<p>As in college graduates of accounting. Percentage wise or whatever would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Also, is it difficult getting a job with the Big Four if you have no connections? I have very high grades and plan on graduating summa cum laude from my accredited school, but I worry about getting a job when I read on the “everything you’ll ever need to know about accounting thread” that top school applicants are generally preferred (for obvious reasons).</p>
<p>Go to the recruiting events in the all. It takes care of itself. </p>
<p>The B4 hire a lot of students every year – each of them have high growth targets for FY12.</p>
<p>I can tell you this – you need to have much more confidence to ever get a B4 job. Your grades are only a small piece of it.</p>
<p>Students tend to overestimate how many students the big 4 extend offers to. Obviously the majority of applicants/interviewees do not get offers. </p>
<p>DONT limit yourself to just big4, i know several people who did this and ended up missing on other great opportunities at companies that were interviewing during recruiting season.</p>
<p>With that said, if they interview at your campus, you definitely have a shot.</p>
<p>Our school had roughly 120 accounting majors (this includes people double majoring in accounting + something else) and around 60 people hired at big 4 firms. </p>
<p>Keep in mind, however, that the top accounting majors tend to head into finance rather than accounting. Also, big 4 firms do hire people ( though not nearly as many) who are not accounting for valuation and consulting positions.</p>
<p>General sentiment seemed to be if you had above a 3.2 and were moderately involved on campus, you would get interviews with at least 2-3 of the big 4 firms. If you had a lower gpa, interviews were still possible but you had to do a fair amount of networking.</p>
<p>^^definitely not the case from the schools/regions that i am familiar with at all</p>
<p>There may have been around as many accounting majors but i dont think the firms even hired 60 people in one year, much less from one school. i guess it really depends on the market you are trying to get into (AKA how many students the big 4 in your state hire), and how many other schools and students are competing for those places. </p>
<p>“General sentiment seemed to be if you had above a 3.2 and were moderately involved on campus, you would get interviews with at least 2-3 of the big 4 firms.” </p>
<ul>
<li>this definitely does not reflect the process at the schools i am familiar with. if you have a 3.2, getting a single big4 interview would be a longshot. </li>
</ul>
<p>I guess the process is really different around the country. I always knew big cities would hire more students but I also thought more students would be applying for those positions. Guess, thats not the case if firms are hiring 50% of applicants and lots of students with 3.2 gpas.</p>
<p>My class’s placement report appears no longer to be online, but an older one was available.
<a href=“http://www.lehigh.edu/~incbeug/Reaccreditation/DOCUMENT2.pdf[/url]”>http://www.lehigh.edu/~incbeug/Reaccreditation/DOCUMENT2.pdf</a></p>
<p>if you dig through it, you’ll see that there were 100 undergraduate accounting majors and 61 people accepting jobs at a big4.
Most if not all of the placement is in NYC, Jersey and PA.</p>
<p>I knew several people with under a 3.0 who ended up receiving offers from big 4 firms and are currently working there.</p>
<p>
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<p>Last year, a Big 4 NYC office had 250 interns for their summer class. Chicago, LA, and other big cities usually have 75+. In total, the entire summer intern class for this Big 4 had about 2500 students. This does not include the winter internship which is usually around 1000. </p>
<p>60 students from a well-known accounting program is nothing out of the ordinary.</p>
<p>^^That’s alot. It would be highly extraordinary in the areas I am familiar with. But, like i said before, if it’s the right market/office, i guess the positions become much less competitive. </p>
<p>that explains it. If you have one office in a state that only hires 10-20 or so interns a year and another that hires 2,500 and the number of applicants don’t increase in the same proportion, that’s why you have such conflicting views about how competitive these positions actually are.</p>
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<p>I think you need to re-read WaB4’s post…he said the ENTIRE B4 intern class across the country is 2500, not ONE office.</p>
<p>Recruitment is more competitive in the bigger offices, IMO. It is also much more difficult to ‘stand out from the crowd’ at those recruitment events due to the raw number of interviews on the recruitment weekends. The smaller B4 offices have very personalized recruiting experiences – having done both, I much prefer the smaller office approach.</p>
<p>Rutgers University here - NJ public school, around 30-50 big 4 offers i’d say</p>
<p>"Recruitment is more competitive in the bigger offices, IMO. It is also much more difficult to ‘stand out from the crowd’ at those recruitment events due to the raw number of interviews on the recruitment weekends. The smaller B4 offices have very personalized recruiting experiences – having done both, I much prefer the smaller office approach. "</p>
<p>Yes, I’d imagine smaller markets are more personal if they don’t have similar numbers if applicants. Recruitment is not more competitive in bigger offices IF students with 3.2’s get multiple big4 interviews and ~50% of accounting majors get big 4 offers when certain smaller markets only hire students with above 3.5’s and, maybe, around 10% of graduating class, at the very best schools. </p>
<p>IDK. Maybe it is because some states with bigger markets have fewer schools/accounting students, in proportion to the number of offices & open positions than some smaller states with only 1 office and many schools competing for few slots.</p>
<p>I think you’re ignoring or at least underestimating the effect the school you go to has on hiring.
If the accounting program at a given school is perceived to be better, it will be easier to get a job there.
Both Lehigh and Rutgers are recruited by the same market but Rutgers appears to send a smaller percentage of their accounting majors to the big 4.</p>
<p>Like I stated, I am set on graduating with a 3.8, and will work hard to accomplish that. HOWEVER, I certainly do not go to a top school. My school is ACSBP (or whatver it is) accredited, but it isn’t listed on U.S news.</p>
<p>Does this detriment me greatly?</p>
<p>Keep in mind the trend both in the Big 4 and basically around the rest of the business world is increased selectivity, every year. At a lot of lesser known schools a 3.5 won’t even cut it anymore with some firms.</p>
<p>^^Exactly what proof do you have of this? A 3.2+ has been the benchmark in the big 4 for a decade. It was a 3.2 when I interviewed. It was a 3.2 when I started interviewing applicants my first year and it was a 3.2 this year.</p>
<p>I have seen some postings this year requiring 3.4 in NY. I believe some of them were by the PwC. It is true that most companies require 3.2/3.0 at least, but realistically, your chances are slim with that kind of GPA.</p>
<p>WorkingatBig4</p>
<p>I think Acaden knows what he’s talking about more than you do, so pipe down.</p>
<p>You interviewed applicants your first year? What?</p>
<p>Anyway, I said some firms. That includes my office. It might not include yours. Thanks for reading my post.</p>
<p>^, lol since when do first years get to interview students?!</p>
<p>And yes it differs by the FIRM, as acaden mentioned…</p>
<p>I also believe it was pwc at my school that wanted at least a 3.4.</p>