[DeterminedDaph]

I graduated from a top Big 4 recruiting public institution with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance with a 2.8 GPA. My low GPA was unfortunately due to my poor performance in Financial Accounting & Cost Accounting one specific semester (stress, death of a friend etc). I ended up switching out of Accounting, went into Finance and graduated.

I got accepted into an online MAcc program and completed all of the accounting pre-reqs (I had to start ALL over again – 7 accounting classes!!) and finished with a 3.0 GPA. During that time, I was interning full-time at a Fortune 200 company as an Accounting intern. Unfortunately – I didn’t get a full-time job after my internship. I really think it was due to my poor GPA. I don’t even know how I got that internship without them ever asking about my GPA. The interview went well and my internship went extremely well because it was originally set for 3 months and they extended it for another 5 months with great reviews. When I applied to their full-time rotation program (the only FT job that was open at the time), it had a 3.5 GPA requirement so even though the managers told me I’d be fine, HR pulled me out of the pile within 2 days of submitting my application. 🙁 I tried applying to several other jobs but had no luck with those either.

Fast forward 9 months later, I’ve been working in a part-time accounting job at a local university and I just transferred into their MAcc program because I didn’t want to pursue a MAcc online and I wanted to capitalize on recruiting season. I also did individual taxes this past season with a small tax company and I currently have a 3.7 MAcc GPA. 🙂 The fall recruiting season is upon me and I’m currently trying to figure out what would be the best route for me. After being exposed to tax, I would love to either work in the tax department of an awesome company or take the Tax route in public accounting.

Should I go for a tax internship? Or should I go for FT?

Current credentials…

– Bachelors in Finance

– Current MAcc student with 3.7+ GPA (3 classes completed with graduation is set for August 2015)

– 1 year of non-profit budgeting/accounting experience

– 8 months experience – accounting internship at a Fortune 200 corporation

– 3 months individual tax preparation experience through a small tax company

** Hoping to pass REG before the recruiting season….

I got sick and tired of my poor undergrad GPA being an embarrassing topic during interviews so I’ve worked REALLY hard to boost up my grades & gain valuable experience this past year. I just want to be confident and fully prepared for the new recruiting season. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

Starting over... yet again. BUT THIS TIME WILL BE THE LAST!

BEC: 76 (lost credit), 83 (lost credit again)

AUD: 56,68,72,68,75 (lost credit)

REG: 64 (fail)

FAR: scheduled 12/7/2022

[lalap]

Wow, what an amazing story! Kudos for your hard work!

IMO, aim for the FT position, but still apply to companies that only offers internship position. I was part of Fall recruiting season in 2012 and graduated in December of the same year. I applied for internsip position at PwC (that's the only position they offered) , then the recruiter told me that I'm not eligible for internship because of my graduation date. However, she asked if I would like to interview for FT position instead. I said (heck) yeah! I did not get the job though. lol. You have great experience and awesome GPA. Just be confident! Good luck!

Passed

[Author]

Replies