The talent conversation in accounting has been loud for a few years now. Fewer students sitting for the CPA Exam, larger firms fighting over the same shrinking pool, headlines about a pipeline problem. All of it is real. But if you run a sole practice or a small firm, the same conditions that worry the big shops give you a genuine shot at hiring people they would overlook and keeping them longer than they ever could.

Go Where the Students Already Are

You will, in all likelihood, not win a bidding war on a career fair floor against four firms with branded tote bags. Go to the people who decide which firms students take seriously in the first place. Professors know exactly which of their students are sharp and reliable. One relationship with someone who teaches auditing or intermediate accounting can do more than a season of job postings. In addition, you could offer to guest lecture for 20 minutes on what tax season really looks like or host two students for a half day of actual client work. Beta Alpha Psi chapters, the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) and other student accounting clubs are often underused by small firms, and the commitment is one meeting a semester. And do not overlook referrals as a method to really connect with prospective hires as people first versus just a faceless resume. A warm introduction from someone who already trusts you skips most of what makes hiring slow.

Be Honest About Pay, Then Sell What You Can

Smaller firms probably cannot match a big firm on starting salary, and pretending otherwise loses a smart candidate fast. Instead, an approach might be to name the number, say how it grows and spend your energy on what a large firm structurally cannot offer.

At a small firm, an intern touches real client work in the first week, not a sample file built for training. They sit 10 feet from the owner and hear how you handle a hard conversation about a balance due. They can see the next three steps of their career because the whole firm is in front of them. That is an apprenticeship, and it is the oldest and best way the profession has ever trained people. A lot of students have never been told the smaller setting is where they learn faster; that’s an opportunity and differentiating factor for you and your firm.

Make the Internship Worth Their Time

The fastest way to waste an internship is to use the intern as cheap data entry. They will not stay, and they will warn their classmates. Treat it like the long, two-way interview it is. Give them a real assignment with a real deadline, scaled to their level, then sit with them and walk through what they did well and what they missed. Assign one person to be their point of contact so a stuck afternoon does not turn into an embarrassed silence. Of course, be sure to pay them as this helps makes the work, connections and responsibilities feel more real versus just an extended classroom assignment.

Hire for What You Cannot Teach

You can teach the software and the forms, but you cannot easily teach someone to care about getting it right or to tell you when they are stuck. Ask about a time something went wrong and listen for whether they owned it, or whether the first instinct was to shift responsibility or get defensive. Mistakes happen, and how newer hires respond to them is at least a partial indication of how they will handle higher-pressure situations moving forward. Lastly, remember GPA and the school name matter far less than most assume, and that is your edge. The strong student who prestige-chasing firms passed over is often the best hire on the board.

Close Early, Then Keep Them

If the internship went well, put the full-time offer in writing before they leave, with a number and a start date. Once they start, keep giving them real work a little faster than they think they are ready for, and pay them fairly before they have to ask. Small firms lose good young people not always over money but over the sense that no one notices them. You are close enough to every person in the building to make sure that never happens. That is your advantage.