. I don't think it is right that people look at it that way, but it is how many employers look at it. Most of the people hiring do not even know what accountants do other than "work with numbers". As far as going for the CMA or CIA, I've always considered those good additional qualifications to have on top of the CPA, but they're no substitute for the CPA. Also a quick check shows that both the CMA and CIA require 24 months of work experience. It's better to just get your CPA as it matters the most. "The Institute of Internal Auditors" posted:Work Experience "The CMA Handbook" posted:Work Experience
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Nov 9, 2013 16:14
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I have taken pretty much any class you can think of, including tax. But I don't want to work in tax, so having all my public experience be in that area seems to be getting off on the wrong foot. This hiring season I presented myself as a candidate for the audit track, and trying again on a track that I'm not interested in just because I failed to get a job in my preferred area seems like a really bad idea. I got into this to do public audit, internal audit, or eventually work in industry. I have no interest in being a tax preparer.quote:In my opinion not getting a Bachelors in Accounting and your CPA license will be doing yourself a serious disservice if you really want to do well in the accounting field. If I had years and tens of thousands of dollars to start over on a second bachelors I would probably major in STEM, not accounting. In any case I am finishing up 60 semester units of accounting study and have been working as a staff accountant for the past two years, so the suggestion that I spend years learning my debits and credits again sounds absurd. I'm not sure it would even be allowed. quote:As far as going for the CMA or CIA, I've always considered those good additional qualifications to have on top of the CPA, but they're no substitute for the CPA. Also a quick check shows that both the CMA and CIA require 24 months of work experience. It's better to just get your CPA as it matters the most. I might actually be kind of close to satisfying work hours for CMA due to my current job, just leaving the exam to complete. But once again, I'm not sure what that gets me. It's not the length of the work experience that I am particularly worried about in any case, but that I can't figure out how to get started on the CPA hours.
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Nov 9, 2013 22:13
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