All posts by courtneycrosby

Career, Courtney, Employment, Recruiting

Food for Thought

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One of my favorite things about the holiday season is all of the delicious food. In honor of that, I have decided to offer you all some food…for thought. This sugar free, zero calorie advice is for all of the third years heading into recruiting season, fourth years ready to tackle their internships, and anyone else interested in career prospects as an MPA student.

Public accounting is not a prerequisite for success – Public accounting is a fantastic option, and I highly recommend that MPAs recruit for an internship in this industry if they are interested. However, I have heard of far too many students accepting a full time offer in public simply because they wanted the firm name and experience on their resume. They disliked the work and envisioned a very short-term career in the position, but they felt that it would open doors and allow them to pursue other opportunities in the future. I strongly disagree with this attitude; I feel that you will have more opportunities in the future if you can talk about work experience you genuinely enjoyed and were invested in. Furthermore, work consumes the best part of your day, and you don’t want to spend that time hating your work and regretting your decision. If you are not excited about the prospect of an internship during recruiting season, or if you do not enjoy your internship, don’t do it. There are countless other opportunities available to MPA students, which leads me to my next point…

MPA students are not limited to accounting – You build up a very strong knowledge base in accounting from the MPA program, and this obviously will be an asset in any accounting career. However, it also makes you attractive to industry, consulting, finance, public service, and many other employers that are looking for candidates with strong critical thinking and research skills. I received full time offers for industry, consulting, and financial services positions because of my MPA experience, not in spite of it. A director at a financial services firm I recruited with put it best when he said, “We prefer to hire accounting students because we know we can teach you finance and you will pick up quickly. It’s much harder to teach a non-accounting student accounting concepts.” Ultimately, though, the most important piece of advice I can offer is…

Do what makes you happy – Incredibly cliche, but so true. As you recruit, you are going to find that everybody has an opinion about different firms and career paths. Your friends. Your parents. Professors. Acquaintances. Random drunk people you meet at parties. You’ve got to block all of that out and make a decision based on what you want. Others may perceive certain companies or jobs to be more prestigious or impressive, but they are not the ones that will be working there. While Company XYZ may impress people at your high school reunion, the fleeting glory doesn’t really seem worth it when the tradeoff is spending 40+ hours per week in a job you dislike.

The job search is stressful in many ways, but it is also fun. Never again will you have access to hundreds of incredible employers right at your fingertips through OCR or career fairs specially planned for you, so take advantage of this time. Explore different opportunities, talk to as many company representatives as possible, and identify what you value in a career. This research and reflection will help you make the right decision.

Courtney, Employment

Adventures in Interviewing

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I am well into the recruiting process, and the only way to describe it is – it has been an adventure. I applied for a wide variety of positions and firms, and I have experienced a wide variety of interviews. Here are some highlights from my experience thus far:

Walk me through your resume – Regardless of the position, firm, or round, you will have some discussion about your resume. Some interviewers will just want to discuss highlights or get an overview of your experiences, while others will focus on specific items and bullet points. It is imperative that you remember what you did in each experience and activity that is listed, because you may have to explain it in detail. This probably sounds silly, but if you have case competitions or leadership experiences from your freshman and sophomore year included, you may need to brush up on the case you worked on or your responsibilities and events for that organization.

Let’s get technical – Love them or hate them, if you are recruiting for finance positions, you are going to get technical questions. Technical interviews used to incite fear in me; however, my experiences have been positive so far. My interviewers have been very nice and laid back, and the questions have been over basic concepts that you can prepare for by reading a guide, such as the Wall Street Oasis Technical Interview Guide. Overall, a technical interview is just a conversation – perhaps you don’t regularly converse about discount rates, but regardless, there is no need to get anxious about it. Just stay calm, talk about what you have learned, and know that the interviewer is not trying to stump or embarrass you.

Take your interviewee to work day – This has certainly been my most unique experience; I actually got invited to work with a small firm for a day, in lieu of a normal first or second round interview. I joined the group for a normal 10 hour workday and was given three tasks that were based on actual work they had completed in the past. I gained a lot of insight into their culture and group dynamics, and I got to experience first-hand what I would be doing if I joined the group as a new associate.

How should a hamburger be cooked? – While interview preparation is important, ultimately, you cannot anticipate every question you may be asked. Case in point: one of my interviewers asked me over 30 questions, with no pause in between, on topics ranging from the performance of the economy over the past four years to how a hamburger should be cooked. Needless to say, this was stressful – however, it was also fun, because I never knew what the interviewer was going to throw at me next.

It’s going to be a Superday – I have just been invited to a second round interview for an analyst position. Interviews are scheduled from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., and there will be a technical review session that morning. Between now and then, you will find me brushing up on all of my finance and accounting knowledge.

Like I mentioned earlier, there is no possible way to prepare for every interview scenario. Furthermore, none of us will be perfect in all of our interviews; you may give a less than eloquent response, answer a question incorrectly, or have to admit ‘I don’t know’. However, my best advice is to stay positive, regardless of what happens. If you stumble over one question, brush it off and approach the next one with confidence and enthusiasm. While being energetic and enthusiastic won’t guarantee you the job, not conveying those emotions may lose you the job. Interviewers want to see how you react under pressure; if you become frustrated or dejected, they may be hesitant about bringing you on as a new member of their team.

Have you had any interesting or unique interview experiences?

Career, Recruiting

Fifth-Year MPA Wisdom

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You gain wisdom in your graduate year of MPA…along with a backpack.

Hello MPAs – I hope the semester is going well for all of you! I have recently started recruiting for full-time positions, which has led me to reflect on my internship recruiting and work experience. The benefit of going through the process again is that I can identify ways to make myself a stronger candidate than I was as a third-year MPA. Of course, I have more experience and coursework than I did two years ago, but there are also ways you can prepare outside of the classroom that will help you stand out among your peers. Here are a few lessons that I have learned since my first year in the program:

1. Read the newspaper – every single day. “But I don’t have any time!” – myself, as a third year. The thing is, if you have time to keep up with your news feed on Facebook, you have time to follow real news as well. As an accounting student, it is important to be aware of what is going on in the world, because events can impact our future clients, the standards and regulations in which we operate under, and the entire profession. A recent example is the Detroit bankruptcy and the city’s underfunded pension, which has led to pension accounting standards being questioned. We are not going to be able to simplify problems someday as we do in class and ignore tax effects or pretend that interest rates will remain constant – our work is going to be affected by market forces and world events, and we need to understand how these complexities interact. I highly recommend subscribing to the Wall Street Journal; student subscriptions are very affordable and will definitely help you make an impression.

2. Take finance courses. “But I want to be an auditor…why do I need to know about beta?” – myself, as a third year. I think we sometimes we accounting students feel smug when our fellow finance majors do not know how to record journal entries or build a balance sheet – however, it works both ways. We are missing a piece of the puzzle if we only focus on accounting. How can you audit a financial instrument someday if you don’t understand how the derivative was priced or what features it includes? Finance coursework will strengthen your skill set and will make you a more well-rounded accounting professional in the future.

3. Practice case interviews. “But I don’t want to go into management consulting!” – myself, as a third year. I am guessing that the majority of us do not plan on going into management consulting – however, we all plan on going into some type of client service, which involves the exact scenario a case interview simulates. Our clients or managers will ask us to identify problem areas and propose solutions, and we will likely be put on the spot. Case interviews help you practice organizing your thoughts and communicating them in a concise and coherent way. I recently did my first mock case interview, and while I correctly identified the problem and solutions, the path getting there was a little bit rough. This is a skill I will continue practicing, because it will help me sound more organized, confident, and articulate when I have to give impromptu proposals or presentations in the future.

4. Explore a variety of career options. “But I already know what I want to do!” – myself, as a third year. I was fully confident when I started the program about what position and employer I wanted to apply for. A year and a half later, I ended up declining my full-time offer for that exact position and employer and had to go back to the drawing board, because the experience was not what I had expected. The MPA program affords you so many different options, and I recommend taking some time to research all of them during the early stages of your career exploration. You may end up signing your offer with your original top choice, but you also may end up discovering a career path that is a better fit for you.

Career exploration is something I have really been concentrating on over the past few months, and I am excited about pursuing several different opportunities this fall. So far, I have decided on applying for positions in industry, financial services, and forensic accounting. I will keep you all updated on my recruiting journey – feel free to comment if there is anything you would like to know more about!