[bighitter56]

In your opinions what are the top 5 qualities that the big 4 is looking for in a candidate?

Thanks.

BEC- 86
AUD- 96
REG- 83
FAR- soon hopefully

Using Wiley CPA Review Books and 2012 Wiley Online Test Bank
MBA in Finance & Strategy

[mypetmeatball]

1. GPA

2. Personality – not necessarily the life of the party but doesn't stumble over every word from nerves

3. Worked through college

4. Beta Alpha Psi/Volunteering/Resume filling stuff

5. Good looking girl (applies mostly to pwc)

[Anonymous]

Dead on Mypetmeatball. GPA gets you in the door. The rest is up to you and your personality, or lack thereof. In the latter you'll be going out the door you were just let in.

[Anonymous]

I went to school in the city and I knew a good amount of people that got into the Big 4 firms in NY. For the most part, they were all pretty slimy individuals who would do whatever it took to get on top. They pretty much all cheated off of each other and then got each other into their respective firms. And these were all the kids that were head of our schools Beta Alpha Psi chapter.

PWC is by far the worst, from what I hear. A good friend of mine was worked to death there for 2 years and then ran to E&Y as fast as he could. He says its much better there, and he's probably gonna get me a job there after busy season when I should have my CPA wrapped up.

Honestly, it's who you know that will be the biggest factor in getting in there. If you think a personality and good character will help you land a job, I hate to break it to you but its pretty cut throat. The Big 4 firms could be drastically different in other parts of the country, but that's what it's like in the city at least.

[theilya]

I had a 3.6 GPA

Worked through college

Did VITA

Organized in various athletic events at the gym

Applied every year for an internship to all of the big 4…………..not even an interview

[GreenMonkey]

GPA and “fit.”

REG- 91
AUD- 97
BEC- 91
FAR- May

[Anonymous]

I have been to a number of recruiting events and campus interviews, I would say the top 5 qualities we are looking for are:

Team player

Fast learner

Diverse experience or background

Personality/fit – at least you should know how to express yourself during the interview before we can trust you to represent the company to talk to the clients

Driven

[Mayo]

-GPA. This is a sliding scale. Many non-target schools is a 3.5 minimum cutoff. But the more interesting/applicable extracurriculars you have, the less GPA will matter.

-Personality fit. Are you moderately social? akward? Shy? An A-hole? Can we see ourselves working with you for 12 hour days, six or seven days a week? If the answer is no, then no interview. Yes, being good looking helps. It's just reality.

-Extracurriculars. Volunteering, sports, frats/sororities, campus govt, campus organizatons, etc.

-Work experience. Obviously, previous accounting experience is a good type to have. But doing an internship/part time work with a large company is also good. So you could do a summer internship with GE in a totallyunrelated field, but it's a great name that will jump out on your resume.

-Leadership. See sports, frats, work, etc. some kind of supervisory experience or willingness to lead. Projects, etc.

-Teamwork. See sports, work, frats, etc.

Oh, did I mention good looking?

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[SeePeeAyy]

GPA – I've seen people be accepted with 3.0, when I thought it would be a bit higher.

Personality – This is pretty much the deal breaker. I've done some recruiting and events at my school and all my colleagues said were “Star their resume if you can see yourself working with them”.

Needless to say by the end of the night if you just came up and said something like “I want to work at XXX, heres my resume can you get me a job” you had 0% chance of an interview.

[wizards8507]

A lot depends on your school. Something like 60% of the accounting majors at my school had Big 4 offers after their junior-year summer internship. There was no way I was going to “life the life” of Big 4 accounting so I ran as hard as I could in the opposite direction. It was hard to NOT end up at a Big 4 firm for many of my peers because all the recruiting and a lot of money came from those firms.

NY CPA

[snel0075]

The most important things I've noticed from my experience (in no particular order) are:

1. Your university. They will recruit heavily at some schools and it won't be too difficult to land an interview with one of them.

2. Your Academic performance. This is not only your GPA, but your relative standing compared to your peers. A good GPA in a school with an inflated average is not going to say a whole lot about you.

3. Your extra-curricular activities. They look for out-going people who participate in a variety of activities outside of school, be it part-time work, fraternities/sororities, sports, volunteering, social clubs, etc.

4. Your personaliy. They will only hire someone if they feel they will fit in and mesh well with others around the office. You have to fit in with the office culture or you will be miserable and your coworkers will be miserable.

5. Your future. They want to know what you are planning to do with your career; maybe not 25 years down the road, but what are you looking to do in the next five years. Are you going to get your CPA license? If so, when? Do you want to stay in public and shoot for the management/partner track? Are you looking to learn as much as possible in order to take those skills into private or industry?

Just know that all of these qualities can be reflected upon a recruiter before an interview is even offered to you. Meet your recruiter and chat with him or her. Get to know them and let them get to know you. It is much easier to land an interview if the recruiter can match a face to a name in a stack of applications.

One last note, I'm intrigued by how some other posters are saying being good-looking helps. I've definitely noticed some cute girls around my company, but I've always thought of myself as a pretty average looking guy. Who knows!

B - 86
A - 87
R - 81
F - 81

DONE.

[Author]

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