[iwugolf]

Hello guys and gals,

I am an accounting major and am going to be applying for internships very soon with some public accounting firms. The problem is I cant really decide whether to apply to the tax department or to the audit department of these firms . I do volunteer income tax preparation for lower income people, but I know that would be nothing like doing tax for a public firm. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Tim

[Seminole]

Originally Posted by damadama

In this economy apply for both and hope you get 1 of em :P

You can't do that. If you walk up to a recruiter and tell them you want to apply for both they will look at you like you are a moron. Pretty much the first question after introducing yourself to them is what line of work, because every step in your process from there on, from the people you meet, to those you interview with depend on that.

Have you taken either an Audit or a Tax class? If you have do which one you like more. I've taken both and I enjoyed the investigative work of Audit much more than the rules and regulations of Tax. So I'm doing my internship with this summer in Audit. Really it doesn't matter much for your internship. The whole point of it is to see if you really want to do that line of work and if the firm is a fit for you (I think something like 90% of internships lead to full time offers).

What year are you in school? Most firms give internships to students who are finishing their Senior year and about to start getting their 150 or Masters degree. If you are a Junior and looking to do a summer internship before you start your senior year, I think you may be out of luck. The larger firms are cutting back internships drastically and the most I've seen them offer a Junior is a summer leadership program. Also, even if you are a senior I hope you aren't looking at a summer internship, because all the firms have pretty much filled up their spots for them already.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have anymore questions.

[Zeeman]

Tax can be a great career if you are doing high end corporate tax planning and structuring. If you are going to a big firm that will give you this type of training, then go I would say it's worth it. It's very technical, but can be very exciting especially the transactional work (M&A, restructuring, etc). If you are just going to be doing personal tax or working on small private companies, LLCs or partnerships, there's not a lot of money in it down the road and it will probably get very routine after a few years.

If you want to become a CFO, probably better to go the audit route. Tax advisory is a very specialized field and you get pretty boxed in if you spend a long time doing. That said in house tax directors in large companies make good coin - $200K with bonuses or more.

Good luck with it. Best to go with a big firm that will give you a lot of options in terms of the work you can do. You can always start in audit and make the switch to tax after a year or so.

[blue-coupe]

I would recommend Audit.

Tax is very specialized. With Audit, you can travel around and see a bunch of different industries. Should you leave public accounting, I think employers will value Audit more.

[aznshrek88]

If you haven't started recruiting yet then talk to recruiters. Walk up to tax and audit ppl and ask them questions about what they do; find what interests you more.

Audit is more versatile and transferrable over to other careers, though tax is good because your helping ppl, rather than double checking their work.

You do have to pick between Audit, Tax or Advisory when going up with the Big 4, so just ask a lot of questions, then apply for their internships. You'll find out what you like by talking to the army of ppl they bring out. Also joining Accounting Society or Beta Alpha Psi, would get you great insight because the firms specifically come to their club meetings.

[jun]

audit!

[hgill]

i work in Audit, get to work with new clients every week or two. Tax is more siting in the office everyday and not too much interaction with clients on a daily basis unless you are doing personal tax returns during the tax season. The majority of my work is Audit but i get to help out with Tax during the tax season at my firm. Look at the long run as to what you want to see yourself doing and pick. If you get lucky you might get a firm that lets you work on audit and tax because at my firm we have a couple of individuals that work on both throughout the year. If you have any questions, let me know.

[Seminole]

Originally Posted by hgill

i work in Audit, get to work with new clients every week or two. Tax is more siting in the office everyday .....

You can do the same thing with Audit as well. If you work for a larger firm that has big clients, for instance KPMG has Burger King in Miami and PwC has Ryder in Miami, then you are on those clients all year long because they are so large.

[ages944]

as irony would have it, my wife is a Tax Auditor...

[aznshrek88]

Since OP hasn't posted in a while sorry if i thread jack, but if anyone knows of any openings in Cali plz feel free to PM me. I'm looking for a staff 1 audit job...just graduated and I'm taking my CPA right now, 1st section (FARE) is in 2 weeks

[iwugolf]

Thanks for the advice guys! I have a few interviews lined up, so ill let you know how they go. I ended up leaning towards the tax route, but i do have two audit interviews, so who knows??

[jun]

FARE?

[Seminole]

Originally Posted by jun

FARE?

I think he meant FAR (Financial Accounting and Reporting). I thought it was weird too, but maybe that is the acronym he learned for it.