<p>If you do well in the Kelley School of Business, is it relatively easy to get a job offer from a Big 4 firm? My dad graduated from Kelley with a degree in accounting and did decently well, not exceptional, but he has said that he had job offers from Big 4 firms.</p>
<p>I’m curious about this too. Someone answer lol</p>
<p>It is not all that easy to get hired by the Big Four companies as an undergraduate. According to the career services annual report for 2011-2012, 108 seniors got jobs at Big Four companies. But probably only around half of these positions are in the traditional accounting areas of audit and tax. I found Linkedin profiles for 63 ugrad students who went to IU from 2008-2012 and were hired by Big Four companies. 63 is more than half of the 108 total. About half of the 63 worked in financial services, advisory, consulting, etc.; the degrees for probably most of these students was not accounting but finance and BEPP, or a double-major in accounting and finance where the student is more interested in finance. </p>
<p>So, I would say about sixty of the 350 accounting grads each year get Big Four jobs. Probably at least ninety percent of these accounting majors have a double-business major, usually accounting and finance.</p>
<p>Remember that IUB undergrads have to compete with MSA and 3/2 MBA students for Big Four jobs. Graduate students have a big advantage in getting summer internships with Big Four firms. Students who interned with the company have a good chance of getting offered full-time by the same Big Four firm they interned with… Kelley Bloomington produces probably at least 90 MSA and 3/2 MBA accounting grads each year. Public accounting firms are also hiring new graduates with accounting degrees more each year, with 41% of new hires in the public accounting industry having graduate degrees in 2012. </p>
<p>Another big factor is where you want to work. Chicago is by far the biggest destination for Kelley ugad Big Four hires. Of the 63 I looked at, 35 work in Chicago. Only 7 work in Indianapolis, so getting a Big Four job as a ugrad in Indianapolis is not very easy. A big portion of students who wind up in the MSA program are accounting ugrads who want to stay in Indiana but could not get hired, so they did the extra year in Bloomington to get the MSA. </p>
<p>Some of the things you can do to get a Big Four job as ugrad:</p>
<p>Join Beta Alpha Psi or the Student Accounting Society. BAP is more prestigious. Try to get an officers position; these organizations both have a lot of officers positions. Go to the presentations of the companies that interest you. Many Big Four recruiters spend lots of time on the IU campus, so you will have opportunities to get to know each main Big Four recruiter.
[Indiana</a> University Beta Alpha Psi](<a href=“http://iubap.org/]Indiana”>http://iubap.org/)
[Welcome</a> to Student Accounting Society](<a href=“http://kelley.iu.edu/sas/]Welcome”>http://kelley.iu.edu/sas/)</p>
<p>Join Civic Leadership Development and do an Alternative Spring Break stint. These both look great to Big Four recruiters. Also, do the K201 peer tutor program.</p>
<p>Plan Ahead: Importantly, you must be on pace to graduate with 150 credits to even get an intern or full time interview with the Big Four. Check the NASBA website for info in the state in which you plan to practice accounting on what types of college credit and from which accredited schools qualify toward count the 150. Community college classes in summer are a great way to get easy credits toward the 150. Most regional accounting firms also require their potential hires be on pace at graduation for 150 credits. [CPA</a> Exam | NASBA](<a href=“http://nasba.org/exams/cpaexam/]CPA”>CPA Exam | NASBA)</p>
<p>Consider taking A311 Intermediate Accounting I before the start of your junior year. Most students take Icore fall of junior year and few accounting students have taken it by then. This is the same semester people interview for spring and summer internships. If you have A311 under your belt already, you will be qualified to interview for a lot more internships. </p>
<p>Consider doing a spring Big Four internship. The graduate students pretty much have a near monopoly on the Big Four summer internships, in Indianapolis at least. (In other cities, especially Chicago and New York, however, you can still get summer internships as a ugrad if you have a high gpa, are active in clubs, and good at interviews.) Graduate accounting students usually can’t do spring internships because of their graduate programs meeting then. Pay for these spring Big Four internships is typically $25 per hour; and you will get lots of overtime during the spring busy season, so you can make a lot of money with spring internships.</p>
<p>Definitely double-major in accounting and finance if you are looking to work in audit or tax. It only takes two more classes to do the accounting/finance double-major than the accounting major by itself.</p>
<p>Also, register during freshman year with the Ugrad Career Services Office and check for Big Four and other big accounting firms’ summer leadership programs and other programs that occur in summers, during spring vacation, during the break after fall semester, etc. They are not the same as internships, but they will get you in touch with key recruiters and introduce you to the firms.
<a href=“https://ucso.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/index.cfm[/url]”>https://ucso.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/index.cfm</a></p>
<p>Maintain a high cumulative gpa and a high accounting coursework gpa. You can see in Onestart which accounting classes constitute the accounting coursework gpa. The average gpa of accounting grads is probably about 3.4; so you need to go higher than that to stand out.</p>