[xmichaelx]

Hi guys. I am a long-time lurker of this forum. I wanted to give you a brief overview of my situation and get some input.

I just graduated with a degree in accounting. I am currently studying for the CPA exam. I have 150 hours but I only have 21 accounting hours. I am getting 7 accounting hours through the Becker CPA review.

I had a solid GPA (3.35) and was a member of the cross country and track team. I received the “team award” in cross country as voted on by my teammates.I made the Dean’s List for four semesters and made the the Conference student-athlete honor roll a few times. In addition, I was involved with the student work program in my school. I usually worked 10-12 hours a week. My relative experience includes a student position as an internal auditor at my school’s business office and I had my VITA certification. I had other jobs on campus as well and moved up throughout the student work ranks as a sports information assistant.

I have interviewed with 5 places after graduating in May. (I did have an office visit with GT in April but did not get an offer). One of the places was the state department of audits & accounts (which I got an offer.) I turned the job down because I wanted to go into public accounting and they wanted me to start July 1. (I wanted time to focus on knocking out a few sections of the CPA exam). I have been able to get past phone interviews and have landed many office visits.

I tell firms that I was able to balance being an athlete, working on campus in addition to being a student. I also share that I have accounting work experience and my job as an internal audit gave me exposure to accounting.

After getting feedback from some of the places I interviewed, they said I interview well, I was knowledgeable about the company, and I did well on the writing & testing portion of the interview. The reasons this one firm in particular did not offer me a position was my lack of public accounting experience. (ie internship). Do you have any suggestions on how I should try and prove that I am a worthy candidate despite the lack of public accounting experience?

Any tip or suggestions would be great. I have an interview next week with a small regional firm.

FAR - 83. (5/31/16) wiley and ninja mcqs.

BEC - 84 (2/7/16) wiley and ninja mcqs

AUD - (7/10/16)

[GotCPA]

Are you going for audit or tax?

That excuse of lack of public exp is sort of BS considering interns really don't do much except make photocopies, rollforward engagements, and maybe send out confirms. Either way, you can throw in some terminologies used in the practice to show you are knowledgeable in the area despite the lack of public accounting experience. You said you did internal audit, so talk about the risks assessments dealing with the audit. If going for tax, talk about your VITA experience and the different types of form etc…

[xmichaelx]

I am going for audit. It is kind of a BS excuse, but the experience case has been the reason for 3 or 4 of the jobs. I understand their concern. Although I don't consider it to be valid. A lot of firms like candidates to have public accounting internships.

FAR - 83. (5/31/16) wiley and ninja mcqs.

BEC - 84 (2/7/16) wiley and ninja mcqs

AUD - (7/10/16)

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