Ashlyn Wang: Things About Accounting Recruiting That I Wish Someone Drew Out for Me
Starting off with freshman year, you do have time. You don’t need to get an internship immediately. What you should focus on is early exposure. Freshman year is when everyone starts thinking about what they want to major in. Because of this, exposure really matters. A lot of the classes you’ll be taking are intro classes, which on their own can’t go deep enough to really understand what each major really entails, so it’s helpful to get a grasp of what jobs different majors might actually lead to.
To do this, I would recommend spending freshman year joining at least one organization that you vibe with. You should focus on depth versus width - don’t join a bunch just to join a bunch. You get out what you put in, so you should join a couple and get very involved in them. Go to career fairs or panels just to observe. You don’t necessarily have to be the most active networker in the room, but the important part is to start getting yourself familiar with and comfortable in professional settings.
The most important thing freshman year is to explore, see what sticks, and what you’re actually passionate about. If you’re one of those people who decide their major early, some students apply for an Accounting internship or program for the summer between freshman and sophomore year. These are usually shorter programs - maybe a reduced-length internship (~6 weeks) or even a 1-week experience. They’re often rotational, so you get exposure to audit, tax, and advisory before choosing what you want to do for your main junior-year internship.
A lot of these opportunities are programs aimed at supporting traditionally marginalized groups and are super competitive. If you’re able to land one, that’s awesome and is amazing exposure. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in yet, so I wasn’t even thinking about this. It’s totally okay if you don’t have an internship that summer. I spent that summer at home nannying, working as a cashier on a food truck, and assisting a photographer. And these experiences actually gave me great stories to tell during my interviews.
Accounting recruiting starts really early. And it’s been getting earlier every year. The Big 4 firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC) begin heavy recruiting for your main internship, your junior year summer internship, during your sophomore year. Which is, yes, over a year early.
Which month this happens has been creeping earlier and earlier. When I was applying two years ago, I applied in late fall/early winter. Now it’s closer to late summer or early fall. The point is: you should stay on top of it and start paying attention to when firms begin rolling out applications, especially since many of them offer interviews on a rolling basis.
This junior-year internship is important because return offers from that internship are the firm’s primary way of hiring full-time positions after you graduate. So in a lot of ways, that internship is your pipeline into your first full-time job.
Once you’re back on campus in the fall, I would highly recommend going to any recruiting events firms host. The firms are constantly on campus - sometimes through clubs, sometimes through their own events in the business school. They usually bring free food or snacks, which is always a plus.
There are also more formal recruiting events like Meet the Firms, hosted by the SCU Accounting Association. Over 20 firms come to connect with students and share the opportunities they have open. It’s a great way to meet recruiters, professionals, and even alumni who now work at these companies. I love being an officer of the club, and it’s been a great way to give back to younger students and get to see firsthand how awesome our Accounting program is.
Being an Accounting major at Leavey honestly puts you in a really good spot. Accounting firms recruit heavily from SCU, and one of the reasons is the strength of the department. The Accounting department at Leavey is well ranked, well known, and well funded. There are department scholarships available, funding for networking opportunities, and strong alumni connections.
Because the program is strong, firms genuinely want our students. They also compete for them. I know that myself and many others received pay increases before even starting our internships, so firms could stay competitive with each other. So not only are you trying to recruit at these firms, but they are also trying to recruit you.
Other main colleges in the Bay, like Stanford and Berkeley, don’t currently have an undergraduate Accounting major. Leavey is the sole AACSB-accredited undergraduate Accounting program in Northern California. That puts SCU Accounting majors in a great spot.
Lastly, I really encourage you to reach out to people for help. If you’re not sure which Accounting service line (audit, tax, or advisory) you want to go into, set up coffee chats with professionals in each one and just ask them about their day-to-day. You should pull that student card. People are genuinely very willing to help students, and a lot of them are excited to do so because they were in your exact position not that long ago.
If you need help preparing for an interview, ask an older peer (maybe a PCC!) for advice. I found it so helpful to talk to people just a year above me because they had literally just gone through the same process. I leaned on them for more than just recruiting advice, too. I asked them which courses to pair together to create the most balanced schedule each quarter, or even what they wore on the first day of their internship.
I’m sharing all of this not to stress you out about recruiting, but to encourage you to start early. Start immersing yourself in events sooner than you think you need to. Explore different career paths and majors. Talk to students a couple of years older than you who just went through the process; they’ll always have the most up-to-date advice.
And remember, you really do get out of things what you put into them. The effort you put in now will soon pay off.