At the internship level, you'd look for roles titled "Audit Intern" or "Tax Intern." And for full-time roles, you'd look for roles titled: "Audit Associate" or "Tax Associate."
To learn more about what these roles do, check out:
For tax and audit roles, you'll need to be an accounting major who is working towards the 150 credit hours needed to qualify for the CPA exam.
No, you do not need a Masters degree. Many accounting students do end up getting a Masters though to meet the 150-hour requirement. Going through a Masters program can also help you develop more specialized knowledge of the field you're interested in.
During college, I only had maybe two classes on tax, so my Masters' was helpful in that I got to learn more in-depth on that topic. – Former tax associate @ KPMG
However, firms understand that not everyone has the time or money to pursue a Master's. In response, PwC, for instance, has started paying for new hires to get a Master's degree or letting them meet the credit hours requirement through work hours. With the shortage of accounting students, it's likely other firms will follow suit!
Honestly not much more than professionalism and presentation were looked into much since we were being recruited so young – as early as freshman year.
Professionalism in the sense that you were often in working meetings with all levels and occasionally in front of clients so having intelligent and engaging conversations and remaining friendly with everyone. Presentation meaning dressed well, on time, conducting yourself well… those sorts of things.
One example of poor professionalism was a student that explained to us how he walked out of another firms exploration program because it was too boring and he already had our job offer.
Poor presentation was an intern who dressed in sweats and a sweatshirt and left around three without asking if his work was complete.
– Former auditor @ KPMG
My best advice is to just be calm, have a lot of questions prepared to fill some awkward time, and be genuinely interested in the things you ask about.
As a full-time employee, it was always nice to answer questions about what I do every day or how the firm treats us, but if a student isn’t engaged in what you’re explaining, it becomes quite apparent.
I also noticed throughout interviews and any pre-offer social events (like happy hours), the employees of the firm don’t really have questions for you (your degree and CPA eligibility makes you qualified already), so it was always a candidate question-heavy conversation.
As a candidate, I always tried to ask some personal things as well so the interviewer / employee wouldn’t have to talk about work the whole time.
– Former auditor @ KPMG
Being young and without the on-the-job experience, the resume screening wasn’t too strict for internship offers.
For the big four, being CPA-eligible was a big thing. We also looked at grades for sure. I guess the general sentiment in my experience for out-of-college hires in this field was that their grades would tell us if they were competent enough to learn well at college, because that proves that they could be trained in the systems and processes that the firm utilizes.
In terms of how high your grades should be, the Big 4 wanted top talent so top performers in the accounting programs, but also students who had a 3.0+ and did extracurricular activities would be considered as well because they are proving they can learn while juggling other responsibilities.
My team and I would notice relevant experience in accounting or extracurriculars (accounting professional groups or business organizations) but mainly with the hope to just start conversation.
Beyond that it was making sure they were the right cultural fit (could hold conversations/present themselves professionally).
– Former auditor @ KPMG
This might help explain why the associates we spoke to didn't see a huge need for cover letters.
I have never seen a cover letter for applicants in this field. For multiple reasons:
- Accounting is a very concise field (numbers are numbers essentially so knowing that a candidate can write really well isn’t a necessity)
- In general, I think the cover letter is fading for entry-level roles especially. I noticed throughout college they would mention them, but it was never really explained as something you should always do, which may have been the case in years past. With all the one-click applications and online networking, I think it has become less important.
– Former auditor @ KPMG
It might also help to think about it this way – cover letters are stories that explain:
Now, for accounting students, these details are practically self-explanatory: You're an accounting student who wants to work in accounting – and you're qualified because you're eligible to take the CPA exam in the future. In other words, you don't need to do a lot of storytelling!
Here are the 25 most common types of interview questions the Big 4 asks along with sample responses.
After joining the firm and more so after my first busy season, I began leading interns, which made me responsible for completing internal reviews on their work, professionalism, and ability to learn/understand their tasks.
Based on that, we would conclude if we wanted to work with them on our team or not. This was often discussed within our team as only one person typically completed those reviews (usually the associate or senior associate that worked most closely with them).
When the time came to decide which interns to offer full-time employment to, the main decision maker was their performance at the internship.
The biggest tips I could give to an intern are to:
- Communicate as much as possible with the person you’re working with. Communication is important to know when to work, what to work on, how to get through roadblocks, and tons of other things.
- Ask questions about why you are doing what you’re doing. This shows you want to know more – my managers loved to explain the scope of the audit and how my small task fit into the bigger puzzle.
- Don’t go on your phone in front of the team.
– Former auditor @ KPMG
As far as how many people got offers, it was definitely less in more recent classes, but still around 75% at least from the last class that I worked with before leaving.
The people who didn’t were those who did not communicate or didn’t try to actually do any work. It really has to be a standout poor performance because the people who tell them what to do will show exactly how to do it so as long as you ask the questions you need to it should be fairly easy to contribute.
– Former auditor @ KPMG
We hope this demystifies Big 4 recruiting ... at least by a bit! If you're still on the hunt for a promising opportunity, check out all the internships we have in accounting!