Can I skip public accounting and go straight to industry?
You can start directly in industry, but landing your first staff role is difficult because HR recruiters heavily favor resumes with public accounting experience. Skipping public firms also makes earning a CPA license harder, since you might struggle to find a qualified boss to sign off on your experience.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Starting in Accounts Payable (AP) or financial analyst roles directly out of collegeDid this help you?
- 2Applying for industry positions despite job postings requiring a CPA or public accounting backgroundDid this help you?
- 3Completing short public accounting internships in college for the pay and resume bullet without committing full-timeDid this help you?
- 4Pursuing higher degrees or specialized rotational/back-office finance roles instead of traditional audit/tax pathsDid this help you?
- 5Applying to public accounting internships just for the resume weight and then leaving after a yearDid this help you?
- 6Getting an Enrolled Agent License to do tax prep as a side gigDid this help you?
- 7Getting VITA certified and doing volunteer tax preparationDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Your trying to get past HR people who have no fuckin clue about what we do when it comes to hiring most of the time. And they are HORNY AS FUCK to see "public accounting" and "CPA" on a resume”source ↗
“Is it possible for me to completely skip public accounting and just stay working at industry firms or other branches to avoid bad hours?”source ↗
“Im about to start college but now that i’ve been thinking abt it, i cant find the motivation to: go to school for a degree thats gonna have me be a slave for the first 2 years (big 4)”source ↗
“Haven't gotten any internships that I have applied for so far. All have been industry internships. I have no plan on doing public accounting due to the hours involved.”source ↗
“Even if it's just kind of volunteer work doing bookkeeping or something just so I can start building some experience and have something on my resume that's relevant.”source ↗
“Any tips or ideas, or should I just be applying for Public Accounting internships even though I am almost 100% not going to do anything public I feel like.”source ↗
“I did public accounting internship and didn’t like it. Started off in industry”source ↗
“Went straight into industry- got some AP experience for 7mo at a retail then staff accountant at media advertising/real estate for 2yrs and now a senior acc at a PR firm. Very doable but getting into staff was hardest without experience.”source ↗
“I want to get my license but I’ve straight up never had a boss that was one to sign off on experience.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 24Does starting in private accounting ruin your career?
- 11How to get tax experience without an entry-level job
- 5Why do I want to work in public accounting when I know it's miserable?
- 27What other career paths are there with an accounting degree?
- 4What do year-round accountant services actually include?
- 4How to move from Accounts Payable to a staff accountant role