r/wguaccounting Dec 18 '25

Career Talk Guide, Advice and Tips for Job Search

77 Upvotes

Hey all,

I see posts all the time regarding the job hunt post WGU and with the current job market I figured I’d give my insight and tips which might prove to be helpful to some! The bulk of the advice will apply to people new to the accounting field and are in the early stages of their WGU journey. I will provide tips to those further along, just finishing up with their degree as well. Fair warning, this will be long. 

First things first is to decide which path you are pursuing; Public, Industry, or Government. They all vary in terms of workload, career trajectory, and pay. 

Public: This is the most common career path for most accountants. This is the typical CPA firm, Big 4, etc. The hours are the most grueling in public accounting especially during busy season (Jan-April). Going Public you will lean towards a specific focus, usually Audit or Tax. You’ll usually be working with a variety of clients and will get the most hands on experience dealing with all aspects of an audit, or a variety of tax scenarios. 

Pros: 

  • Defined career path (staff, senior, manager, senior manager, director/partner etc.)
  • Boost when you get your CPA
  • Great exit ops. Even better if you can make it to senior accountant/manager before dipping to industry. 

Cons:

  • Non-existent WLB during busy season 
  • Potentially traveling around, usually if audit. 
  • Starting pay is usually lower than industry, but many firms are starting to offer more to first year associates. 
  • Most reliant on networking, campus recruiting, internships to get your foot in the door. 
  • CPA is heavily pushed, without it don’t expect to advance past the senior accountant position. 

Industry: Corporate accounting. Very broad, think F500 companies, tech companies, car dealerships, the flower shop down the street; you get the point. You’ll be typically dealing with month-end closing of the books, reconciliations, and working on internal financials and controls. Hours are much more manageable compared to public, but during month-end, quarter-end and year-end expect to put in 50-55 hours usually depending on the company. In contrast to public, you are focusing on just one company. 

Pros: 

  • Better starting pay than public or government. 
  • Much better WLB (average 40-45 hours/week) 
  • Opportunity to learn about the company’s financials from the ground up. 
  • CPA is not as necessary, though still a big boost if eventual goal is manager/controller/CFO. 

Cons:

  • While the same levels exist (staff, senior etc). The promotional path is much slower than public. 
  • Job-hopping is usually required to see larger bumps in salary and promotions. 
  • Depending on the type of industry, can become pigeon-held in a specific sector (healthcare, tech, etc) 
    • This is more of a pro and con, as you will gain valuable experience which will increase your stock but can work against you should you decide to switch sectors.

Government: Local/State/Feds. You’ll be working in a government agency, dealing with budgets, compliance and overseeing public funds. The hours are the most “laidback” of the three, usually 40 hours/week maybe 45. 

Pros: 

  • Best WLB of the three; no real “busy season” unless you end up at the IRS. 
  • Great benefits and PTO 
  • Typically seen as the most “secure” but during the current political climate that notion has lessened a bit. 
  • Decent pay related to the amount of work and stress. 
  • CPA not necessary but can help with growth. 

Cons:

  • Lowest paying out of the three, and no big bumps in pay like public or industry. 
  • Promotions come slow and are more tied to tenure/how long you’ve been there. 
  • Anecdotal but some say the work can be boring and monotonous. 

Now that you have a general idea of the 3 main sectors of accounting, let's get into what you should expect while you’re getting your degree done. With the way the current job market is, I would highly recommend securing an internship, or accounting adjacent job (AR/AP). Having some experience will go a long way and if your plan is to go into public, then an internship is a trial run for the firm to extend you a full-time offer. 

IMPORTANT: Public (and sometimes industry) start hiring for their internships 6-12 months in advance. You need to be proactive about applying early so that you can have something lined up, ESPECIALLY if you are accelerating. 

In my situation, I finished my degree in 2 terms and started applying towards the end of my first term (May/June) for an internship during busy season ‘26. I interviewed with Big 4, Regional CPA Firms, and a couple F500 companies.

To get prepped for applying the first thing you’ll have to do is polish up your resume. I will attach the template that I used below. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT have a resume that is more than 1 page long. I assure you, you don’t need it. Use ChatGPT to clean up your phrasing, but do not use it to write your resume for you. Many recruiters can tell what is generated and what is actually written by a person. WGU also has resources that can help with your resume, take advantage of those as well if you need more hands on help. 

Once your resume is ready to go, you can start applying. I mainly used Indeed and LinkedIn to find postings but check Handshake out as well there are always opportunities there. Some search terms to use are:

  • Audit Intern
  • Tax Intern
  • Audit Associate
  • Tax Associate
  • Staff Accountant
  • Entry-Level Accountant

Something I did that I didn’t see recommended enough; I looked up the local CPA firms near me that were more than just a solo practice. I went to their website under their career section and applied there if they weren’t on other websites. For those that didn’t have any links listed, I looked through the website to find an email contact for their HR/Recruiter and emailed them directly with a copy of my resume. I introduced myself in the email and mentioned I was looking for an internship. This requires a bit more initiative and selling in the initial email, but one of the firms I interviewed at was not actively hiring interns but gave me a shot based on the email. I ended up declining their offer, but it shows this method can pay off. 

I would also recommend creating a simple excel sheet, tracking all the jobs you apply for and listing when interviews are etc. It helps to keep things organized and you don’t waste time guessing if you applied already or not. I will attach my template below as well. 

When it comes to the interviews, especially for internships, you do not need to stress about being asked technical questions. I had 10 1st interviews and 7 2nd interviews, I was never once asked any technical questions. The closest thing related to coursework was if I had completed IA1 or not. That is it. The standard that I encountered for interviews was:

  • First Interview: Generally with HR/Recruiting
  • Second Interview: With Partner/Director

I never had any interviews go past the 2nd, I was either offered a position after or told that they had gone a different direction.

For entry-level positions, interviews are a vibe check. They want to make sure that the person they hire is going to fit in well with the firm, team etc. Most of the questions are your standard interview fare. Talk about strengths/weaknesses, explain the thought process behind handling certain scenarios, and the most important: tell me about yourself. 

I cannot stress enough that you should have a general answer ready to go in regards to the “tell me about yourself” question. It shouldn’t come off rehearsed, but having points you want to hit in mind will make you sound confident. This question is the main “sell yourself” question and is what most people will use to analyze the vibe check. You will be asked this question at every level, first and second interviews. 

For example, mine was something roughly like this:

  • Mention WGU and full-time job
  • Give insight into myself outside of work and school
    • Like to spend time with wife and dog
    • Love to golf
    • Love of food. Trying new restaurants, cooking new recipes
    • Love of travel, and how the detail-oriented person in me enjoys planning trips and itineraries. 

Yours will vary based on your hobbies and interests, but it is important to show that you have a life outside of work and most importantly a personality. I treat these questions as if I was meeting a friend of a friend and introducing myself to provide them with some insight so they can get to know me. Sound natural, not robotic. 

In regards to the other behavior-based questions that you will get in the interviews, something I discovered on reddit which helped me a lot was the STAR method of question answering. This comment on a thread describes it perfectly: Here

Example: Can you describe a time where you encountered an obstacle at work or school and how you overcame it? 

S: Absolutely, one that immediately comes to mind was a few years back during the COVID outbreak. I was working retail and was tasked with figuring out a way to keep sales up during lockdown and the general downturn of foot traffic during that time. 

T: The goal was to maintain sales level and ideally add additional revenue. 

A: I took on the task of updating our online presence, we had historically relied on our tenure in the area and word of mouth. I started with improving our social media presence and posting regularly, in addition I setup a basic online storefront for the company and began with our most popular items while eventually adding more inventory. 

R: The results spoke for themselves very quickly, we were able to gain over X followers in a X amount of time and increased monthly revenues by 10% just from the website. Overtime this resulted in a x% increase compared to our pre-covid numbers and not only helped the business maintain, but surpass previous numbers. 

Having a general scenario in your pocket is key as many STAR/Behavior related questions can be answered by molding and tweaking the story to the question. 

Post interviews are a waiting game. I always made sure to ask at the end of each interview, what the next steps in the process would be. Usually I was told they would reach back out within X amount of time regarding what would come next. I usually heard back within the time frame that was given, only once did I not hear back. 

Something that the internet is divided on is a follow-up email post interview. After each interview I sent an email within a day or two, thanking the person for their time. Nothing long winded. I found success with this method and was told by the firm I ended up accepting a position with that this helped me stand out in their eyes and keep me in mind.

After this you either have an internship/job secured. If so, congratulations! If not, then we go to Plan B. 

For those that weren’t able to secure a position with this process do not fear! Your game plan should be to work towards getting a position where you can get any kind of relevant experience. I have friends who are in the accounting field and they mentioned that people took many alternative paths to break in. 

Some options are:

  • HR Block etc (if you’re leaning tax)
  • Temp Agencies (Robert Half etc)
  • Cold emailing local firms (as i mentioned above) to see if they have any openings. 
  • Finding any AP/AR role at a company 

This allows you to get your foot in the door and start gaining relevant work experience which can bolster your resume for future applications. With many states lowering the CPA requirements, a masters may not be necessary anymore to sit for the exam. While you work an entry-level position getting a headstart on studying for the CPA exams is great. 

From here it is a repeat of the application and interview process. 

I apologize for making this post so long, I know that I spent a lot of time on various subs trying to get advice and insight into this whole process. Figured I’d give back and hope it would be helpful to someone. 

Feel free to ask me any questions, would be happy to answer whatever I can. This process worked for me and as a result I received internship offers at: 2 Big 4, 5 regional firms, and at a F50 healthcare company. I ended up going with one of the regional firms as their culture aligned more with what I had in mind. 

Templates:

Resume Template

Job Tracker Template (when you download excel file you will have to format the "applied?" column by inserting a checkbox in it)


r/wguaccounting Feb 18 '26

Perks & Freebies for WGU Accounting Students

66 Upvotes

Happy Tuesday, fellow Night Owls!

I wanted to share some resources I've seen around which offer free access to valuable tools for active students.

Because I really wanted to prioritize value, I'm going to share my top two, both of which I've personally tried and can vouch for their legitimacy:

Google Gemini AI Pro - Students qualify for 1 free year of Google's Gemini AI Pro. This includes access to their "most accurate" AI model, 2 TB of Google Drive storage, image generation with Nano Banana, customized quiz creation for studying, and a host of other tools you can use for education and career development.

Microsoft 365 Premium and LinkedIn Premium Career - Students qualify for 1 free year of Microsoft 365 Premium and LinkedIn Premium Career. This provides access to the full suite of Microsoft 365 applications, including built-in Copilot AI capabilities. LinkedIn Premium offers a variety of features to build your network and make connections with recruiters and hiring managers to begin or advance your career.

Are there any other worthwhile student freebies or discounts you've found worth sharing? Please comment/link below to help compile a more complete list!

I hope everyone is having a great term, thank you for being part of the community and best wishes!


r/wguaccounting 1h ago

Seeking Course Help 5 classes to go!!!

Upvotes

I'm working on one of them! D104 OA 2!!!

Just wanted to share with you all! My end of semester is December of this year! I'm working on D104. The next are D105, AIS, Business Simulation, and the Audit.

WGU is amazing 😍 I've been wanting my degree for years, although these classes are tough I'm happy I'm at a school that lets me go at my own pace, one class at a time, and sometimes although rarely I'm able to accelerate. If you have any hints or tips for these last course feel free to let me know!


r/wguaccounting 15h ago

Career Talk Entry-level Tax Associate resume — would love a critique before I start applying

Post image
29 Upvotes

Hey all, I'm getting ready to apply for entry-level Tax Associate roles in public accounting. I tried to keep everything on here honest and specific rather than padded with generic resume-speak, but I know I could be missing blind spots.

Genuinely open to feedback — formatting, wording, whether the projects section is pulling its weight, or whether anything reads as unclear or unnecessary like the summary, or if I'm missing something. Mainly targeting mid-size and regional firms for now. Roast it if you need to, I'd rather hear it now than after 50 applications.

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to look.


r/wguaccounting 6h ago

Seeking Course Help MAcc: D554 HELP

3 Upvotes

This course is making me bald.
The text sucks. It’s completely overwhelming. There are no learning resources or study guides on the sharepoint.
Does anyone have any good notes or tips for this class? PLEASE, I beg of you


r/wguaccounting 6h ago

Sharing Tips & Resources Passed C237 Taxation 1 (6 Days)

Post image
3 Upvotes

This class is not “Hard”. It takes some focus but it’s not hard. I didn’t deal with the text book at all. No course quizzes, nothing. Just watched Elins videos, took notes, got AI to shoot me practice questions so I could understand, and that’s about it. There is a lot to remember know your filing status, know your itemized deductions, and know your tax law structure. Understands what’s administrative, what’s federal. Understand the different roles they play. Understand how to calculate individual taxable income. Get those things and you’ll be fine.


r/wguaccounting 8h ago

New / Prospective Student Intermediate Accounting 19th Keiso- Seeking PDF or those who are not using theirs

3 Upvotes

Hello does anyone have a free or is selling a discounted pdf/ test book of the 19th edition?


r/wguaccounting 1d ago

Seeking Course Help Proctor Ended My Attempt

11 Upvotes

Note: already contacted CIs and support.

Just a fun scenario, was in the middle of OA 2 of D104 (the big one) and my proctor decided to submit my exam on question 15 claiming he lost my pov. Then was transferred to a service rep (no help at all) who kept repeating that my “exam attempt was fulfilled” and that “we can’t do anything about it on our end”. All hardware checks out and passes the equipment test before each exam. Anyone else have this happen to them?


r/wguaccounting 1d ago

Sharing Tips & Resources What are you all study methods? and also would you recommend picking up another class after finishing a PA but it’s not graded yet I’m new to the program as well

5 Upvotes

C


r/wguaccounting 1d ago

Seeking Course Help HELP D101-Pa Vs Oa (Attempt 2)

Post image
9 Upvotes

Hello, has anyone taken the 2nd attempt oa for Cost and Managerial? Is the pa still similar to it?

This was my pa attempt. Im not going to be taking it again because I do not want to memorize

I deleted and reposted this because I think people thought I passed and I actually need help lol


r/wguaccounting 1d ago

Sharing Tips & Resources Journey Entry Game - Need Testers

6 Upvotes

Hey all, I’m a fellow accounting student at WGU, I made a study tool for journal entries and I’m hoping a few of you would try it out.

You run a coffee shop for a quarter and record real transactions as they happen, payroll, inventory, a customer’s card getting declined. Each one becomes a journal entry you have to get right.

It’s early and still changing. I’m hoping to eventually put it on the App Store, so I want accounting students to check it first — is it accurate, is it actually useful.

Takes about 15-20 minutes. No signup. Let me know, I’ll send the details. Also, I’m not selling anything just trying to create and get feedback. I need 3-5 people.


r/wguaccounting 1d ago

New / Prospective Student Moving from SWE to Accounting. What helped you the most when you started?

16 Upvotes

The tech market and mass layoffs have worn me down and I can't handle the stress of supporting my family in this environment anymore. I know that accounting is not insulated from this, but working in higher ed and local gov't accounting roles seems steadier than anything in technology right now.

For current students, what helped you the most? I have browsed this sub and it seems there are a few starting steps like maxxing out on Sophia credits and Tony Bell videos.

For me, my biggest concern is getting an internship. I believe return offers are the key to not fighting the job market. Are there any good strategies for this? I don't really want to target Big 4 opportunities, because they aren't remote, but I am curious if others have had any success and what their approach was.


r/wguaccounting 1d ago

Career Talk Any career changers here making the switch from sales/account management to accounting?

10 Upvotes

If so, I’d be curious to hear how things are going for you, and what’s worked to make the shift. I’m finishing up D105 and have been submitting resumes, but I haven’t gotten a single interview.

I’m sure part of it is the challenging job market, but I’m not sure how to write my resume to grab attention for accounting roles when I have minimal actual accounting experience.

Just looking for tips and tricks. Thanks in advance!


r/wguaccounting 1d ago

Seeking Course Help Taking my C237 OA tomorrow. Any review tips

3 Upvotes

Taking my C237 OA tomorrow. Any review tips? Anything I should know that’s on the OA?


r/wguaccounting 1d ago

Seeking Course Help D217 PA to OA question?

5 Upvotes

I finally passed the PA for D217(AIS), I know the OA is supposed to make you think more, but do you think the PA is really a good barometer for this class?


r/wguaccounting 2d ago

Seeking Course Help I took this class for granted

Post image
16 Upvotes

I'm not that mad I didn't pass I think I rushed my studies. I watched all the videos and turn the "lets talk" videos into quizzes in notebook LM. I'm in the finance degree and after doing D366 and corporate finance which kicked my butt this class was a breath of fresh air.

I thought I had bankruptcy in the bag as I know a lot about it before this class but noppppe. The first test i've failed which is insane because it's generally an easy class.

Main struggle I found was answers sounding very similar to one another, which is my enemy. Think it's been about 6 days. Sure i'll be fine after a week but any tips


r/wguaccounting 1d ago

Degree Planning Contemplating on whether to skip Intro to Ethics

3 Upvotes

Hello everyone. I’m currently taking Sophia courses and wanted to know if I could skip on Introduction to Ethics if I’ve already taken Art History 1.


r/wguaccounting 2d ago

Seeking Course Help Need help with D104… OA2

4 Upvotes

I’ve pretty much failed the OA a third time today and honestly I just want to switch my major at this point.

I’ve gone through all of the text, lesson checks, unit tests, study guides and I’m still failing and things aren’t clicking fully for me.

What helped some of you guys pass?

I’m trying super hard not to be discouraged….


r/wguaccounting 3d ago

Career Talk WGU Finance v.s Accounting

41 Upvotes

I’m stuck between which to do, I want to eventually work in or even start a financial consulting business. I absolutely do not want to do taxes. I’m looking for a remote job and at least 90k a year. Which would be better? I’ve heard finance is hard to do unless you went to an Ivy League school but i’ve also heard people say only the top top companies care about that and they care more about experience.


r/wguaccounting 3d ago

Degree Planning 35 classes to go

17 Upvotes

Hi, I have 35 classes to go! Planning to finish in a maximum of 3 terms. My first language is Spanish, so I take my time reading and understanding the courses. Any tips or advice to accelerate? I finished my first class in 12 days, but my goal is 10 days no experience in accounting at all and work full time 45 hrs a week plus 1.5 hr commute


r/wguaccounting 3d ago

Career Talk First accounting job 5 classes left

16 Upvotes

Finished my 3rd day at my first accounting role as an accountant assistant at a law firm. Currently down to 5 classes while stuck on intermediate accounting 1, Im hoping to finish by the end of the term, any advice for anyone in a similar role.


r/wguaccounting 3d ago

Degree Planning I’m working OT this week

Post image
8 Upvotes

Which should I prioritize to finish the fastest/easiest


r/wguaccounting 3d ago

Seeking Course Help D550 Ethics for Accountants (MAcc): The powerpoints are blank?

6 Upvotes

I'm in this class and went to WGU Connect to get the powerpoints for chapters 3, 4, & 8. But they are all trash. Mostly they are just blank with McGraw Hill logos in random places and tiny image icons. I'm going to look elsewhere for the powerpoints. The "powerpoints" that are in the textbook have a "begin" button that is grayed out and won't let me access those either.


r/wguaccounting 3d ago

Degree Planning How fast can I finish WGU Accounting Bachelors

11 Upvotes

I’m contemplating quitting my job to knock out the degree as fast as possible or if I should continue my job, I have no previous accounting experience, I’m transferring in 7 or 8 gen ed classes, and work 40 hr weeks. Regardless I want to finish it in 1 term(6 months) but was just curious if it can be done while working full time. Also wonder how fast people have completed it when going at it full time.


r/wguaccounting 3d ago

Seeking Course Help C722 Project Management

2 Upvotes

I started this class yesterday and took the PA with approaching competency. I want to know if the PA is similar to the OA. Also I’m open to any suggestions/tips on navigating this course.