u/Ok_Feeling_634

Yesterday: 66% REA practice exam
Today: 71% Peterson’s and 69% REA
I’ve only studied 2-3 days

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Accounting student here. Got a public accounting internship offer doing audits of state/local government pensions and deferred compensation plans.

I’m not interested in this niche. Long term, I want to do more general / for-profit / financial statement audit.

Is this experience too niche/specialized, or would it still be useful audit experience?

Alternatively, I could do an internship at a smaller/regional firm doing a variety of tax, audit&assurance, and accounting engagements in varying industries. I’m not sure if I’ll get on a lot of audits considering it’s a smaller firm.

I have a full-time role for after graduation at a large/midsize firm as an audit associate. I hope to do for-profit clients financial statement audits there.
I want to take the internship that best prepares me for that.

With that goal in mind, which internship do you recommend I take?

Accounting student here. Got an internship offer doing audits of state/local government pensions and deferred compensation plans.

Long term, I want to do more general audit / for-profit audit.

Is this experience too niche, or would it still be useful audit experience? Would you take it or look for something broader?

4 weeks (July 26 - August 23): full-time study 5-8 hours daily

16 weeks (August 24 - December 14): 8-12 hours per week during last semester of school

2 weeks (December 15 - December 29): full-time study 5-8 hours daily

Then take it after that.

That’s 20-22 weeks so about 5 months with a mix of full time and part time study.
Is that too long? Is it a waste of time? Should I spend my summer doing something else and wait to study? I won’t be eligible for the exam until then.

Option A: Smaller/regional firm. Mix of accounting, tax, and some assurance-type work across different industries. Audit exposure is uncertain.

Option B: Larger firm. Guaranteed audit work, but in a niche area like Employee Benefit Plans and Pensions.
Long term, I’m interested in general for-profit audit, not EBP/pensions.

Which would be better experience before starting full-time audit: broader work at a smaller firm with uncertain audit exposure, or guaranteed audit experience at a larger firm even though it’s in a niche area? Is EBP/Pensions audit even transferable to regular for-profit audit work?