The Big 4 Accounting Firms – How to Get That Perfect Job with One of the Big Ones

Industry professionals, recruiters and school professors are unanimous in their belief in one thing: there is no better way to create a career in accounting than experience with a Big 4 public accounting firm. If you are interpretation this you no doubt are well aware of whom these guys are:

PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and Touché, KPMG and Ernst & Young.

While each of these companies has an assortment of strengths and weaknesses, they are all alike in the fact that they provide the current accounting grad with a world class experience. First year connections at these firms are given a level of responsibility that is truly remarkable. When I was a first year I learn by heart thinking on an almost daily basis “I can’t believe they’re letting me do this.” As I stroll into the CEO’s office of the firm we were auditing, as I tally up a multi-million dollar mistake I’d found in another company’s books and as I traveled the nation with my very own American Express Corporate Card, I kept repeat this thought:

“I can’t believe they’re letting me do this”

Truly the world of secretarial is at your fingertips when you are employed with one of the Big 4. There is an air of esteem in those names: PwC, E&Y, KPMG and D&T. There is camaraderie and there is pride. These are the truly leaders in the accounting field, and the top of the business world.

Starting your professional vocation at one of these companies is a ticket to a career in the fast lane. The experience you take delivery of at a Big 4 is, literally, priceless. Many beginners at these firms admit that they would be eager to work for nothing: the experience is that precious. Land a job and you will assurance yourself the following:

- For the rest of your career your start again will automatically move to the top of the pile

- For the rest of your career you will have right of entry to a network of professionals that is staggering in its deepness

- You will earn industry bust money, putting your friends at regional and local firms to shame

- Your resume will contain knowledge that is recognized and respected globally

- An opportunity to travel the earth

At a speaking engagement in 2004, Martin J. Whitman, billionaire and namesake of the Syracuse University Whitman School of organization, was asking the single best piece of advice he could offer school graduates. His reply? “Begin your career with a Big 4 Public secretarial Firm. Period.”

Of course.

Think this all sounds first-rate? Of course you do. You’re probably thinking to yourself – there must be a hold? Unfortunately, there is. The benefits of working for a Big 4 are widely known and the exact for these positions is higher than ever. These positions are EXTREMELY cutthroat and often IMPOSSIBLE to obtain without an edge. A great GPA and resume are no longer adequate.

If you are serious about your career and desire to maximize your earnings potential, you need an edge. How do you land a meeting with a Big 4 when there are thousands of others just like you? Once you get the interview, how determination you be prepared for the barrage of questioning you will countenance?

When I graduated from college I had one talk and one interview only: I landed a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers on the opening shot. How did I do it? Good grade? Charming qualities? Incredible understanding? No! I have an insider at PwC who knew the ropes and coached me through the method, from the application to the signing bonus! When I learned these secrets I just watch as my peers struggled and I jumped easily through all the jewelry. Unfair? Sure, but life in a humanity class industry is not fair. While working at PwC I also experienced the recruiting procedure from the side of the recruiter.