Wow, so I guess it’s been a while since I’ve blogged! Surprise, surprise. Maybe that speaks to how busy recruiting season is. Or maybe it just means I’m bad at keeping up with my blog. Sorry! I know my blogger counterparts are much better at keeping up with this than I am!

In this entry, I’m going to talk a bit about the interview process during recruitment. For those of you who aren’t familiar with recruitment, several accounting firms of local, national and global size travel to UT’s campus during the spring to interview MPA students for potential internships. First, we as students must submit our resumes to the firms in which we are interested (this is done through OCR, a McCombs Web site). After the resume submission period is over, the firms sort through all of the resumes and select the students whom they want to interview. We find out whether or not we are selected through the same Web site, and, if we are selected, we then have the opportunity to sign up for an interview time. This whole process happened before spring break in March.

Fast-forward two weeks. For the first time in my life, I’m in panic mode on a Friday at 4 in the afternoon. I’m looking at my schedule for the following week:

Monday: Cost accounting semester presentation. Presentation paper also due. Read up on Firm A. Get ready for pre-interview dinner (a more lengthy task for girls than boys!). Go to pre-interview dinner with Firm A. Study for Business Law midterm.

Tuesday: Take B-Law midterm. Interview with Firm A. Read up on Firm B. Get ready. Pre-interview dinner with Firm B.

Wednesday: Interview with Firm B. Read up on Firm C. Get ready. Pre-interview dinner with Firm C.  Meet with management group to rehearse presentation for Thursday.

Thursday: Management semester presentation. Interview with Firm C. Read up on Firm D. Get ready. Pre-interview dinner with Firm D. Somehow go watch boyfriend’s race at Texas Relays in the middle of all this.

Friday: Interview with Firm D. Finally take a big, long nap and relax. But only for a day. Next up: Two midterms on Tuesday.

Across the top of my calendar for the week, I wrote in giant colorful letters, “TAKE ONE DAY AT A TIME.” And I’m pretty sure that’s the only way I made it through the week.

I don’t mean to make it sound like the experience was bad. It wasn’t. Individually, each dinner was enjoyable, and the interviews weren’t bad, either. The dinners were all at nice hotels or restaurants… and can anyone really complain when they get steak dinners four nights in a row?

The purpose of the pre-interview dinners is so that we can meet the partner with whom we will interview the following day and therefore be less nervous during the actual interview. All of the partners in the firms were incredibly personable and make me feel very comfortable. In fact, I don’t even think I felt nervous going into any of the interviews. And that’s not because I’m some pro interviewee. I’m far from it. The way the events were set up just made the experience with each firm very low-stress. Three of my interviews didn’t even involve typical interview questions; instead, they were more just like conversations. In fact, I felt so comfortable in the first three conversation-like interviews that my fourth and final interview threw me for a loop when it actually Q&A-style. Even in that interview wasn’t too painful, though.

Once all of the interviews were complete, we had to wait until Monday at noon to hear whether or not we were asked back to the firms. A stressful morning for everyone. A happy afternoon for some. A disappointing afternoon for others. I got asked back to my favorite firms, so I personally had a great Monday. From now until the rest of the semester, I’ll be attending events and dinners for these firms in hopes of getting to know each firm’s culture and eventually deciding with which firm I think I fit best. (The firms are also determining whether or not they think we fit. Being asked back after interviews doesn’t necessarily mean we get an offer from the firm.) I’ll be updating my blog after some of these events, so check back!