Hey all,
I see posts all the time regarding the job hunt post WGU and with the current job market I figured I’d give my insight and tips which might prove to be helpful to some! The bulk of the advice will apply to people new to the accounting field and are in the early stages of their WGU journey. I will provide tips to those further along, just finishing up with their degree as well. Fair warning, this will be long.
First things first is to decide which path you are pursuing; Public, Industry, or Government. They all vary in terms of workload, career trajectory, and pay.
Public: This is the most common career path for most accountants. This is the typical CPA firm, Big 4, etc. The hours are the most grueling in public accounting especially during busy season (Jan-April). Going Public you will lean towards a specific focus, usually Audit or Tax. You’ll usually be working with a variety of clients and will get the most hands on experience dealing with all aspects of an audit, or a variety of tax scenarios.
Pros:
- Defined career path (staff, senior, manager, senior manager, director/partner etc.)
- Boost when you get your CPA
- Great exit ops. Even better if you can make it to senior accountant/manager before dipping to industry.
Cons:
- Non-existent WLB during busy season
- Potentially traveling around, usually if audit.
- Starting pay is usually lower than industry, but many firms are starting to offer more to first year associates.
- Most reliant on networking, campus recruiting, internships to get your foot in the door.
- CPA is heavily pushed, without it don’t expect to advance past the senior accountant position.
Industry: Corporate accounting. Very broad, think F500 companies, tech companies, car dealerships, the flower shop down the street; you get the point. You’ll be typically dealing with month-end closing of the books, reconciliations, and working on internal financials and controls. Hours are much more manageable compared to public, but during month-end, quarter-end and year-end expect to put in 50-55 hours usually depending on the company. In contrast to public, you are focusing on just one company.
Pros:
- Better starting pay than public or government.
- Much better WLB (average 40-45 hours/week)
- Opportunity to learn about the company’s financials from the ground up.
- CPA is not as necessary, though still a big boost if eventual goal is manager/controller/CFO.
Cons:
- While the same levels exist (staff, senior etc). The promotional path is much slower than public.
- Job-hopping is usually required to see larger bumps in salary and promotions.
- Depending on the type of industry, can become pigeon-held in a specific sector (healthcare, tech, etc)
- This is more of a pro and con, as you will gain valuable experience which will increase your stock but can work against you should you decide to switch sectors.
Government: Local/State/Feds. You’ll be working in a government agency, dealing with budgets, compliance and overseeing public funds. The hours are the most “laidback” of the three, usually 40 hours/week maybe 45.
Pros:
- Best WLB of the three; no real “busy season” unless you end up at the IRS.
- Great benefits and PTO
- Typically seen as the most “secure” but during the current political climate that notion has lessened a bit.
- Decent pay related to the amount of work and stress.
- CPA not necessary but can help with growth.
Cons:
- Lowest paying out of the three, and no big bumps in pay like public or industry.
- Promotions come slow and are more tied to tenure/how long you’ve been there.
- Anecdotal but some say the work can be boring and monotonous.
Now that you have a general idea of the 3 main sectors of accounting, let's get into what you should expect while you’re getting your degree done. With the way the current job market is, I would highly recommend securing an internship, or accounting adjacent job (AR/AP). Having some experience will go a long way and if your plan is to go into public, then an internship is a trial run for the firm to extend you a full-time offer.
IMPORTANT: Public (and sometimes industry) start hiring for their internships 6-12 months in advance. You need to be proactive about applying early so that you can have something lined up, ESPECIALLY if you are accelerating.
In my situation, I finished my degree in 2 terms and started applying towards the end of my first term (May/June) for an internship during busy season ‘26. I interviewed with Big 4, Regional CPA Firms, and a couple F500 companies.
To get prepped for applying the first thing you’ll have to do is polish up your resume. I will attach the template that I used below. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT have a resume that is more than 1 page long. I assure you, you don’t need it. Use ChatGPT to clean up your phrasing, but do not use it to write your resume for you. Many recruiters can tell what is generated and what is actually written by a person. WGU also has resources that can help with your resume, take advantage of those as well if you need more hands on help.
Once your resume is ready to go, you can start applying. I mainly used Indeed and LinkedIn to find postings but check Handshake out as well there are always opportunities there. Some search terms to use are:
- Audit Intern
- Tax Intern
- Audit Associate
- Tax Associate
- Staff Accountant
- Entry-Level Accountant
Something I did that I didn’t see recommended enough; I looked up the local CPA firms near me that were more than just a solo practice. I went to their website under their career section and applied there if they weren’t on other websites. For those that didn’t have any links listed, I looked through the website to find an email contact for their HR/Recruiter and emailed them directly with a copy of my resume. I introduced myself in the email and mentioned I was looking for an internship. This requires a bit more initiative and selling in the initial email, but one of the firms I interviewed at was not actively hiring interns but gave me a shot based on the email. I ended up declining their offer, but it shows this method can pay off.
I would also recommend creating a simple excel sheet, tracking all the jobs you apply for and listing when interviews are etc. It helps to keep things organized and you don’t waste time guessing if you applied already or not. I will attach my template below as well.
When it comes to the interviews, especially for internships, you do not need to stress about being asked technical questions. I had 10 1st interviews and 7 2nd interviews, I was never once asked any technical questions. The closest thing related to coursework was if I had completed IA1 or not. That is it. The standard that I encountered for interviews was:
- First Interview: Generally with HR/Recruiting
- Second Interview: With Partner/Director
I never had any interviews go past the 2nd, I was either offered a position after or told that they had gone a different direction.
For entry-level positions, interviews are a vibe check. They want to make sure that the person they hire is going to fit in well with the firm, team etc. Most of the questions are your standard interview fare. Talk about strengths/weaknesses, explain the thought process behind handling certain scenarios, and the most important: tell me about yourself.
I cannot stress enough that you should have a general answer ready to go in regards to the “tell me about yourself” question. It shouldn’t come off rehearsed, but having points you want to hit in mind will make you sound confident. This question is the main “sell yourself” question and is what most people will use to analyze the vibe check. You will be asked this question at every level, first and second interviews.
For example, mine was something roughly like this:
- Mention WGU and full-time job
- Give insight into myself outside of work and school
- Like to spend time with wife and dog
- Love to golf
- Love of food. Trying new restaurants, cooking new recipes
- Love of travel, and how the detail-oriented person in me enjoys planning trips and itineraries.
Yours will vary based on your hobbies and interests, but it is important to show that you have a life outside of work and most importantly a personality. I treat these questions as if I was meeting a friend of a friend and introducing myself to provide them with some insight so they can get to know me. Sound natural, not robotic.
In regards to the other behavior-based questions that you will get in the interviews, something I discovered on reddit which helped me a lot was the STAR method of question answering. This comment on a thread describes it perfectly: Here
Example: Can you describe a time where you encountered an obstacle at work or school and how you overcame it?
S: Absolutely, one that immediately comes to mind was a few years back during the COVID outbreak. I was working retail and was tasked with figuring out a way to keep sales up during lockdown and the general downturn of foot traffic during that time.
T: The goal was to maintain sales level and ideally add additional revenue.
A: I took on the task of updating our online presence, we had historically relied on our tenure in the area and word of mouth. I started with improving our social media presence and posting regularly, in addition I setup a basic online storefront for the company and began with our most popular items while eventually adding more inventory.
R: The results spoke for themselves very quickly, we were able to gain over X followers in a X amount of time and increased monthly revenues by 10% just from the website. Overtime this resulted in a x% increase compared to our pre-covid numbers and not only helped the business maintain, but surpass previous numbers.
Having a general scenario in your pocket is key as many STAR/Behavior related questions can be answered by molding and tweaking the story to the question.
Post interviews are a waiting game. I always made sure to ask at the end of each interview, what the next steps in the process would be. Usually I was told they would reach back out within X amount of time regarding what would come next. I usually heard back within the time frame that was given, only once did I not hear back.
Something that the internet is divided on is a follow-up email post interview. After each interview I sent an email within a day or two, thanking the person for their time. Nothing long winded. I found success with this method and was told by the firm I ended up accepting a position with that this helped me stand out in their eyes and keep me in mind.
After this you either have an internship/job secured. If so, congratulations! If not, then we go to Plan B.
For those that weren’t able to secure a position with this process do not fear! Your game plan should be to work towards getting a position where you can get any kind of relevant experience. I have friends who are in the accounting field and they mentioned that people took many alternative paths to break in.
Some options are:
- HR Block etc (if you’re leaning tax)
- Temp Agencies (Robert Half etc)
- Cold emailing local firms (as i mentioned above) to see if they have any openings.
- Finding any AP/AR role at a company
This allows you to get your foot in the door and start gaining relevant work experience which can bolster your resume for future applications. With many states lowering the CPA requirements, a masters may not be necessary anymore to sit for the exam. While you work an entry-level position getting a headstart on studying for the CPA exams is great.
From here it is a repeat of the application and interview process.
I apologize for making this post so long, I know that I spent a lot of time on various subs trying to get advice and insight into this whole process. Figured I’d give back and hope it would be helpful to someone.
Feel free to ask me any questions, would be happy to answer whatever I can. This process worked for me and as a result I received internship offers at: 2 Big 4, 5 regional firms, and at a F50 healthcare company. I ended up going with one of the regional firms as their culture aligned more with what I had in mind.
Templates:
Resume Template
Job Tracker Template (when you download excel file you will have to format the "applied?" column by inserting a checkbox in it)
