How hard is it to get hired with The Big 4 Accounting Firms?

Question

Well I guess I should say a internship since I am still in college. Is it hard to land a internship with the Big 4? I have heard horror stories from some people.

Answer 1

As a person who worked at the Big 4 (okay it was Big 6 back when I did it), including working with the recruiting teams, here's your answer:

It's difficult, but not impossible to get an internship. The Big 4 typically hire the bulk of their incoming class right out of university - usually from the accounting majors (depending if you're going into audit, tax, consulting, actuarial or other departments). Key characteristics that the Big 4 will look for are:

1. Track-record of achievement and excellence. This includes grades, leadership in school projects, involvement in the community and ability to balance work/life. They want to make sure that you can hold it all together during long work hours in assignments that sometimes don't have too much supervision.

2. Personal character. Recruiters are going to want to make sure that you're not a liability. They want to make sure that you're professional, with moral character and can be trusted not to go mental.

3. Diverse experience. Recruiters want to know that you bring something a bit different to the table. You're going to see lots of different types of clients and they want you to add some value. This may be from a job or just your family background. This includes cultural backgrounds. Think diversity.

Internships are much more difficult to get because a) they already have a huge team of greenhorns coming in twice a year. Internships are usually reserved for superstars, undergrads who are are the tops of their classes, but have low retention because they are so good.

Thus, they are used very sparingly. I had an "class" of over 60 people in my first-year intake and we had only two interns. Both interns were brought on board for diversity as a way to try and influence diversity in the next in-class of recruits. Their projects were superficialy and didn't include the training that "normal" first years got. They usually got a project on internal consulting that asked them how the Firm's process was different from other firm (i.e. a sneaky way of having them write a "yay-team" report that tried to brainwash them into staying).

The typical intern was:
1. Top tier in his class in grades
2. President of local business chapter
3. Was of an under-represented minority in University
4. Accounting major
5. Has exceptional character (i.e. already started own business, leads charity, starts on Division 1 sports team, University officer)

If you don't get an internship, don't worry. It's much easier to get an actual job at the Big 4. I was recruited and had the luxury of picking which firm I wanted to go to. I was an accounting/finance major, officer in the accounting society and had good grades. You just need the first to get a job with the Big 4.

Answer 2

Well...it all depends on:
1) Your experience in terms of "kind of work you have done"
2) Exp in terms of number of years
3)Past Comps worked at[not as much as the above 2, but it does affect the decision]
4)Travel Preferences[50% or more is preferred]
5)Educationa and Professional Certifications[The more the better]
6)Previous "Consulting" experience - You have to understand that they hire you as a "Consultant" and they are "Consulting" Comps. They need people who are outgoing and expressive and have had prior consulting experience.[until you are applying straight out of the grad school]

The other problem that you may face is that there is no way to get to their Hiring Team/recruiters directly. You have to keep applying thru their websites/other job sites.

Hope this helps.