# Guaranteed Accounting internships for College Students in 2026 (Step by Step Guide)

Channel: Tray the CPA
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVUJahQXwFs
Duration: 9 min
Language: English
Words: 2188
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/JVUJahQXwFs

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[0:00] So, if you're a junior with an accounting major that doesn't have an internship already lined up, you're probably already cooked, which explains why you're watching this video. No, I'm just kidding around. In today's video, we're going to talk about how to get an accounting internship because I am someone that struggled with this when I was in college. So, I wish I had someone to explain tips like this to me. My name is Trey. I'm a licensed CPA in the state of North Dakota. I currently work in a public accounting role as a director with a focus in tax. and I used to work for a publicly traded company in the

[0:28] corporate accounting space. As a result, I have a little bit of insight on what it takes to get an internship and I've also done the hiring process to get interns at our public accounting firm. So, the first thing I need you to do when you start looking at internships as an accounting major is decide do you want to go into public accounting or do you want to go into private accounting because those experiences are very different from each other. In the public accounting space, I want you to think about some of the bigger firms that you guys have all heard of. EY, PWC, Deote, some of those bigger accounting firms

[0:57] that are going to be very machine-based. They're going to pump out a lot of recruits in the first couple of years and probably grind you to heck. In the private sector, I want you to think about some of the Fortune 500 companies that might be publicly traded, or you can work for smaller companies that have a small accounting team and you're just one of the few players that's in their role. Now, personally, if I were to recommend either or, I would recommend in your early years, if you want to jump into the public sector, that's probably the best bet because they're going to work you a lot of hours. You're going to

[1:25] learn a lot of stuff. You're going to be exposed to a lot of things. Now, in the private sector, it's going to be a lot slower paced. You're going to be pretty niched down into what industry that you end up in most likely, and typically, it can be very fun. Now, if you're undecided on if you want to go into public or private accounting, I recommend that you just try an internship in both. The truth is is not everyone is cut out for public and not everyone's cut out for private. I worked in private accounting and I discovered pretty quickly that that wasn't the level of industry that I wanted to work

[1:52] in and I felt bored. When I got to private accounting, it just fit my personality type. I'm very detail oriented. I like constant changes. I like things to move fast. That's just my personality. So, I kind of recommend that you choose a different sector based on what type of personality you have. Now, there is a third route that I see a lot of accounting students take and it's the government accounting. Now, I'm typically going to tell my younger accountants to stay away from this field just because there's a negative connotation and it kind of limits your

[2:19] ability to maneuver out of that field. But honestly, there's nothing wrong with it. I think it's just accountants having a stigma that the lower level accounts are going to go into government accounting. Now, the first thing I want to touch on is just kind of going over the compensation numbers you can expect with your internship. The base starting pay that I would expect for any accounting student to make is around $20 an hour and then that ranges up to $35 to $45 at some of those larger public accounting firms. And typically they keep you on an hourly basis. So you're going to be at that dollar range per

[2:46] hour. So typically in your freshman and sophomore year, it's going to be pretty difficult for you to land internships just because people don't want to wait 2 years to hire someone on full-time. They need to know if you're good and then hire you immediately after in most cases. So, you're not going to see too many opportunities, but there are going to be summer leadership programs that I recommend that every accounting student takes within their first couple of years. That's going to increase your exposure to some of these bigger firms and also lead up to more opportunities after you graduate. Along with some of those summer leadership programs, you're

[3:16] also going to see things like PWC start and diversity and inclusion groups, which will allow for more students to get opportunities to get internships in later years. So, if you can get into those, I also recommend that you go for those as well. Now, your junior year, this is critical. Junior year, you cannot be playing around with your internships. You need to have internships lined up for your junior year, which means that during your sophomore year, this is the time to apply. So, if you want to land an internship during your junior year, you typically need to apply about a year in advance. So, if you want to land a

[3:48] winter internship in, let's say, 2026, you would have needed to apply by winter of 2025. This is super critical because a lot of people go their sophomore years without recognizing that they need to start applying for internships. But this is the peak time. This is when you're going to have events like meet the firms. You're going to have opportunities where the big four might come visit your school. And this is when you need to have your GPA at the highest it can be because that might be the differentiating factor between you and another candidate. But if you've reached your senior year and you don't have any

[4:18] internships on your resume, that is okay. There are programs that allow for you, if you're trying to get to that 150 credits by going for a master's program, there's a program called the 4 plus one, which allows for you to get some internship experience or work experience, per se, at some of those big four accounting firms, and they'll pay you while you're taking your M's classes. So, they work around your schedule because they understand that a lot of people are trying to get to that 150 credit hour mark. In corporate positions, it also might be more beneficial for you to wait until your senior year because they're typically

[4:51] looking to hire people quicker. They're looking to get people right after they graduate so they can start immediately and kind of put you in those testing rounds to see how you'll do in the actual job experience. So, with that being said, one thing I'm going to highlight here is kind of the different experiences that you'll get from some of the different types of internships. So, typically you're going to see people get internships in the accounting field in either audit or tax. In the audit space,

[5:15] you're going to travel a lot for work. So, if that doesn't fit with you and you're not very social or you don't like to travel or if you have obligations that you have to meet beforehand, audit's probably not the place for you cuz it's very timeconuming. Has a very unpredictable schedule in my opinion. In the tax world, it's going to be more stable. You're probably going to be at the office 9 to5. You're going to work consistent hours and in a consistent

[5:38] location, but it can be a little boring. Not going to lie to you. So, what are some of the ways that you can increase the likelihood of you actually scoring one of these internships? The first event that I am going to recommend to every accounting student to attend at least one year in their college experience is meet the firms. It cannot be understated how impactful it is to actually sit down in front of someone and have a conversation and what that can lead to in terms of opportunities in the future. Meet the firms is a perfect place because you're going to get a chance to actually meet people that are

[6:08] recruiting at these firms and you're going to get the opportunity to expose yourself in a positive manner in front of someone that works for the firm you want to go to. Now, at these meet the firms events, they're going to be short windows for you to talk to all of these different firms. So, you need to master your elevator pitch. If you don't know what an elevator pitch is, it's about a 20 to 30 second introduction about yourself, what you're looking for, who you are, and it's going to be the key piece into getting into internships because you're going to have to make a lasting impression very shortly. One

[6:36] thing that I highly recommend that people do, because I saw someone do this when I was at meet the firms and I was hosting the event for my company, is get the information for the people that you're talking to there and actually send them a follow-up email. And in that follow-up email, you need to have in the signature box a picture of yourself so people can associate who you are with that email. That'll help jog their memory. And when they're going through internship applications, that might be the differentiating factor for you to actually get hired. Now, when those internship applications actually open up, you need to make sure that your

[7:08] resume is highly organized. Don't be one of those people that get into TikTok and start looking at all these resumeé boosters and things that you should have and highlights and yellow and green on your resume. This thing needs to be clean and detailed. Don't spend all day trying to rework the wheel. You need to follow the Harvard ré template, which I will drop in the description below, and follow that thing to a tea, so they can actually read what the heck your internship is going to show. And on your resume, you need to list the different experiences that you have in a timeline order that shows, hey, this is exactly

[7:41] what I've done so far. These are the sports that I'm in. This these are the extracurricular activities that I'm in, and this is why you should hire me. Now, once you have your resume detailed down, the next thing is going to be acing that interview. Now, I'm going to be completely frank with you. big four in the top 500 companies in the United States. If you're applying for positions like that, it's not going to come down to just your technical skills. It's going to come down to your likability and your ability to communicate. Now, if you go into this interview and you're reading off a script and you don't show

[8:10] any type of personality, they'll probably just look over you and then choose someone else because at the end of the day, a lot of people hire just based off of liability and some of the connections that they feel. So, some of the questions you can expect to hear from those interviews are going to be behaviorally based, which means that they're going to ask you questions about situations and how you would react in those situations. I'm not show now, I'm not telling you to show too much personality here because you don't want to go in there and they say, "Well, how do you handle stressful situations?" And

[8:38] then you respond, "Well, when I get stressed out, I just start smoking weed." That is not what you want to do in an internship interview. But if they ask you a question like, "How do you handle stress?" Tell them that you like to find stillness in the moment. Tell them that you enjoy the pressure of having some responsibility and how that turns you into a different animal when you're start when you're starting to work. Always in your interviews, have at least two to three stories that you come up with that demonstrate some of your technical abilities and some of your personality traits that'll make you a

[9:07] high performer in the role. With that being said, that's pretty much all I got for internships. If you guys need some resume help, feel free to add me on LinkedIn. I usually respond back in about 2 to 3 days. I can help you out with your resume and I can also give you a little bit more insight into some day-to-day activities or what they might ask you in your internships. With that

[9:25] being said, please like and subscribe. See y'all on the next video.

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