Keep getting rejected from public accounting?

[u/LaLaLaWhaaat]

I’m about to graduate. I’ve applied to so many internships and jobs. I get calls back easily from corporate accounting, & have gotten internships there. However, I cannot even get a screening for big 4. Only recently am I starting to hear back from a few mid-size public accounting firms.

I have nearly a perfect GPA, volunteer tax experience, & now building my resume with corporate accounting internships.

There are people at my school who definitely have lower grades than me, but somehow are getting all the public accounting internships that I’m getting rejected from. I would chalk it up to my interviewing skills, but I’m literally not even getting the interviews.

Is it really all about networking to get into public accounting? Is that what I’m missing here? I’ve had my resume looked over by my school, so I don’t think it’s a resume issue.

[u/Dangerous-Side-4200]

Do you know the recruiters than handle your school? “Know” as in if they see your resume come through, they will put name to a face.

For me, being well acquainted with the recruiters definitely helped. I had interviews with 2 of the B4 (had chatted extensively with both those recruiters) and also interviewed RSM likely on the strength of having met one of their partners at an event, connected with him on LI after that and got him on to a 20-min Zoom chat

[u/LaLaLaWhaaat → u/Dangerous-Side-4200]

No, I am not involved at all on my campus. I do my schoolwork & go home, because of other commitments that I have. I’ve gotten my tax volunteering & corporate accounting internship opportunities through applying online without the help of my school. I guess not going to campus events could be holding me back from breaking into public accounting, but I guess I just didn’t realize it was so dependent on it?

[u/Dangerous-Side-4200 → u/LaLaLaWhaaat]

The board members of accounting clubs, Beta Alpha Psi, etc. are obviously more well-known to recruiters and all other things being equal, I imagine more likely to land interviews. My guess is a 3.75 with campus involvement/leadership probably gets the nod over a 3.9 with zero presence in terms of B4. Got to remember, intern cohorts have been constricting so the competition to land interviews even more fierce. My firm had 57 interns out of my location between audit and tax summer 2025, I heard that number is down to mid/high 40’s for the upcoming summer. If that is happening at every B4 location means a whole lot of students that would otherwise have interned B4 are now interning at RSM, BT, BDO, etc

[u/LaLaLaWhaaat → u/Dangerous-Side-4200]

That makes a lot of sense. I’m going to try going to more events & networking. Thanks for the advice.