[TheGuyCPA]

I have been talking to Big Four and they ask what position I am interested in. What would be a better fit, staff or experienced hire?

I have been working at a large investment management firm for 1.4 years, I worked at a large manufacturing company as an intern for 7 months, and worked in audit for 5 months for a small CPA firm for non-profit orgs. I also just passed my last section of the CPA and am one application away from being licensed.

I feel that since I don’t have too much audit experience, I should go for staff, but then I know I have a ton of experience using Excel, SQL, SAP, and have good professional communication skills.

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State of Illinois Licensed CPA as of September 2015

[Monkey Wrench]

You would probably go in as a staff, especially at big 4.

[Tscape16]

The issue is, they're going to be looking for someone at the senior position who has experience leading audits and some limited final review work. This is also going to put you against tougher candidates and candidates that have been with that firm 2-3 years. Even if your time listed was all audit, you're still on the boarder of being at that Senior level.

I'm at about a year and a half at my firm and have started to do some lead/final review work on engagements. I probably won't be senior until this time next year after my managers know that I have grasped the final review/lead role and can handle it full time.

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Licensed CPA since 2015.

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[acamp]

I'd suggest going in as staff. The learning curve can be quite steep. and if you get hired as a 2nd year or senior, you will be expected to take on much more challenging audit work.

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[Anonymous]

Really up to you. IMO experienced hires do not have the same kind of support that first years do and as a result usually struggle a lot and have a bad experience at the firm if they do not have an audit background already. Not set up to succeed really.

[Author]

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