The career advice we will be giving today is how to gain experience while you are still in college. One fear of many big 4 candidates is how to show that you have experience when you are still in college. I mean you most likely don’t have time to hold down a full time job. You might not have that much job experience at all so where do you get experience that you think you might need to impress a big 4 firm and be able to take credit on your big 4 accounting resume.

Well some ways that you can gain experience while still in college is through interning.

Internships

Most people think that you have to intern only with the big 4. Well you don’t you can get an internship anywhere around your college campus. If you want to be an auditor, maybe you can intern at a local cpa firm or even with a bookkeeper.

If you want to be a tax accountant then volunteer with a tax preparer in your area during tax seasons.

Get A Part Time Job

Another way to gain valuable experience for your big 4 accounting resume is by getting a part time job. You don’t have to work full time to get valuable experience. You can oftentimes work right on the campus of your school. This will be good enough to show that you can handle multiple responsibilities and manage your time. You also get the benefit of earning some money on the side.

Freelancing

Another way to get experience while in school is by freelancing. There are all kinds of websites online (fiverr, freelancer, odesk) that have opportunities for freelancing. Use some skills that you have now or just do data entry on one of these websites. There are many opportunities available on freelancing websites for English speaking skills without college degrees.

Tutoring

The next way to gain experience while in college is by tutoring. Use what you’ve learned so far in school to tutor others. This will help you gain valuable experience that you can speak about on your resume or at big 4 networking events.

Volunteering

Another way to gain experience while in school is by volunteering. Volunteering events often require various skills and also shows that your interested in something other than yourself. You can gain valuable skills that the big 4 will like while volunteering if you choose different places to volunteer throughout your college career. You don’t need to volunteer every single day either. You can volunteer once a week or once a month for a couple of hours to gain valuable experience. Another great place to volunteer is with organizations like VITA and other tax preparation offices that offer tax preparation service to less fortunate people for free. Not only do you get credit for volunteering, but you also learn more about accounting while you do it.

All of these experiences will help you gain enough experience to put down on your big 4 resume.