[Regular Tax Dude]

I was told that foreign students tend to be more loyal to the firm, because they need visa sponsorship. From my observation, big 4 love foreign students and turned away equally great or better local students.

Any comments?

[ScarletKnightCPA]

Can you provide any evidence for your supposed observation? Outside of big 4, people with foreign sounding names in general are far less likely to get a call back when the resume is exactly the same except for the name.

Example

https://money.cnn.com/2014/12/01/pf/jobs/foreign-names-jobs-discrimination/

https://www.macleans.ca/education/uniandcollege/ubc-study-finds-people-with-foreign-names-face-job-discrimination/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruchikatulshyan/2014/06/13/have-a-foreign-sounding-name-change-it-to-get-a-job/

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[Regular Tax Dude]

I don't have any solid proof to support my statement, just a general comparison between my local friends to the foreign, and of course may be my friends said something stupid during the interview, but I doubt that.

[ScarletKnightCPA]

There may be some sort of local preference, people are different of course, but in general the evidence points to foreign students having to work harder and apply more in order to get call backs for interviews. Findings showed that certain states had more name discrimination than others.

Everyone wants to believe that they worked harder than everyone else and are actually better than everyone else even when the empirical evidence does not support it.

The truth is, foreign students tend to be the best and brightest of their respective countries, they tend to have a higher gpa than their average american peer.

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[Regular Tax Dude]

I totally agree with you, but accounting is not rocket science, it's all about + – x / and interaction with people. Local students also get good grades (at least my school is), and let's not forget that local students also work hard with school clubs, grade and internship.

I still think that big 4 want to hire a certain percentage of foreign students to minimize the rate of turnover and maintain the culture diversity of the team when there are equally great candidates who were born in U.S or naturalized U.S citizen.

[ruggercpa2b]

I was at Big 4 and I don't think its true that they would hire a foreign student over a local person who has the same qualifications. It costs money to sponsor someone's visa and most of the time once those people get their green cards they leave. I know at Deloitte, where I worked, they only sponsored so many visas but you had to work for at least 2 or more years before even being considered. And it was not a guarantee either that you would get it.

I think people will have different mindsets. If you get sponsored you are more likely to complain less because you need that job. Versus someone that knows they can leave whenever they want if they decide the job is just not for them. If you are a foreigner in need of sponsorship, you don't have that luxury.

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[fuzyfro89]

It's not exactly loyalty when you have to stay with a certain company for a certain period of time in order to maintain their work visa…

[Fil-Am]

I had a foreign background but considered local as I am now a citizen here in the US. I would like to get experience in any public firm but have a hard time even getting an interview.

I think it is because I am in my very early 30s and didn't have any public accounting experience. I got the GPA they required but have been out of school for almost 10 years. Just passed the CPA exam last year. I guess, if it happens that I will get a job in public accounting, it will take some time. I feel so disappointed. But, I am sure God has greater plans. I just have to keep pushing.

Anything worth doing is probably not easy, but the rewards are worth it. (unknown)
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[ScarletKnightCPA]

Good luck to you. I was trying to get a job in public auditing myself for a while but since I am starting to get interviews for positions at much higher salary base I don't think that's going to ever happen unless I'm willing to take a step back and pause. I already am working fortune 100 companies amounting and finance area so I don't need it in order to use as a stepping stone

back to the question at hand, I don't have big 4 experience so I can't say if they specifically have a preference but I have seen in private foreign students who were about to be hired and hiring managers selected them as the best candidate but higher ups rejecting it due to not wanting to sponsor a foreign student.

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[lilbro2]

I am foreign and actually got a job with a big4 firm as an undergraduate. I competed with the brightest candidates to secure an internship a year ago. I still scratch my head and think what in the world were they thinking when I had a little lower GPA and sort of speak English and still hired me for internship. I thought, the other guy well deserved it and I promised him that I will do anything to make sure he gets a full time job with same firm and office I am at. Fortunately He did get a full time job and so did I after my internship. Actually, I told the recruiter to please give him a chance.

I think we foreign care about the GPA more than the real learning. I have 3.83 GPA but I sure can say that other with a lower GPA can write and communicate better and know more than me.

Firm wants to make sure they have the diversity in their teams and usual can capitalized on that by telling clients.

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[Anonymous]

I think they look a lot harder at grades, which is why exceptional foreign students with 4.0s are picked a lot. At my small firm, although my grades were generally good, they did not scrutinize them too closely. It was more about my communication skills.

[lilbro2]

@Myra Lansky I think recruiter should more pay attention to personality traits and whatnot rather than the GPA. Its fine to have a certain GPA requirement but should not be focusing entirely on it. I would rather hire or work with a guy or gal who is comfortable talking to the clients than having a 4.0 who can't even speak to the client. I think at the end of the day, GPA won't matter but what would matter the most is that how hard you work and want to learn on site and deliver whats expected from you.

I can tell you 4.0 is no better than a 3.5. Its my personal thought considering each one circumstances.

AUD-01/19/15- PASSED! FIRST TRY
REG-05/28/15- PASSED! FIRST TRY
BEC-07/11/15- Scheduled
FAR-08/31/15- Not Scheduled

ALLAH HELP ME PASS THESE AWEFUL TESTS.

Quitting is NOT in my dictionary. I will rise one day as a proud CPA...

[ScarletKnightCPA]

I think that GPA should not be the only criteria, I agree, but I think that academics should be an important selection criteria. It's one of the few close objective measures. Being able to pass the CPA exam is the most objective measure ability and dedication in my opinion. The other softer skills often is more related to whether the individual has appropriate mentoring, coaching, and support.

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[Fil-Am]

Unexpectedly, I got an e-mail from one of the Big4 an invitation for phone interview. She's an experienced recruiter, not a campus recruiter. Take note, I didn't have any public accounting experience. I will have a 20-minute phone interview scheduled this week. I need to prepare myself. What should I expect during the phone interview?

Anything worth doing is probably not easy, but the rewards are worth it. (unknown)
Please feel free to add me on LinkedIn just to say hello or stay in touch.

CPA Exam - PASSED 2014
CALCPA Ethics - Passed 2014
CA CPA License - Pending

To God be the Highest Glory. Little Miracle happens every second!

[Author]

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