Good afternoon everyone! Sorry for not having posted in a while. This semester has been quite hectic (in a good way) and has kept me from my duties as a blogger! Don’t worry though. I have returned full force and will be giving you updates on how I have managed to survive spring semester as a MPA student. For now, however, I’d like to give you a little taste of some of the perks of being a blogger for the UT MPA program.
This past Friday, the bloggers had the unique opportunity to attend the Spring Advisory Council meeting hosted at the AT&T center right here on campus. The meeting hosted some of the top folks in accounting and we were able to sit down with a few of them to gain insight into their profession, their experiences, and how they got to be where they are today.
The two gentlemen at my table were a CFO for an energy company in Dallas and a partner for an accounting firm in Indianapolis. Both gentlemen were very easy to talk to and very open about their jobs and their personal lives. They both also had connections to Notre Dame, and being a Notre Dame graduate, I was very excited about the opportunity to talk about my school in great detail with them! We talked about football, South Bend versus Austin, UT versus Notre Dame, among many other things. Oh, and we talked about some accounting-related matters! I told them both that I was going to be working for PWC doing forensics within their advisory department (thank you, thank you, please, no need to applaud) and they were both very curious about what I would be doing and provided me with stories about fraud incidents they had seen! One case may or may not have involved an employee stealing funds to use on prostitutes! And they say accountants have boring jobs. Please. The two gentlemen were hilarious and I am so glad I had the opportunity to sit down with them and gain some insight into what being an accountant is really like.
The lunch was wonderful and I was able to connect with a few more professionals, including one who was very high up at Dell here in Austin. I was able to ask her and another woman at my table about Michael Dell, as they both had interacted with him on multiple occasions. It was also great to see women in the field who have taken on very high leadership roles. The Advisory Council meeting overall was a great opportunity to network with some influential accountants and to learn more about the different opportunities in the accounting world. That’s what is so great about being a UT MPA student. The opportunities for networking and professional development are endless, especially if you blog!
So, moral of the story: Be a blogger and get free food! Just kidding. Become a member of the UT MPA family and watch the opportunities unfold before your very eyes!
(Editor’s Note: Interested in being a blogger next Fall? Contact April Stockwell)