I’m taking a break from my intense notecard-writing session to check in here. I’m on the last little bit of my Roger CPA review book, learning about bankruptcy and finishing up the last of my notecards.

I wish Roger made a handy video and review book of how to find an accounting job, and how to keep it once you have it! My professors are totally at a loss for how to help us out, and I can see it’s tearing them apart that their good students are having so much trouble finding work. There are just so few spots available that the firms can pick and choose from the top students, and leave some of them un-chosen.

I was lucky enough to find a firm to work at next year, and I’m very lucky to get one that I’m really excited about, but up until this week, I was feeling the pressure too. However, if I had not received any offers, I had some back up plans, such as applying for IRS jobs in January, applying for any jobs listed in our local newspaper closer to graduation time, and keeping in touch with the accounting firms, especially the smaller ones, in the event that the economy improves by graduation time and their hiring needs change.

I have plenty of time this week, if I focus, to get everything reviewed, but I had hoped to have it all through with a couple weeks ago so I could breathe easy! Unfortunately, life (or school) has a habit of getting in the way. I’m going to remember than when I start studying for Audit next week, and try to really move it along fast in the first weeks. Especially since I’ll have all of Thanksgiving break to study!

I had my first office visit of the season with a firm this past week. It’s exciting to be moving past the interviews to the next step. I have a couple more office visits scheduled in the coming weeks, and I have some more interviews on my plate this week.

Office visits are a chance for the student to interview the firm, essentially, but also to spend more time with the firm to prove that they can act professionally. The student gets the chance to see the offices, meet more people, and hear some presentations about the firm. However, they can’t just sit there and relax – the job seeker’s role is to ask questions. Lots of them.

At the end of an “interview” with a manager, senior manager, or partner, you want to be prepared when they ask you “so what questions can I answer for you about our firm?”

So what questions can you ask your interviewer at an accounting office visit?

A couple that I like to ask are:

1. Why did you choose to work here? or What do you like most about working here?

2. Can you tell me what the culture is like at the firm? (Although often, that’s their answer to question 1!)

3. Where do you see the firm going in the next 5 to 10 years? (They’ll ask you where you see yourself in 5 to 10 years, so here’s your chance to ask the question right back!)

Does anyone have some good suggestions for good questions to ask interviewers at office visits?

Actually, I think that the recession is technically over, but I’m not sure that the job market knows that yet!

I’ve had a few interviews and invitations to office visits, but none of that tells us students how many entry-level positions the accounting firms have open. This situation is probably good for the smaller accounting firms, which had some trouble competing for recruits with Big4 in the past. However, with some of the Big 4 offering 0 jobs, the regional firms have a chance to be selective.

However, one of the smaller firms I attended several social events with and interviewed with seems to not have invited anyone to office visits. Essentially, they decided they weren’t really going to hire any new audit staff. That’s a little terrifying for us!

We’re supposed to be picking the firm that we fit in best at, but I wonder how many students this year will just accept the first offer they get.

Last week was the first week of on-campus interviews for accounting. So far, I have not had to tackle too many of the dreaded behavioral questions. As long as we stay away from those, interviews feel more like a normal getting-to-know you conversation, rather than a psychological exam.

Many firms also have pre-interview socials as a way to get to meet you in a slightly more relaxed setting before the big day. If you’re really nervous about interviews, making a good impression on the right people at the pre-interview social might be a way to compensate  little bit. However, keep in mind that after your interview, the interviewer takes notes on you, whereas they don’t write anything down at dinner, so you’d have to make a really great impression that will be remembered.

The interviews and social events continue next week. Hopefully they will ultimately result in a job at a great firm!

I already wrote about the first recruiting event I’ve been to this season here. That was a “Back-to-School Kick-off” hosted by Grant Thornton.

On Wednesday I attended a meet-and-greet hosted by Reznick group, which provided more opportunity to talk with the professional staff than the Grant Thornton event did.

At the Grant Thornton event, I didn’t even see any professional staff. I’m not sure if there weren’t actually any there, or if it was just so crowded with students that they were hiding in the middle somewhere.

The Reznick Group event was also over-flowing. One of the staff told us that last year they had about 35 students show up to the same event. This year, they had over 70.

Most of the students seemed to be the usual juniors and seniors though, who aren’t looking for full-time offers yet, ie they are not people who have already been passed over by other firms. So, are people just taking recruiting more seriously, and going to every event, because picking and choosing doesn’t seem like an option in this economy?

E&Y hosted an event that same night, but at a staggered time. Apparently their event was absolutely packed too. Moral of the story: show up early to recruiting events this year if you want a chance to talk to any of the staff! (Or be prepared to be even more pushy getting into conversations than in past.)

Yesterday I went to a little “back to school kick-off” sort of social sponsored by Grant Thornton.

I was a little apprehensive about heading back into the world of trying to fight for a recruiter to talk to, but there were so many students invited that I didn’t even see any recruiters!

The gathering was actually pretty enjoyable, and ended up feeling like a real back-to-school event where we could chat more with fellow students, rather than a stressful event where you’re expected to compete to make small talk with the professionals a firm sends out.

So far, there haven’t been a ton of events going on. A few firms have sent out emails to the accounting students that look like an event invitation, but rather than actually hosting an event they “cordially invite” us to check them out at the accounting career fair that will be held on campus next month.

Hopefully they’re just saving their recruiting budget for events after they’ve been through the career fair?

Is anyone out there involved in recruiting at their firm? Do you have anything to say about whether there will be fewer recruiting events this year?

Okay, being back at school makes it hard to study for the CPA exam! I managed to get a few notecards done but I’m still on Reg-1 of the Roger CPA preparation course (that’s part one of 6 parts.)

When I do have time, I have more pressing assignments to do, and then there are a lot more social distractions than I had to deal with during the summer, when I was mostly living at home.

This week I hope to do better, but I have 2 recruiting events to go, which eats up time. Hopefully they’ll go well though! I’m excited to get to meet more people at the firms. I’d better get some of my business casual clothing ready to go!

I have gotten a few interesting spam comments lately, all saying that accounting jobs are only open to white females under 24. At first I thought it was a real person, who was angry at accounting from some personal experience, but then I got a few more comments using the exact same wording, so it seems to be spam.

What do you think the situation is like for minorities in accounting?

I know I have very few African-American classmates, and if they have the right scores, accounting firms are eager to hire them to increase their “diversity.” On the other hand, one of these top-scoring classmates told me that when he goes to career fairs, he gets them impression that people see the color of his skin an assume he’s stupid until he waves his GPA under their nose.

Another issue seems to be higher turnover among African-American and Latino staff at accounting firms. They may be happy to hire them, but they seem to have trouble keeping them. Perhaps because the firms don’t create an environment that is comfortable for people who look different?

Also, do you think it makes a difference if you’re a man or a woman during the hiring process? One of my fellow students and I had an interesting talk one night about whether women were expected to behave differently to men during recruitment. We thought perhaps women were expected to be more bubbly and excited about everything, while men could get away with being quieter, but confident.

I don’t know if any of these thoughts are true, and I would have to do more investigation before I stand behind them. For those of you who work in accounting, or who have gone through some of the recruiting process for accounting, do you have any observations on these issues?