Hello, Reader!

I’m looking forward to sharing some of my thoughts & adventures with you and hope that they will shed light on what goes on at the MPA Program here at UT Austin.  I’m looking forward to writing about a number of topics, generally introduced below, but I am willing to and probably will divert!

THE PROGRAM

The exciting challenge of being immersed in an accounting education for the first time is navigating through the opportunities and job paths available to you in such a short span of time. With accounting there are many – more options than I realized before starting here.  Thanks to a very thorough academic advisor (that has helped me rework my course schedule numerous times), a career staff that has steered me toward jobs that match my interests and professors I drop in on from time to time, I have expanded my interests. I’m now interested in quite a few areas of accounting, from non-profit and fund accounting to IT and security system audits.

Also, I recently signed on with an accounting firm here in Austin.  I’ll certainly write about the recruiting process in a future post.

THE ADVENTURES

At UT, I’ve met some great people and we’ve definitely taken advantage of a lot of what Austin has to offer.  In the summer we swam at Barton Springs (featured in Terrence Malick’s newest film, Tree of Life), enjoyed the trailer food and the free outdoor festivals.  Something that I really enjoy about Austin is all the local flair, from the farmers’ markets every Saturday and Wednesday, to a lot of hole in the wall type eateries and shops.  I recently purchased a GoLocal card for ten bucks and I think it’s a terrific deal if you’re into exploring some Austin-specific venues.  It allows you to receive great discounts at tons of local places.

In the recent weeks, between test taking and office visits, some of us MPAs made time for nature at Inks Lake (1 hour north of here), stuffed our faces at Austin’s annual Gypsy picnic (after jogging down a trail that led from West Campus all the way down to the site where the event was held – a great way to work up an appetite!) and attended an experimental music performance of the “Long String Instrument.”  And of course, game days are a spectacle. The whole city decked in orange, a roaring crowd in a packed stadium and the bats swooping around catching bugs beneath the stadium lights.

 

 

I guess that’s it for now. Take care!

XJ