Accounting Recruitment Prep

[Grixon]

Hi all, I am interested in accounting and want to make myself standout in the networking events in the coming september, and I was wondering that since most big 4 employees have worked in the auditing field, should I do extensive research on auditing to learn more about it and have a topic that I can converse with them comfortably and impress them with my knowledge? Now, I know that there are many fields in audit, would someone mind listing me a few so I can reserach on it? (I tried searching for different fields of auditing on google but couldn't find anything)

Any help will be greatly appreciated! thanks!

[mercedesjane]

What you would expect through recruitment is exactley the opposite of what you are thinking.

The biggest tip I can give you is that they are not looking to see your knowledge about accounting because that can be taught and learned. They want to see your social skills. They prefer that you have the necessary soft skills to interact with clients. In fact talking about technical accounting with them will bore the crap out of them. They didn't sit in the office all day long just to come out and talk about it more.

Don't ask stupid questions. In this case there are stupid questions. They will make fun of you behind your back. For example, "what are some of KPMG's core competancies?" That person got ridiculed to no end. You can start off with a general question like "how long have you been with X company?" .. Then start asking about the social aspects of the company .."did you join a sport " etc.

Put yourself out there to talk to as much people as possible. Everyone counts even co op students. They all get an opinion on their assessment of you.

Don't be fooled. The interviews are these social networking events. It begins when you present yourself to them.

[Islander101]

Great response from mercedes jane. In my experience (having been involved on all sides of the recruiting process), she's absolutely right on.

I would add that if you're serious about recruiting this year, you'll want to meet the recruiters at as many opportunities as possible so that they can get to know you and you can start to develop a relationship with them. If you can (may be a little late now), you may even want to be involved with organizing the recruiting events - allows them to see you in a leadership role.
Good luck!

[yiujun]

No one expects you to know anything about auditing, even if you're in 4th year and just finished your auditing course.

You have to actually do the job to know what it means to audit.
Also, for most of your first year, if/when you get hired, you'll be doing photocopying, footing, recalculations and tying in financial statements the most. Also the dry stuff like copy and pasting from one document to another, doing inventory counts on weekends because no one else wants to, buying snacks for your seniors, and folding confirm letters.

Just go out there, let them know you are charming, professional, interesting, enthusiastic, bright, eager, a born leader, and be very curious about everything.
Make friends with the recruiters. Make friends with the managers at the recruiting events.

I have by no means good work experience, having only worked as a part-time bank teller for less than 2 years, and pretty mediocre grades (B+ average). But I received an offer, because I was lucky in that I seemed to have unknowingly impressed some manager, who gave the recruiters her approval.

By the looks of your post, it seems you're in first or second year. I'm not sure about the situation now but in my days (2 years ago), if you were going to recruiting events in first and second year, you were already a step ahead of everyone else.

Good luck.

[MarkIII]

I have a feeling that the recruitment drive for Big 4 is going to be bleak for this fall due to the economy and the general shape that each of the Big 4 is in.

Most of the big first lost many big clients when they went bankrupt. Now nortel is down the drain and that means KMPG is going to bleed as they had a hiring craze when Nortel switched from Deloitte to them.

Each firm is letting people go in the hundreds which means there are many people with Big 4 experience on the street...

[yiujun]

I have a feeling that the recruitment drive for Big 4 is going to be bleak for this fall due to the economy and the general shape that each of the Big 4 is in.

Most of the big first lost many big clients when they went bankrupt. Now nortel is down the drain and that means KMPG is going to bleed as they had a hiring craze when Nortel switched from Deloitte to them.

Each firm is letting people go in the hundreds which means there are many people with Big 4 experience on the street...

True that recruiting will be weak this year, as firms will cut back on recruitment costs and will be hiring less staff.

I heard that back East theyre laying off people left right center.. apparently DT Toronto fired a lot of people late last year and early this year.

From what I heard, Vancouver firms are laying off way less than in Toronto. I heard that KPMG fired some people last month, and EY fired some after busy season, and DT fired a few people in different departments, but overall the attrition is way less than in the East.

Don't know what it's worth but at our recent meeting, one of our operations partner mentioned that they are not planning to lay off anyone... of course that probably just means they'll fire you due to bad performance.. but at least not expecting any massive layoffs.

We did get a big hit in terms of promotion, salary increase, benefits, training, etc... many cost reductions in place that have people grumbling in the office. But hey, what can we do about it? It's not like we can quit!

[Islander101]

Just curious yiujun - what firm are you with if you don't mind me asking?

Are you with one of the big-4 or a mid-sized firm? The reason I ask is that you mentioned 3 of the big-4 having lay-offs, but you didn't mention PwC Vancouver's rumored lay-offs from the Spring. I was curious as to whether those were more of a rumor that came from one of the other firms... I would be surprised if PwC Vancouver admitted to "layoffs".

[rfd_incognito]

Just curious yiujun - what firm are you with if you don't mind me asking?

Are you with one of the big-4 or a mid-sized firm? The reason I ask is that you mentioned 3 of the big-4 having lay-offs, but you didn't mention PwC Vancouver's rumored lay-offs from the Spring. I was curious as to whether those were more of a rumor that came from one of the other firms... I would be surprised if PwC Vancouver admitted to "layoffs".

Where did you get this idea that the PWC layoffs in Vancouver was a rum our. I had a partner from PWC tell me about it, there is no conspiracy to cover up layoffs. Obviously during recruiting sessions they are not going to be telling the students they just laid off 100 first and second years.

[yiujun]

Just curious yiujun - what firm are you with if you don't mind me asking?

Are you with one of the big-4 or a mid-sized firm? The reason I ask is that you mentioned 3 of the big-4 having lay-offs, but you didn't mention PwC Vancouver's rumored lay-offs from the Spring. I was curious as to whether those were more of a rumor that came from one of the other firms... I would be surprised if PwC Vancouver admitted to "layoffs".

Oh Im not from PwC if that's what you're wondering about. It's just that I don't have any friends at PwC and I haven't haerd anything through the grapevine. :P

[yiujun]

Where did you get this idea that the PWC layoffs in Vancouver was a rum our. I had a partner from PWC tell me about it, there is no conspiracy to cover up layoffs. Obviously during recruiting sessions they are not going to be telling the students they just laid off 100 first and second years.

100? That is very highly unlikely to me. I'm pretty sure that is more layoffs than even PWC can handle. They need first years and second years to do the dirty work for them. Seniors don't do any substantive testing for most parts - that is the juniors' responsibility. 100 is probably at least 80-90% of their junior staff.

[BananaHunter]

Some random tips:

-As others said, social skills is king. These big companies send you out to their clients and want you to be impressionable. Dress well, talk well, be courteous.

-Attitude. They may be serving you food and drinks but at the end of the day, it's you who has to demonstrate that you're employable. Some students have this "They are giving me stuff! They must think I'm hot stuff" mentality and it's going to fail. Be a little humble. They'll be paying you to do a service, not paying you to babysit you.

-Small talk. I know this is important because I was terrible at this. Don't just talk about work. Recruiters are people too. Hiring is a human based decision.

[Islander101]

Hi Mr. RFD Fair enough - sounds as if there were some legit layoffs, I was just curious to get it verified again from an insider as I had heard the rumor circulating from competitor firms but not yet from an insider.
Your comment re: 100 1st & 2nd years is too funny though - I assume you're just being silly with that one or wanting to start a conversation. Even the competitor firms who mentioned the layoffs to me had been clear it was designated CAs (senior associates & managers) - and I understand many of them were ex-pats whose contracts weren't renewed.

[west5440]

I work at the PwC Vancouver office. To answer your questions, yes there were layoffs in our office. As far as recruiting for Fall 2009, we are still looking to hire a relatively high number of students.

If anyone has any recruiting questions, feel free to send me a message. As a general hint, recruiting is a year round process. I probably won't be directly involved with recruiting in the Fall this year.

[commie]

+1 on being socially smart and not book smart at these recruiting events..
Don't be a wallflower...work the room..

and it doesn't hurt if you are good looking and dress well either....

WRT the layoffs....this year may be a little higher than normal...but every year, all firms go through layoffs...to get rid of the low performers...
no big shock that there are layoffs.