Lost and need help finding my path!

Hi everyone,

I am about to graduate in December 2019 from a good state school, majoring in accounting. My first internship was actually in supply chain for a very large, well known and respected company, and my 2 most recent internships were in tax, one in core tax and one in R&D Tax for a middle tier accounting firm (BDO, RSM, Grant Thornton, etc) in Atlanta and NYC. With my graduation coming up, I have made the realization that I do not want to do accounting at all, and would love to get more into finance. I have a full time offer for R&D tax from my firm, but have not accepted. I attempted to get switched into the BVal practice at my firm (thinking this would be a good "in" into the more finance aspect side of things), but was told they are not hiring in this upcoming class. I would be very interested in getting into investment banking, or types of finance similar. I am new to all of this and not sure about all of my options, and what would be best for me and also most realistic for me given my background and experience. I know this is a big long shot, but one day long down the road, I hope to work for a venture capital firm. I am really interested in M and A, raising capital, determining the value of companies/real estate and helping them as they buy/sell companies and divisions, making deals happen/supporting them, modeling, trading, management consulting, etc. As I said earlier, I am new to all of this so I am not exactly sure what routes I can go or what is out there, but I know that this industry can be extremely competitive and would love some advice about what I can potentially do and where I should try to go moving forward.

Side note about my experience: Accounting Major, Business/Engineering/Entrepreneurship Minor, Worked an on campus internship a few semesters as well in the Office of Innovation advancement and Commercialization working with staff and clients trying to commercialize their inventions and dealing with their patents, was the VP of a relatively intense sports club. I have pretty good social/people skills. I also have strong reviews of my performance from all of my internships.

Ps. I am thinking it will be hard to get a position in finance as I do not have any experience in the field...I know most positions want you to already have had previous internships in finance and things like that. Please help me to find my path! Thank you!

2 Comments
 
Most Helpful

If I were you and I was just looking for an in into IB, I would consider credit risk. At the end of the day its all about cash flows and making sure a company is in order, starting with the financial statements (though analysis goes much broader and deeper than that).

I know a few guys I went to school with that went from accounting into finance via this route.

 

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