Happy New Year, everyone!

Oh wait… it’s already February? That’s unbelievable–the year has certainly gotten off to a fast start. Between fall finals, the holidays, and the beginning of this semester, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but I’m back on it now, I promise!

You may notice that my blog entries this semester will have a similar theme. But that’s with good reason: I am now in my second semester of the integrated MPA, which means I’ll be very busy with recruitment all spring. I’m excited, curious, and even a bit nervous about the whole process, so I’ll be sure to update frequently.

For prospective students who may not know exactly what “recruitment” in the MPA program is:
“Recruitment” refers to an optional, semester-long process of student/firm interactions in hopes of securing an internship for the following spring with one of these public accounting firms by the end of the process. These interactions include Career Nights, Networking Nights, evening presentations, interviews, dinners and office visits. I’m only at the very beginning of my recruiting, so I can’t tell you too much about these events…yet! For now, you might check Darren’s blog for a bit more insight into recruiting. But if you don’t need all your questions answered at this second, please check my blog throughout this semester because I’ll definitely be updating and talking about my experiences.

Career Nights

Recruitment officially began the day after spring semester started. Every night for about a week, a different firm had its “Career Night.” A career night is typically where the firm introduces itself and gives students the opportunity to mingle with and ask questions of employees who travelled to Austin for the event.

I didn’t know what to expect going into these nights, but they all turned out to be fantastic opportunities to learn about the companies. In preparation for the first night I’d intently read the company’s Web site, so I went in thinking the night might be more like a sales pitch for the company and I might leave knowing only slightlymore than I came in knowing, but man did I underestimate the night. In fact, it was a bit overwhelming considering this was the second day back from a long, relaxing winter break!

The firm brought dozens (in the range of 70) of employees of all ranks and from several different office locations just for the purpose of answering our questions. The two-hour event was set up so that we knew which employees worked in audit, tax or advisory, and everyone had name tags to let students know what office they worked in and whether they were staff, seniors, managers or partners. We were given about an hour to walk around and talk to these employees one-on-one (or one-on-a-few). Everyone seemed very candid in their answers to my questions (even though I’m told this whole process is very sugar-coated!), and I learned more about the company than I could have possibly imagined. It was especially helpful that younger employees were present because they were recently in our position, and they had some great advice for the upcoming months. This was just one of the nights, but I’d say that the subsequent career nights of other firms were equally as impressive and helpful.

Well, I’m off to finish some fascinating cost management readings now, but I will update next week after Monday’s MPA “Networking Night.” Ciao!