[quote name='QiG']My advice as an accountant? Don't do accounting
If you're set on it, kiss as much ass as you possibly can to get a great internship with the big 4 or other large local firms. It will really set your career off the right way. Show up at career fairs, join the professional fraternity (I think it's BAP, I haven't kept up since I joined), and get in good with your professors because odds are that they know people high up in the field. I've become really disenchanted with the whole process because it came off as so snobby and fake to me.. not to mention now that I'm working, I want to bash my head into the cubicle walls from staring at spreadsheets all day. But to each his/her own.[/QUOTE]
Sure going into the Big 4 is a great way to start your career... if you are interested in making basically minimum wage per hour because you work so much to make the partners money and being treated like shit. I quit that shit after about six months because I knew it was just going to get worse and got a reasonable job at a local firm making more money for less hours and never looked back. Basically, if all you care about is your resume and the gamble of possibly making really good money down the road due to your experience in exchange for less money now, sure, do the Big 4. If you actually want to have a life, go elsewhere. They likely pay more too.
However, for an internship, Big 4 is the way to go. You only have to endure it for a few months even if you do it in busy season, and they coddle the interns to try to get them to stay on as full-timers; don't fall for it. The pay is great, the hours aren't bad in the summer internship, and you get paid for overtime unlike a real staffperson. Plus it looks great on a resume. Just don't fall for their bullshit and get out after the internship and find a real job.
