Any accounting or finance people here? (its about internship

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CRACK
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 2 Nov 2005
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 765

01 Oct 2010, 4:51 pm

I am an Accounting Major, and I attended an Accounting/Finance career night 2 days ago at my University. I spoke with 4 different people, each representing one of the different local CPA firms in my state, about my goals of looking for a summer internship. I handed a copy of my resume to 3 of them (the 4th one just told me to submit it online, which I haven't done yet). And obtained some business cards. But, being somewhat ill prepared for the event, I couldn't think of any other questions to ask them.

The thing is, even though I know I want to get experience from an internship, I have no idea what working in public accounting is like. That makes it hard to convince any of them that I'm genuinely interested. And, from the descriptions of services they provide, it sounds as though they expect somebody with a firmer grasp of accounting concepts like auditing and tax than I have. Has anybody been in an internship like this? What about somebody who is an employee at a public accounting firm? What is a typical day like?

chainsawswinger
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 24 Mar 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 59

06 Oct 2010, 7:28 pm

I'm an Accounting major as well. So I feel your pain. (j/k :wink: )

First, they usually prefer to hire seniors, because they know that they'll soon be available to work full-time.

Second, yes, you'll need to have some education in auditing/tax.

Third, you NEED to have a near-perfect GPA. The big firms around here prefer at LEAST 3.8.

Fourth, it can't hurt to apply! You miss 100% of shots you don't take. :-)