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Careers in Accounting

All organizations, large or small, rely on the expertise of accounting professionals. Career options in the accounting profession include auditing, tax, forensics, business consulting, and corporate compliance. In these roles, accountants prepare and organize financial records, and they think creatively and analytically to help businesses cut costs and boost revenue.

The demand for accounting professionals is high: 48 percent of graduates responded that they had obtained full-time accounting positions within three months of graduation in a 2016-17 graduation survey. In addition, the Muma College of Business students have many resources to internships, full-time, or part-time job while in school, and in the fall 2016 semester, 97% of students that held an internship had job offers at graduation. 

Professional certification qualifies accounting professionals for leadership and specialized positions within the field. Visit the Certifying for Success page for more information.

For more information on accountant and auditor positions, visit the or the .

Alumni Spotlights

Krysta Rubin came to USF prior to setting foot on campus and with minimal research. She saw the USF campus for the first time during orientation and immediately felt at home. She stayed at USF for a decade and earned two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree in accounting. At USF, Rubin was a member of Beta Alpha Psi, an international honor society for accounting. She credits the hands-on investment she received at the Lynn Pippenger School of Accountancy at the Muma College of Business for setting her on a path into becoming an accounting major. She interned at Kerkering Barberio, an accounting firm with offices in Tampa and Sarasota, where she works as a senior accountant today. At Kerkering Barberio, she has found significant progressions in job titles and responsibilities. She started as an intern in December 2018 and in three years, advanced from intern to staff to in-charge and then senior accountant.

Dana Butz began her career at USF in August of 2016 as a member of the Bulls Business Community. Her love for accounting led her to become the president of the Delta Gamma chapter of Beta Alpha Psi during her last semester of her senior year, in the spring of 2019. Dana went on to intern with EY in the assurance practice and over the summer of 2019, she was given the opportunity to travel to Brisbane, Australia, to complete the second half of her internship. She began the MAcc program in August of 2019, where she served as a teaching assistant for Jennifer Cainas for two semesters. Now, Dana plans to begin working at EY in its Tampa office as an audit associate.

Aaj Solanki came to USF as part of the inaugural Business Honors Program and lived in the Bull’s Business Community. After taking Jennifer Cainas’ Principles of Financial Accounting class, he decided that beginning his career in accounting would allow him to study the inner-workings of businesses. He began his auditing career with Deloitte and worked primarily on manufacturing and consumer product clients. During his time at Deloitte, he had the opportunity to travel across the United States, Canada and England to visit a variety of clients both private and public. After a few years, Aaj decided to transition to forensics accounting/litigation support with Oscher Consulting to gain experience developing financial models for a diverse set of clients in various industries. He really enjoyed his experiences and says the best part of the job was having the opportunity to learn from his boss, Steve Oscher (another USF alum).  In 2019, Aaj moved to Nashville to pursue his MBA at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management with hopes to pivot his career to more of a finance/strategy focus. His says his experiences as a CPA have laid a strong foundation that he has been able to use in all of his classes and recruiting efforts. He is scheduled to spend his summer with American Airlines as a finance strategy intern.

Marcella McCollum began taking classes at USF in 2009 and was a participant in the Bulls Business Community as a freshman. After taking financial and managerial accounting, Marcy declared her major as accounting. She graduated in 2013 from the Muma College of Business and continued on to complete the MBA program in August of 2013 at the USF campus in St. Petersburg. Marcy was given the opportunity to travel to Guatemala in graduate school to study abroad. Upon graduation, she began as an audit associate at KPMG in Chicago. Marcy now works for EY as a manager within the Financial Accounting Advisory group.

Companies Recruiting USF Accounting Students and Alumni

The Big Four accounting firms – PricewaterhouseCoopers, EY, Deloitte, and KPMG – all have a major presence in Tampa. They've hired hundreds of our accounting students as interns and later as full-time employees. In addition, USF alumni have recently been recruited for roles as diverse as vice president of finance and accounting for the American Cancer Society, controller at Tampa General Hospital, audit services director at TECO Energy, and corporate accountant at Apple.

Other companies recruiting USF accounting students and graduates include:

• 1Source Partners
• 360 Advanced
• Accusoft Corporation
• BDO USA, LLP
• Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC
• CBIZ Inc.
• Cherry Bekaert LLP
• Citi
• CliftonLarsenAllen
• Coca-Cola Enterprises
• Concannon Miller
• Crowe Horwath
• Deloitte
• Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP
• Doeren Mayhew
• EY
• Florida Department of Revenue
• Florida West Coast Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors
• Grant Thornton
• Hancock Askew and Co. , LLP
• Internal Revenue Service
• Jabil Inc.
• Kerkering, Barberio & Co.
• KForce Inc.
• KPMG
• Marcum LLP
• MetLife
• Purvis Gray and Company
• Protiviti
• Purvis Gray and Company
• PwC
• Raymond James
• Rivero, Gordimer, & Company
• RSM US LLP
• Spoor Bunch Franz
• Taylor White/AccountAbility
• The Walt Disney Company
• True Partners Consulting
• Warren Averett