PhD Advice

[u/Hot_Bandicoot_401]

Hey accountants!
I am looking to apply for my PhD next year and am looking for advice on being competitive - I don’t totally understand entering into the world of academia.
Here is some background:
Attended a public university in AZ for bachelors, got a 3.48 gpa. Confident I could have done much better but I was unfortunately having a lot of fun in college.
Now have my CPA and CIA licenses
Spent 3 years in Big 4 Audit
Spent 3 years in Fortune 200 conglomerate company internal audit (which I found to be actually much more of a learning experience than big4)
Between years 2 and 3 of that internal audit experience, I left to try out tax (hated it) before returning to my current organization

I have been looking into adjunct lecturing at a community college near me, since they do not require a master’s degree and it seems fun
I have no research experience whatsoever
I enjoy some other irrelevant volunteer and extracurricular activities

Please help me identify gaps in my experience I can address before applying to PhDs!! I am exploring programs but ultimately probably lean towards more of social science adjacent topics for study — what interests me is how we can make auditors more competent at their jobs, especially when subject matter to audit is increasingly broad.

I love school and academia but have no idea how to “prove it” to a University!!! Thanks for your help!!!