[Anonymous]

I am in a program at a school that is very well-known within the accounting world, so the Big 4 (and many mid-tier and industry firms) comes to recruit with us every year. It was required that we recruit for an internship about a year into our program. When that time came around, I ended up recruiting with two Big 4 firms and a couple of mid-tier firms.

At the time, I really wasn’t very focused on my career and barely had any idea what the profession entailed anyway (I had no actual workforce experience, and everything I knew of accounting was basically from the three semesters of classes that I took), so needless to say, I embarrassingly messed up in the recruiting/interviewing process, and the respective Big 4 firms did not extend me internship offers. (Keep in mind that the students in my program are highly sought-after, and I was told that the Big 4 basically extended internship offers to anyone who could speak English (a.k.a. basically anyone who applied/interviewed with them), so the fact that I didn’t receive an offer from them must have meant that I had made a REALLY bad impression.)

However, one of the mid-tier firms did give me an internship offer, which I accepted. So I interned with the company this past spring, and it was a good experience (the mid-tier firm is within accounting’s Big 6), and I received an offer for a full-time job, but in the end I declined because I felt it didn’t mesh with my future career plans. But more importantly, what the internship did give me–aside obviously from the fact that I am finally able to put a legitimate public accounting experience on my resume–was a more focused perspective for my profession and career. In other words, I have a much better idea of what I am doing now, professionally.

To cut to the chase, I have another opportunity to recruit again with the Big 4 next semester (my last year of school), and I want to know whether it would be a good idea to “re-recruit” for the same positions with the same firms that I recruited with two years ago? Frankly, the thing that is holding me back right now is just knowing how unprofessional and embarrassing I had been while recruiting the first time, and being scared that the same recruiters/interviewers will probably be recruiting again and might remember me. It’s probably me being unjustly paranoid, and I doubt that I was memorable enough to make a lasting impression–even a negative one–but I still want to be prepared, in case.

1.) If the recruiters don’t bring up the topic of me having recruited (and failed) with them before, should I bring it up myself, or just leave it alone?

2.) In addition, how can I respond if the Big 4 recruiters ask why I didn’t choose to intern with them before (and instead “chose” interning with a mid-tier firm)? Is it better to be honest and say that I did badly in their interviews and didn’t get the offer, or is it better to lie and say something like I had different career goals at the time, blah blah? (Yes, I know lying is bad, but I figure that response would be more an example of “professional sugar-coating.”)

Either how, as I said, I have a lot more focus in myself as a professional since recruiting the first time and really do believe I’ve grown/improved a lot. I would appreciate any advice on how to handle this situation. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Also, to clarify what I might have done to make the bad impression the first time recruiting, I think it was a combination of me lacking focus in my career and me being a generally socially-awkward person (throughout the recruiting dinner, I remember making a lot of “jokingly” negative comments about accounting in a really terrible attempt at humor *cringes*, which obviously was not a good idea, being that I was in the process of recruiting for an accounting position). Fortunately, I think I've improved on both fronts, so I definitely will not be making the same mistakes this time around.

And in regards to my GPA, it was around a 3.7 the first time I recruited, and is around a 3.5 right now (due to my much more difficult graduate courses), but I don't think it's a totally huge drop.

[mla1169]

I'm not big 4 but most companies only keep records of applicants for 12 months. It will likely be different recruiters and I can't imagine it would even come up. They talk to so many students that 2 years ago is like it never even happened.

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[fuzyfro89]

1) No, there's no point. Just tell your story from before as “I previously felt that working at GT/BDO/Mcg would be a better fit, as I was unsure that a large firm would help me meet my professional goals. After interning, I realized that I know I want the opportunity to work with the largest variety of clients, both large public and small private, and feel that an opportunity with (insert Big 4 firm name here) would help me do just that.”

Leave it there. If they probe, you can talk more about your internship and what you learned, but why you ultimately want to go Big 4.

2) See #1. People change, goals change, perceptions change. No one (big 4 included) will hold it against you for interning at another firm before working for them. If anything, you are more sure that Big 4 is where you want to be now and have the experience from another firm that helped you reach that conclusion. If they even choose to bring you in for an interview after you submit your resume, then they are giving you a chance. WHy would you shoot yoruself in the foot by saying “You denied me before, but I'm baaaack!”??

[Anonymous]

Absolutely not. Do it.

No doesn't mean “no” in business. It means not right now.

[Author]

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