Getting In The Big 4 As A Non-Traditional Applicant

Many blogs out there have traditionally focused on landing a Big 4 internship or an entry level role prior to graduating college. The very traditional path to a Big 4 career serves the vast majority of people - but what about the rest of us? How does one get taken seriously as a non-traditional applicant or is there a "Plan B" if you do not get recruited to the firm out of college?

The good news for candidates is that if you weren't part of a summer leadership program, internship, or direct hire out of college there are non-traditional routes into the Big 4 if it is part of your career goal from several different angles. I have some great advice from both my own personal perspective and other experienced hires I had the pleasure of training and working with during my own stints within the Big 4.

My Story

I had the bad luck of attending and graduating from UC Riverside in 2009, one of the peak years of the US recession. This was compounded by the fact that this school is not traditionally during my time what was considered a "feeder" school for the recruiting teams at the various Big 4 local offices. At the "meet the firms" event in 2008 and 2009, One Big 4 firm was absent from the event. Most national and regional firms had a table to maintain a relationship with the school but simply weren't recruiting. I headed back home to the San Francisco Bay Area after graduation and was able to land a contract job at Oracle. During the down economy, I also took advantage of a business opportunity and spent a year in Guangdong, China. When it was time to head back home, based on the strategy I will share below, I targeted any and all roles employing some form of audit. I was hired by the California Franchise Tax Board in 2011 as a corporate multi-state tax auditor working on topics like state apportionment factors and R&D tax credits.

It was a great stepping stone. I networked very hard to get offered an opportunity to do a "busy season internship" at a national firm even though I had graduated college already. The firm had attrition among their intern group and needed a qualified person to jump in for busy season - I took the risk to get some exposure to public accounting. Even though I did not get a full-time offer at that time, the experience paid off with me getting a role with a local firm performing governmental external financial audits which eventually led to getting a job with the Big 4.

How To Position Yourself Initially

The first question to ask yourself is what business line you wish to get in. My advice only applies to those traditional accounting based business lines such as audit, tax, and advisory. For the purpose of my advice, advisory will refer to internal audit and IT audit functions and not niche groups within the umbrella such as performance improvement or boutique more consulting-like roles.

Your first order of business if you're a college graduate without a public accounting offer is to find a job and don't be too picky about what it is as long as it is in the field of accounting. From that first position, you can look for your next move to a better role that is either in public accounting or a role that positions yourself better for the move you want to eventually make. Consider the following as well:

• If you didn't join your State CPA society already - do it now! For example CalCPA offers membership to students for free and for CPA candidates your first year of membership is free. There is no reason as an accounting student to skip joining. Your State CPA society will likely offer professional development and networking events where you can start to have a personal relationship with people in the profession already. CalCPA has a Young Emerging Professionals program that also might also be represented similarily in other states. Networking is the primary way I landed the "busy season internship" which was my foot in the door.
• Using your State CPA society member directory or using the internet, you can find a list of local CPA firms that might be below the regional level and check if they have openings. It was a long shot, but I sent many unsolicited cover letters and resume to various local firms during the recession. I've heard of others getting a response in better economic times. I hope it goes without saying to spell check, check your formatting, and follow-up appropriately without being annoying! If you can manage to do some busy season work for a local tax office - I think that experience definitely beats doing clerk or staff level work in a smaller company because you will be dealing directly with a licensed CPA working in the profession who is certified and has paid their dues in the career. Many solo practitioners I have come to know in my career have been my most valued mentors.
• Mark August, September, and October on your calendar. This is prime time recruiting season for all public accounting firms. Offers are typically made end of October and November. You naturally can apply anytime and you may get contacted, but typically recruiting goes totally dark from December to April due to the calendar year busy season cycle. Jobs typically start trickling in slowly in July and really start making strides in August. This is the time you want to log into the careers websites of the firms you're targeting and refresh. Check periodically every two weeks for new job posts. You will want to look for experienced staff or experienced associate positions mainly, unless you are coming from another public accounting firm as a senior.
• Consider like I did, governmental roles in federal, state, or local government with titles that contain the word "audit". For example in the federal government, everyone knows the IRS but there are other agencies such as DCAA which conducts audits of defense contractors on behalf of DoD that can help you gain audit experience and to some might be a completely meaningful career path in itself. Every state has tax auditors for their tax authority and local government in some states has TOT auditors or cannabis regulatory auditors which also present opportunities to at least exposure yourself to some form of audit methodology you can leverage as experience for an experienced hire position.
• Big 4 recruiting is difficult and you might need to take a step back to take three steps forward. I had to move from FTB to a national firm and down to a local firm in order to secure an A2 second year associate role in the Big 4. That was a path that took several years to culminate, but the experience I had gained in all those roles really did set me ahead of the pack as a second year associate. My energy was merely spent on figuring out firm mechanics and developing greater technical skills.
• Work on your CPA exam and pass as quickly as possible. I can not emphasize this enough. Once you are in public accounting whether it be a local firm or the Big 4 you will have less and less time to pass. The knowledge you gain studying for FAR, AUD, REG, and BEC will pay off when you finally land in the Big 4 because you at the very least have some form of academic understanding of a ton of topics at sort of a minimum level. I can't emphasize this enough. If you are trudging through a 9-5 easy staff accountant job - seize the bull by the horns and pass the CPA exam! You are in a role where your time is much more free than those in public typically. Take advantage of it.
• Very important: Develop and study an industry and the technical accounting topics associated with it as deep as you can. When I interviewed for the Big 4, I wanted to get in the software group and so during that period of time I had spent a lot of time with a PwC friend talking about the software issues he ran into. I studied SOP 97-2, the topic of multiple deliverable arrangements, and VSOE in-depth and interviewed with both a Big 4 senior manager and partner for my technical round and in-person rounds for the Big 4. I was able to eloquently detail the entire legacy revenue recognition process to the satisfaction of my interviewers and it was a huge reason I was hired. If you're interviewing for a tax job where you'll be working with tax provisions for example - know your ASC 740/FAS 109 like the back of your hand. I "talked shop" with a ton of CPAs prior to my interview to confirm my understanding of VSOE and how to conduct a VSOE analysis without ever having truly done one hands on. "Fake it until you make it" is a quote I've heard at more than one firm - not to say your knowledge is actually fake, but no one in the Big 4 is going to spoon-feed you knowledge. The ability to independently learn technical accounting is a critical skill to being a successful CPA, period. Learn it now!

The Intermediate Steps

At this point you have developed your game plan and you're executing. You are making contacts and networking your buns off. You might be in an entry level industry job. If you are, at this point your priority is getting a public accounting job anywhere if it is your goal to jump up to the Big 4 level. This is where the advice to join your state CPA society is important. Study for your CPA exam and pass as soon as possible. There is no advantage to waiting and having the exam done only improves your stock in finding a public accounting job because it is known to be a huge commitment towards the profession.

If you are in a public accounting job at a local firm, regional, or national congratulations! There are two opportune times in my opinion to exit a non Big 4 and jump up.

• You just finished your first busy season as an associate and you're moving towards your second. You might have less than 1 year experience in public accounting. This is the best time to jump to the Big 4 because your career will not miss a bit if you come in as an A2 from being an A1 elsewhere. Try your best to apply and get in at this time if getting in the Big 4 is your goal.
• It is very unlikely as an A2 eligible to promotion to S1 senior that you will be hired into a senior role unless you're a rockstar or have a personal relationship with somebody. Many middle market firms are also hesitant to hire somebody directly into senior unless they have some hands on experience. Recognize, you might be taking a step back if you enter the Big 4 at this point. If you're entering a Big 4 like PwC which actually does have A3 third year associates, this is probably less of an issue. As far as I know now, PwC is the last of the Big 4 that has third year associates. This is because that firm makes passing the CPA exam a mandatory requirement to become a senior. Again, do not wait and pass your exam as soon as possible!
• You are a current S1 and you move to S1 in the Big 4 after one busy season as a senior. It is one step back yes, but a rather small step in a long term career if you are going to be in public for a long time.

At this point if you're in public another good exercise is to ask yourself if moving up to the Big 4 level is what you really want. I recently had a friend who was working in a regional/national firm who moved up to the Big 4 and found it was not what she wanted in her career due to a multitude of factors - types of clients, the schedule, and work/life balance. She headed back recently to her old firm and more power to her. She obtained the resume experience she wanted for her background and picked up where she left off - very common in public accounting.

What's Next?

At this point you have you interview and your Big 4 offer. Congratulations! What is next? Finding your calling and long-term purpose is my advice. I spent so many years of my career fixated on getting into the Big 4 that I actually lost sight of what I wanted to do later in my career... in my 30s and 40s in my career.

Age will catch up with you sooner than you think and you'll want to think carefully about the kind of life you'll want. Work/life balance can be a unicorn. Often spoken about and rarely seen in practice. For me, I eventually chose a role where I can preside as the Finance Director of a local town in the county where I grew up and not burn my candle at both ends.

I do appreciate and treasure all my past experiences at the other firms and the Big 4 a tremendous amount. I would not be the professional I am today without it. I hope this article has been helpful for some and I personally believe the ones who "got overlooked" try to work harder and have a chip on their shoulder.

Good luck out there!