In a school in Florida and Big 4...trying to get into the finance world.
I am currently at Florida Atlantic University in South Florida. It isn't the best school in Florida, but our Accounting program is pretty competitive with the other schools in Florida. We have an honors program that is recognized by the Big 4 in Florida and is where they heavily recruit from in my school. Granted, it isn't a huge school, I am one of the top Accounting students at FAU. I have a 3.7, which isn't perfect, but I am very well rounded and haven't had a problem networking with various people. I went to all the national summer leadership programs (roughly only 2 students per school in the nation get chosen) for the Big 4 firms this past summer. I accepted an audit internship for January with Deloitte here in South Florida.
I will receive 120 credits this December, intern January-March, complete all 4 parts of the CPA in the summer, then do the rest of my credits to 150 for CPA license.
With that being said and the research I have done, I am interested in moving into the finance world like IB/PE/HF/ER. Of course, this means I have to move to the northeast which I am okay with. Can anyone confirm the path best to take:
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Get Big 4 Audit experience and then try to get into a top b-school (is that even possible for me coming from a school in Florida?)
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Stay in Big 4 audit and try to transfer into the M&A/financial due diligence side. Possibly into a Deloitte office in the Northeast. (The M&A practice in South Florida is very small, so it might be harder to transfer within here). Then try to go from M&A at the Big 4 into the finance world.
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I have received some contacts at Deloitte, but I am afraid it's too early to be discussing moving into M&A and making an office change. Should I wait to ask questions? I haven't done my internship yet.
If there are any other paths that you guys know or anyone you can tag here, I would appreciate it. It is too late for me to switch majors, so that is why I assume those are my best paths.
Some other notes:
-My school has a Financial Analyst Program, which is a 2 semester program involving company evaluations and equity research. Does anyone think this would help me at all? I was planning on participating in it before I graduate.
-I never took the SAT in high school because I never thought I would care so much about college... I only took the ACT. Will this affect me later on??
Tied up right now, but bookmarking this thread to get back to you later. I got into IB from a non-target in FL.
Thank you! I will definitely appreciate any feedback
Hey Spin, I am just checking up to see in case you might have forgotten! If you're still tied up, it's not problem
He's tied up af someone used a double rope knot and never came back :(
In all seriousness, I know a girl who went to FAU and landed a boutique IBD position. It's definitely possible. I'd suggest following up with Deloitte and then making the switch. My college sends a lot of people to E&Y who then lateral over to brand name banks (think Mizuho, BAML, Qatalyst). It's definitely possible. I'd try and do it within a few years or else you're gonna be pigeonholed in your current role.
i say you kill it in audit and then go to M&A/corp fin. if you can recruit with other big 4 firms for a corp fin role that works well too. you should tread carefully about networking with Deloitte before your internship has started at least within your own office, but maybe its fine to do so for other locations.
once you get a return offer in audit, feel free to explore other opportunities in corp fin/ib/ER etc. audit to ib is a switch that can be done for sure.
Hey Dhaliwal, thanks for the response. I have heard of those paths, but my biggest concern is that I am at a South Florida office. I assume your suggestions are for the Northeast? And also, you would suggest doing that route instead of a top MBA because of my background?
does the south florida office have an M&A corp fi group? you might have to try and re-locate to a bigger city such as charlotte. i would say hold off from networking with anything Deloitte until you're settled in your role. once you're in there try and meet people for coffee and phone calls. make sure u bust your butt so ppl dont think ur just there to switch groups. figure out which city you're school is a target in and go for that one as long as they have corp fi.
as for other places boutqiue shops and bbs/ebs/mms just network as is.have a good story why you felt accounting was the best move for you because it gets to see financial statments yadadada, but really its just so you can break in to M&A/ibd. accounting is very important for ibd so i thought id go the Deloitte first to get that experience.
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