All posts by aprilstange

Academics, Events, Recruiting

Recruiting: Week Three

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MPA Mock Interviews

If you have ever taken BA 101, a class required of all first-year business majors, you probably know what a mock interview is. Basically, mock interviews are practice interviews. Each semester, MPA career services holds a round of mock interviews for MPA students right at the beginning of recruiting season. This semester things have been a little different as a snow day delayed the event until the end of the month.

As an MPA student, you want to take advantage of this resource and sign up for the MPA Mock Interviews as soon as you can. They are a great tool for students to gauge how well they interact during an interview and practice thinking on the spot. It’s also a great confidence builder. Sitting through three or so mock interviews will ensure you feel more at ease talking with employers. MPA Career Services brings in actual recruiters to interview you in these practice interviews. It is possible to end up practicing with the exact same recruiters you interview with at the real thing! While it’s kind of a roulette when it comes to what employer you get, no matter who you interview with it is still good practice. I encourage you to sign up for multiple!

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Resume Drop Period

Sometime around the first week of February there will be a period where you are permitted to finally apply to the job postings on OCR (Online Recruiting System). Our resume drop period just ended a few days ago and, from my experience, there are several things you need during this time. You need cover letters, a resume, official transcripts and time. While having cover letters or resumes ready might seem obvious, the fact that you need official transcripts might come as a surprise to you as it did to me and most of my friends in the program. Do not wait until the last minute to request trancripts! Some students this semester found out on the last day that you needed them and there was a possibility that school was going to be closed due to weather that day. Luckily, school remained open. However, they had major freak-outs that could have been avoided.

Lesson to be learned: Do not wait until the last minute to start applying to job postings.

You will find during the application process there are certain documents you need from the school. These applications may require you to apply online, which can take a good amount of time. Do not want to rush through your applications! Make sure to set aside a decent amount of time so that you can complete them thoroughly. The last thing you want is to lose an opportunity because you did not submit all of your documents on time.

Miss the first installments of April’s MPA recruiting experience? Check out Recruiting: Week One

Events, Recruiting

Recruiting: Week Two

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Middle Market Firms and Big Four Firms

During your recruiting semester as an MPA you will face the decision concerning what company(s) you want to apply for. The best way to figure this out is to attend all the events and information sessions that these companies hold for you. I know this is repetitive and we probably have been told a million times to “attend all the events” and “gather as much information as you can”. However, it has become clear to me this semester that it really is the best way to make a knowledgeable decision about which type of company(s) will be the best fit for you. For example,  anyone interested in public accounting has to decide which firm size/type fits you.

A brief word of advice, try to not silo yourself into just the big four or just middle market firms. Really make the effort to go into recruiting open-minded. Try to give ALL of the firms a chance.

The middle market firms BDO and UHY held their own event the second week of school to give students information on why they are also excellent companies. I was very surprised to see the small turn out of MPA students at this event. There was around less than half of the students at the middle market firms’ info sessions than there were at the big four info sessions. The BDO/UHY event was really nice with catered food following their informative presentations. I learned a lot of new things about these companies and the differences between middle market firms and the big four firms that I had not known before attending their event. I also gained some more exposure talking with partners and recruiters, which can only help me in the long run. And hey, practice makes perfect, right?

Your major takeaway from this post: Be open-minded during recruiting. You might regret it later if you look back and realize you limited yourself in your choices. I actually gained a lot of perspective from attending BOTH the middle market and big four info sessions. In turn, I feel more confident in my choices and in my ability to talk with recruiters. All of these companies really are great choices. Let’s face the hard part though, you will have to choose just one of these firms eventually. The ultimate goal during recruiting is to ensure your own happiness with whatever choice you  make for your internship/potential career. You can only do this by putting yourself out there and attending all the events set out for you.

Click here to read Week 3 of April’s MPA recruiting experience.

Career, Events, Recruiting, Uncategorized

Recruiting: Week One

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Welcome back everyone! We all know that syllabus week does not mark the beginning of the semester. It’s the second week of classes now, so school is officially back in session! Being in my second semester of MPA, I already hit the ground running by finishing up my syllabus week with two important recruiting events last Thursday and Friday. The two events were Meet the Firms, which took place on Thursday evening, followed the next morning by Career Day.

MPA Meet the Firms: Not just your normal job fair.

Meet the Firms

This event was basically a career fair exclusively for MPAs. I know that we all fear the term “career fair” but let me just tell you that Meet the Firms is NOTHING like your average career fair. For one, this event is located on the top floor of the DKR Stadium with glass walls overlooking the stadium and downtown Austin at night. There is catered food and drinks and the set up as a whole is extremely nice. That is all fine and dandy, but let’s be honest, what we are all more concerned about is the actual recruiting and networking aspect of the career fair. Meet the Firms goes beyond  your normal expectations in this area as well. You know when you go to the normal career fairs and you feel like there are a million students and only a handful of firms? Well flip that scenario and that’s what Meet the Firms is like. The student to recruiter ratio is great, so you are not nervously waiting in line for your turn to talk next. You can browse tables and find an open recruiter to talk to in the mean time until another becomes available. When you are going to the tables of each firm, you already feel welcomed. The recruiters are very inviting and friendly. Also, most of the time they lead the conversation for you. This does not mean you do not need to prepare, it just means you can feel relaxed in your conversation!

Career Day

On Friday morning, the Big Four firms (PwC, Deloitte, EY, KPMG) host Career Day. The day consists of each firm giving a small info session about their company followed by a short networking opportunity. These sessions are actually helpful in getting to know the culture of each firm by listening to what each has to say and by talking with their recruiters after the presentations. The environment was very relaxed and each firm had a gift for you! What career event have you attended where each company brought you a gift bag?! Exactly! This event was not only extremely helpful in getting you acclimated with the Big Four firms, it was also really fun!

Don’t skip any recruiting events in your recruiting semester as an MPA because you will be missing out on a lot of great times, nice people, and solid opportunities!

Read more about the MPA recruiting experience in the Recruiting: Week Two.

Academics, April, Student Life

Study Group to Roommates: My MPA Family

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One of my favorite aspects of MPA thus far is the family you form within it. Only three months into my first semester of MPA and I already have made friends I know will last a lifetime. I met these people in my MPA classes at the beginning of this semester. I think we came together naturally because we all had the same classes and we all shared the same look of fear on our faces during the first few weeks. We started out by forming a study group on Facebook. We made reservations at PCL for study rooms (Great tool, you should utilize this!!), then went over our homework and studied together. It was all pretty formal at first because we did not know each other very well, but then we became good friends as we bonded over stress and hard work. Sometimes, we would have (and still do!) miniature freak-outs before each test and then once the tests were over we’d celebrate together. We also created a group text for when we need to ask quick questions of each other about homework or any course material. The four of us have planned to live together next year as well.

Our study group doing tax forms!

The point is, you will meet a lot of people in MPA and you will make a lot of new friends. The best friends you make are ones that will be with you through tough times and we all know MPA can be a tough program. You will need people who understand your situation, so who better to be a friend to you than someone who is in the very same situation?! And having study groups in this program is a MUST. I cannot stress enough how much it has helped me. I have NEVER in my past years here at UT had a study group. I just did work independently and asked questions from my classmates here and there. So go out and make new friends because you will be so happy you did! MPA just makes the process of making these friends that much easier!

Academics

Finding the Right Track

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Taxation, Financial Assurance, Managerial, and Generalist. That seems like a small list to choose from, right? How hard can it be to just pick a track out of those four options? Surprise! IT’S REALLY HARD!! Going into your first semester as an iMPA, you face the difficult decision of choosing a track. Some students may come into the program with a track already in mind while other students come in completely open to all four tracks. Here are some great tools that you might find useful in aiding your research of the different tracks:

ACE Class. After taking the ACE class, which is an accounting careers exploration class required your first semester in the program, I have been able to learn what tracks to pursue based on the type of job I am looking for. Tax and audit tracks (audit track is another name for the financial assurance track) are usually pretty versatile. There are jobs in industry, public accounting, government jobs, etc. if you pursue these tracks. Managerial is a track that is more tailored to the entrepreneurial side and is used a lot more in industry.

Professors. The best way to really get your questions answered is to talk to the professors. They have all worked in the areas that they teach and it is really helpful to pick their brain on what they think each track is like.

MPA Orientation. Although this is right at the beginning of your MPA experience, the orientation has a section where they have professors from each track on a panel discussing why they think each track is the best one to pursue. It is not only really entertaining to watch them try to top each other’s reasoning but you also learn a lot during this panel, so pay attention at orientation!!

Faculty Luncheons. The program offers multiple opportunities for students to go to luncheons with different professors that teach in a specific track. This is a great opportunity to hear what they have to say and who doesn’t like a free lunch?!

For a brief overview of each track, you can also check out the MPA website!