Get Referred by an Audit Manager at a Big Four
Big Four hiring runs on internal referrals, but you cannot cold-message a partner and expect a reply. The honest move is finding the audit manager who already has a reason to help you.
Find Your Warm Intro →Free · No sign-up · See results in ~10 seconds
A plain LinkedIn search buries the people who would actually help you.
It ranks by prominence, so the most-followed, most-messaged names sit on top. FindWarmIntros surfaces the coworkers who share your school or a past employer - the people most likely to reply - and hands you a ready-to-send intro.
✍️ Ready-to-send intro“Hi - we both studied at [your school]. I’d love to hear about your path to a company you are targeting before I apply…”
… plus everyone else in your network who can put in a good word.
See who can refer you in - pick a the Big Four target:
Why audit managers, not recruiters or partners
Managers and senior managers are the people who staff engagements and feel understaffing directly, so a good referral genuinely helps them. Partners are too removed from day-to-day hiring and get flooded, while recruiters cannot vouch for you the way an internal referral can.
At Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, and EY a referred candidate is flagged inside the applicant system before a recruiter ever screens the pile. That flag, plus a manager willing to say 'I know this person can do the work', is the entire advantage you are chasing.
How to find the shared thread first
A cold note to a stranger gets ignored. A note that opens with something you actually share gets read. Before you write anything, find the specific overlap that gives the manager a reason to reply.
- Same university. Search the firm plus your school on LinkedIn and filter to audit or assurance titles; alumni reply at far higher rates because helping a fellow grad costs them nothing socially.
- Same prior employer. Anyone who worked at your old firm, even years apart, shares shorthand and war stories that make a first message feel warm instead of transactional.
- Same credential path. CPA candidates, CA cohorts, or Becker study groups create a real bond; open with the exam and the person on the other end remembers their own grind.
- Same office or client industry. A manager in the office you are targeting who audits your sector can speak to the exact role, and their referral carries more weight with that team.
How FindWarmIntros does the finding for you
The slow part is scanning hundreds of Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, and EY profiles to find the audit manager who actually overlaps with you. FindWarmIntros does that finding-and-ranking part: you give it the target firm and your background, and it surfaces the real people who share your school or past employer, ranked by how reachable they are, then drafts a warm intro you can edit.
It does not send anything for you or promise a referral. It just removes the hours of searching so you can spend your energy on the one thing that matters, writing a message that sounds like a person and asking for one small, specific thing.