[taxonomics]

Hello everyone,

I just recently registered an account at Another71 but I have spent my fair share of time lurking the forums anonymously. I am currently facing a dilemma that I hope some of the more experienced members could provide some insights/feedback for me to resolve. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

A couple of years ago I started working towards a degree in Economics. Unfortunately, things did not work out the way I had planned and with only 3 credits to go, I jumped ship into Accounting. Even though Economics is my true passion, I have determined that after graduating with both majors, I will stick with Accounting for the rest of my career, specifically public accounting. With that said, however, I have expressed interest in pursuing a career in accounting that might use economic concepts such as international tax or transfer pricing.

The issue that I have is that I am about to start my senior year in Accounting but I have no internship or work-experience whatsoever. As such, I have taken it upon myself to do something about it during my last undergraduate year and fill that giant white space in my resume after “Education”. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is currently offering a position in my area as an Economic Assistant. This position is part-time, very flexible and pays somewhat well for very basic requirements. Although I mentioned that I am no longer pursuing a career in Economics, the nature of the position is a great way to develop interpersonal communication and persuasion skills. The trade-off of applying to this position is that I would not be able to participate in any networking events, join BAP, or even volunteer for the VITA program.

My dilemma occurs because I am not sure what accounting recruiters might prefer in a candidate. If you were given the option of choosing between 2 candidates with the skills mentioned above which one will you choose? Will you take candidate A who has good persuasion/communication skills and some work experience outside of accounting, or will you pick candidate B who was very active in BAP, participated in VITA, networked, and could have a slightly higher GPA?

I have noticed that some members of the community have worked or participated as recruiters in the pass and any insights that they can provide will be great. Thank you very much for your time.

Attentively,

Taxonomics

[y_u_no_pass]

Why not both? How many hours is this part time position? I worked full time then part time was active in all of the accounting organizations and president of BAP and graduated with a 3.97 GPA. It is definitely possible. Now you won't have much of a social life, but I always felt attending the professional meetings still counted as socialization. My recommendation is to do both maybe just limit the VITA time. That is one thing I never managed to do, although I volunteered with a different organization and tutored with BAP.

Florida CPA!
Took final exam 2/25/15.
Sent in Application 3/12/15.
Issued License 3/20/15.
Used CPA Excel solely for all exams.

[Gabe]

I did VITA and you can do as little or as much as you want. Some people did 3 nights, some did 1 or 2 nights. If I remember correctly, it went from ~5pm until ~9-10pm (depending on the returns).

CPA, CFE
CISA- Experience will be completed by August 2016

[taxonomics]

@y_u_no_pass

The expected weekly hours is between 16-32 but it can fluctuate a little. My big concern is that BAP does require me to attend about 90% of the meetings, 1 mock interview, 2 community service events, 2 social events, 1 tutoring event and 1 on-site visit to an accounting firm. I might have trouble making time for all of this, a part-time job, and full-time study. I might be able to join another business organization that actually has the same meetings as BAP but no requirement on attendance. I would be missing out on networking though.

Anyways, thanks both of you for your input.

[y_u_no_pass]

Yeah that is a lot of variance, Maybe do the job and other organizations or VITA. BAP is a big commitment, but it isn't as bad as it seems.

Florida CPA!
Took final exam 2/25/15.
Sent in Application 3/12/15.
Issued License 3/20/15.
Used CPA Excel solely for all exams.

[Tuffy11111]

At my college, BAP was the main thing you needed to get a public job. I actually had a couple of people give me dirty looks at the recruitment events when they saw I wasn't a member. I'm pretty confident that's the only reason I'm sitting in industry hating my life instead of working in public.

BEC - 83 7/25
REG - 76 5/2/15
AUD - Hopefully before MY Audit...7/5?
FAR - 83 5/2/16

[Anonymous]

With the caveat that I'm in industry: I'd take the guy with work experience (the BLS job) over the guy who went to social events in college that happened to be labeled BAP. If you're going into income tax, then the VITA experience might be preferred, otherwise I'd still take the guy with work experience over the BAP + VITA. The “real life” job skills you'd gain – like interpersonal skills and such – would be worth more to me than the fact that you had some tax experience and were part of a certain network.

However, if you're going for Big 4 and/or big-firm public accounting, then my answer may not be applicable.

[kcrc]

Have you looked for a job in one of the Federal Reserve banks? In Kansas City, they're always hiring economists, but the actual work bridges economics and accounting.

Contrary to what they prepare you for in school (just Big 4), there are lots of jobs in lots of industries that make up a diverse spectrum of “accounting”. For most graduates the spectrum is from finance to accounting, but as you near the summit of the mountain of business (ie: CFO, CEO), you have to be an expert in all three.

Another option is academia. Accounting PhDs are in short supply, which means they'll be in high demand in the future. If you look at the curriculum of Accounting PhD programs, they're basically advanced economics degrees. If you want a high paying job using economics, but applying it to accounting, look into an Accounting PhD program.

[TaxGod]

I am a BAP member, and it did wonders for me getting into the Big Four.

AUD: 02/28/15 - 89
FAR: 05/29/15 - 80
BEC: 08/03/15 - 81
REG: 08/27/15 - 76

[taxonomics]

Hello everyone! I wanted to thank all of you for your input. In the last week, life just pretty much did a 180 degree turn on me. As soon as I posted this thread, I found an internship in Transfer Pricing which is very convenient for me because this is the area that I wanted to specialize in. I submitted my resume on Thursday afternoon and on Friday a HR person contacted me. Just yesterday (Monday) I was called to officially schedule an interview. I still need to ace the interview but to be honest, I'm feeling pretty good about my odds. I was also contacted today by the BLS recruiter about my application and it looks like I might get an interview for that too. Once again, thank you very much to all of you and the invaluable feedback.

[Author]

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