Narrowing the GAAP

Very few kids in college have done anything truly impressive in their professional lives. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, as a result, most resumes submitted to the Big 4 recruiters look more or less the same. It’s easy to not get that interview because you didn’t stand out from the crowd. If you want to get hired by a Big 4, you need to have a good resume, period. Over the next few paragraphs, I am going to teach you exactly what goes into creating a good resume. Follow these instructions closely.

First, let’s cover some basics. If you want a job with a Big 4, DO NOT use one of the Word templates to create your resume. Using a template may seem like an easy solution, especially for those of you who have trouble writing lofty sentences about yourself. However, to the person reviewing your resume it says, “I was too lazy to create my resume from scratch” or “I have no writing skills.” There are hundreds of other candidates doing the same thing. As a result, their formatting and style is exactly like yours. A recruiter, who may have spent the last four hours reading resumes, may end up missing some of the great skills listed on your resume, simply because your resume looked just like the last resume she read, which looked just like the last fifteen resumes she read before that. Don’t intentionally sabotage your competitive edge by using a generic template.

Secondly, when you do decide to create your resume, set aside a good block of time for it. Your resume represents you to the firm. It needs to be perfect. Any accidental mistake will become a reason for why you are an unfit candidate and should not get an interview. People conducting the interviews know nothing about you. All they have to go by is your resume. You could be an excellent writer, however, if you make one tiny mistake on your resume, you will be written off as somebody who lacks business writing skills, and you may never be invited for an interview. Is judging a person by one single typo fair? No, it isn’t. However, that’s just how things are. The reality is that the number of resumes received by the Big 4 firms vastly outnumbers the number of interview slots that they are able to accommodate. As a result, the recruiters are ruthless when it comes to weeding out candidates.

Think of it this way, you have spent hundreds of hours on education in the hopes that it will land you an attractive job. Now that you are in a position to get that attractive job, the least you can do is spend a few more hours to ensure that the job doesn’t slip away because of a stupid mistake.

Now, with all of that out of the way, let’s answer this simple question: What is a resume? It’s not a listing of all the jobs you’ve held and their respective descriptions. A lot of students see it this way, and end up wasting valuable space with pointless sentences describing their day to day activities. Why would your ability to fold clothes at Abercrombie and Fitch be of any interest to the recruiter? So do yourself a favor, and save that particular space on your resume where you discuss your ability to fold clothes for something better.

Your resume is your snapshot. It should present you as somebody who is will thrive in a Big 4 environment. And the space to prove that is limited to one page. So, if any sentence on that resume doesn’t hint at some of the skills you are trying to market, you need to get rid of it.

For example, somebody who DOES NOT want to work for the Big 4 would write the following about their retail sales experience:

XYZ Store, Sales Associate

- Helped customers find the products that they needed and also performed cashier duties.

- Provided good customer service.

- Reported on time to the job and helped keep the store neat for an excellent customer experience

Now compare what was said above with the job description of somebody who DOES want a job with a Big 4:

XYZ Store, Sales Associate

- Successfully improved store/department sales by 10% through an aggressive sales strategy.

- Solidified a loyal customer base of 50 repeat customers through superior customer service by providing each customer with personal attention, ensuring a great shopping experience.

- Eased transition of incoming associates by providing on-the-job training for 10 employees and helping others reach their respective sales goals.

Both of these individuals had the same job; however, the second person differentiated himself through his powerful writing and comes out looking like a winner. Let’s look at what this person did differently:

1. Every sentence starts off with him mentioning his accomplishments in different areas, followed by the techniques and strategies he used to get there. On a sub-conscious level, he is hammering in the fact that he is a winner and is willing to put in the work necessary to achieve his goals.
2. Each accomplishment mentioned covers a unique aspect of the job. First he talks about how he is of service to his employer, then he talks about how he is of service to his clients, and finally he talks about how he is of service to his fellow employees. By doing this he is making sure that the recruiter sees him as someone who is versatile in many different roles.
3. He used numbers to backup his claims. Quantifiable data always makes things more believable. Use numbers when talking about your accomplishments. If you don’t or can’t get the exact numbers that relate to your position, don’t sweat it. Use your best estimate. Recruiters won’t care if you are off by a few percentage points. Most employers don’t give away this kind of information which makes it pretty hard for the recruiter to confirm it, and most won’t even bother. The only number on your resume that the Big 4 will care to confirm is your GPA, and that will only happen once you have your offer in hand. So, go ahead and use numbers when talking about your accomplishments.

Use this formula for every role you discuss on your resume. It will work wonders.

One thing that you don’t need to focus on is your smarts. You don’t have to prove your intellectual or academic aptitude to the recruiters. Your GPA does that for you. If a Big 4 firm is recruiting at your school, it means that your accounting program is good enough. You don’t need to list every accounting class and the respective grades in those classes. You just need to make sure that your average GPA is higher than the minimum standards set by the firm. For decent schools the minimum GPA hovers around 3.0 to 3.2, but can be as high as 3.5 for others. The sad reality is that very little is expected of an incoming associate, education wise. You are expected to know the basics, debits and credits, but anything beyond that is mostly an exercise in academic masturbation. You won’t remember most of what you learned in college by the time you start work in the fall. That’s just fine, and most of the teams expect that. They will teach you what you need to know.

So you would be well advised in discussing your soft-skills on your resume instead of academic performance. Recruiters are specifically looking for the following skills: communication, conflict resolution, organization, and attention to details. The reason that these skills are highly valued is because the most successful employees at Big 4 firms are the ones that are complacent, easy to work with, and able to grasp the concepts quickly and accurately. They are not looking for leaders, they are looking for followers. So, tailor your resume so that you seem like someone who is able to pickup directions given to him or her quickly, someone who is friendly, and can take the manager or partner’s shit.

A certain amount of merit is also place on extra-curricular activities. Involvement in leadership positions in your school’s accounting club, business associate, or business fraternities is great filler. The leadership roles require very minimal effort once you’re elected. However, if you are too lazy to run for a leadership position, just pay your dues to the club or fraternity. Just being able to put that you’re a member of a business/accounting club helps your cause.

Volunteer positions are also advantageous on the resume. The Big 4 like to market themselves as having a deep community involvement, and as a result volunteer experience carries some weight. Some volunteer roles such as teaching underprivileged kids, organizing walks to fight diseases, or raising money to save the forests are more popular and will look better on your resume than other roles such as volunteering at senior centers or hospitals. However, if all you have around is senior centers or hospitals, then go work at the said location for a few hours in the year you are supposed to be recruiting. A few hours are all you really need to mention the volunteer work on your resume. Anything more, would be out of the goodness of your own heart.

A quick word of caution: if you volunteered for a political party or political campaign, try to keep that experience out of your resume. Most college campuses are hotbeds of political activity. That’s great from a political efficacy stand-point. I know that working on political campaigns in college can be vastly rewarding and educational experience. However, by mentioning it on your resume, you run the risk of upsetting the political sensibilities of your recruiter should he or she happen to hold viewpoints different than those of the party you campaigned for. In turn, they may end up finding a reason to not invite you to the interview. Again, this is something that wouldn’t happen in an ideal world. However, it does happen from time to time. So it would be advisable to avoid the subject completely. Your goal is to get an interview, politics be damned.

In conclusion, I would like to remind you again that the whole point of a resume is to get you an interview. You need to stand out, and you can do so by following the advice in the resume. Most importantly, take your time. Your resume is not something that you should procrastinate on. You should create your first draft. Let it sit for a while, and then edit it for grammatical mistakes. Take it to your career center, if you have one, and ask them to review it for errors. Most colleges offer such services for free. A couple of days later, sit down again in front of the computer, and ask yourself the following questions: Is there a better way of explaining something? Are there any spelling errors? Would I throw this resume in a pile of other resumes if I was a recruiter?

Until you are able to answer all of these questions with a resounding no, you need to keep working on it. Perfection takes time and energy, and your resume needs to be perfect.