All posts by paulnabhan

New to UT: II. Do I Need a Car?

This matter is obviously one of preference. It is a question I receive often though, especially from incoming freshmen, so I decided to address it here. There are some pros and cons to having a car as a UT Austin student that I will cover, and even though I believe that it is not necessary to have a car, at least my reasoning will be transparent enough.

First, some highlights from the past week…

Congratulations for Graduating!

Congratulations to all the UT students who graduated this past weekend. I’d like to give a special shoutout to my roommate of four years, who probably deserves a medal for tolerating me for eight semesters. Congratulations on graduation and on your full-time offer!

The Rapture…

…either didn’t happen, or we all got left behind. I hope for the former. In case you didn’t hear, Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer in California, predicted Judgment Day would occur on Saturday, May 21; the prediction did not manifest. Nevertheless, the most famous end-of-days prediction in U.S. history occurred in 1844 when William Miller predicted the second coming would occur on October 22, 1844. Many followers gathered in anticipation (some even quit their jobs) of this prediction and waited all day only to discover that nothing happened; as such, this event was known as “The Great Disappointment. 

Bee Week

May 29-June 4 is Bee Week in Washington DC, and it is probably one of my favorite events of the year after the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

In what I would now describe as a hyper-recruiting-event-like party, contestants and their coaches and families (usually the same people) stay in the Grand Hyatt for a week. While there, contestants engage in meet-and-greets, game nights, several tours throughout the nation’s capital, a barbecue, and a final banquet. Wednesday and Thursday are set aside for competition, however, as students (none past the 8th grade are allowed) try to spell their way to a $30,000 cash grand prize (and about an extra $10,000 in other prizes). To gauge the types of words these spellers face, Scripps Howard offers this sample test

And back to the main topic…

Do I Need a Car? Continue reading New to UT: II. Do I Need a Car?

New to UT: I. Where Do I Live?

After taking some time to destroy my finals (and vice-versa), I sit back at my computer, relaxed and ready to make some noise on the web (and the Millennium Lab) again. Summer shines its face upon Austin again, whether you’re driving along Mopac watching the green leaves of the trees waving at you as a smooth summer breeze floats by or watching the sun smile upon the lake as you stroll along the Congress Avenue Bridge.  As such, my next several entries will be shorter so that I can go outside.

This next series, as promised, will address some questions I sometimes hear from incoming students. Because a mixed audience may be reading this (1st years, 3rd years, and 5th years), I will try to avoid over-generalizing and be more specific on my thoughts on each of my outlooks.

First, though, a couple of tidbits from the past couple of weeks:

Dallas Mavericks

I admit: I was a doubter of the Mavs and have been for the past five years or so, especially after that debacle against Miami in the finals. After praising the Lakers since the off-season—the 1980 off-season—Mavs fans have my full attention. Please don’t ask me to root against Kevin Durant though…

Kutcher to Replace Sheen

Warner Brothers announced that Ashton Kutcher will replace the estranged Charlie Sheen on the CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men.” Kutcher is best known for his parts in “That 70s Show” and “Punk’d.” Kutcher will have to undergo a blood test before he is officially signed on as part of a new policy initiated by the Warner Brothers legal counsel to check for abnormally high levels of tiger blood. (#kidding)

Vocabulary Boost?

Merriam Webster published a list of words to add pizzazz to your everyday vocab. These words are supposed to add an extra kick of sophistication and spice to your conversation skills.

Anyway, on to topic…

Where do I live?

I get this question from incoming Longhorns pretty frequently. Honestly, it’s a matter of taste. Some people like quiet, some people like proximity, some people like partying, some people like price. Here are my thoughts on the subject… Continue reading New to UT: I. Where Do I Live?

Internship Series: IV. The Decision

—and no, I’m not taking my talents to South Beach. Most people that know me know that I pursue my goals with a very fiery passion, so I think it came to a lot of folks’ surprise that, after I had received a full-time employment offer, I deliberated for a couple of weeks before making up my mind instead of just diving head-first into the deep end of the pool. This final installment of my Internship Series is placed here to calm present MPAs, future MPAs, and really anyone who is confronted with the decision of having to pick one opportunity after another. It is not uncommon or unusual to lay all your options on the table before making a decision, even if it is one you were somewhat sure you were going to make anyway.

As my usual tradition, I’m going to start with some tidbits:

Kemba & Charl

It seems like eons since the last installment of this series. Since I’ve been gone, Kemba Walker & Co. took UConn to its third National Championship over Butler. (It broke my heart to see Butler go down in a nasty shooting performance like that, but if you examine the record—as in my last blog—you’ll see that my money would have been on UConn anyways.) Days later, Charl Schwartzel won the Masters after Pandemonium reigned the last day, seeing a free-for-all on the Leaderboard. Congratulations to Connecticut and Mr. Schwartzel.

Tweet This!

In an article in Fortune Magazine, it seems that Google, Facebook, and Microsoft had offered to buy Twitter last fall. Microsoft changed its mind, Facebook offered $2B, and Google offered $10B. It is interesting to consider the implications of this now from a business perspective, as the article reports stalled growth in the company—which is probably due to the decline in members who are actually active. With a leveling off and no more buyout offers on the table, it will be interesting to see what the social media behemoth’s next move will be.

Keeping it short today, here were my feelings before accepting a full-time offer:

The Decision

My policy on my blog has always been to be as candid as I could when it came to my opinions on issues, so here it goes. The reality is that I am still only a 22-year-old guy; I run with a lot of raw emotion and see everything in a very novel light. When I received my offer, I was emotionally ecstatic; I am sure my smile revealed my coffee-stained teeth from a mile away. I had just received a full-time offer from a major world player in the public accounting industry, so this was very much a dream come true.

Cognitive Dissonance

A couple days later, I began to think that maybe this was not the best option for me. Why? I mean this was the dream job, right? Suddenly, I started seeing my career in the Advisory or Consulting side of things. Then I saw Paul, the beastly investment banker. And then I saw Paul, private equity extraordinaire. I saw Paul—ahem, Senator Nabhan. I saw Paul, Oscar winner for best musical score. I could go on and on. What my best move, now, seemed very uncertain. Would accepting a role as an auditor actually limit my potential? Oh my… Continue reading Internship Series: IV. The Decision

Internship Series: III. Location, Location, Location

This may or may not be a factor for everyone. There is not an abundance of job opportunities in El Paso though, so location is a blank slate for me. The first time I was faced with the issue of location was about five years ago when deciding where to attain my degree. There are hundreds of colleges and universities in the United States, and it would not be accurate if I told you that the city of Austin was not a factor in my decision to attend the University of Texas. (I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I was homesick for Austin.) Being adults now and having the freedom of choosing the first place we want to be after graduation, this issue seems to be relevant all over again.

As my usual tradition though, here are the tidbits for the week: Continue reading Internship Series: III. Location, Location, Location

Internship Series: II. Ambiance of the Audit Room…in Movies…

This blog was intended to have been written last week. The Longhorns’ loss to Arizona completely crushed my spirits, however, leaving all motivation I had in disarray for the week. The Dance goes on though, and with it comes the next installment of my take on my internship.

A lot of questions I think a lot of people ask and a lot of recruiters receive is, “What is an average day like as an auditor?” Most people will kind of give you the same answer, but in an attempt to situationally convey my perception while portraying emotion, I will answer the question by comparing with film characters.

Unconventional? Yeah. But it’s my blog, and I can do that.

Before that though, here’s what’s up since the last installment…

The Big Dance Update

Well, it didn’t take me long to come back to this topic, but being the most wonderful time of the year, I have to bring it up. Even though the Longhorns’ season ended last week, I do want to extend a congratulations on what was still a spectacular season! We won 27 games, and if Thompson and Hamilton return like they say they will, the Longhorns will not only bring talent but a load of experience to the court next season!

Congratulations to Coach Krzyzewski on winning his 900th game! Coach K has won four national championships and a gold medal in his career at Duke, and will almost certainly overtake his former coach, Bob Knight, as the winningest coach in men’s D-1 next year. This is an amazing accomplishment, and I look forward to seeing what the Blue Devils will bring to the table next year also.

This is a shout-out to Butler and VCU, the two “mid-major” schools to reach the Final Four as 8 and 11 seeds respectively. Although I had doubts about Butler heading into this tournament, they have certainly proved me wrong again. (Yeah, that’s right—I picked ODU over them this year and UTEP over them last year.) And why did I pick ODU over Butler? Because over my internship, I caught the championship game of the Colonial League and saw Old Dominion survive VCU. Thus, VCU made an impression on me, but ODU made an even bigger one. What an achievement for both of these programs to prove the analysts to be mad…of course, that’s why they call it March Madness!

Geraldine Ferraro Passes Away

For those who are unfamiliar with Geraldine Ferraro, she was the first woman to be on a major party’s presidential candidate ticket, running as Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984. While a representative in Congress, she cosponsored the Economic Equity Act (1981). Mondale said the following about his former running mate: “She was a pioneer in our country for justice for women and a more open society. She broke a lot of molds and it’s a better country for what she did.”

And now into the Audit Room:

Auditing…in Movies…

So auditing was complex in the fact that UT cannot train us to audit a specific methodology because, as one employee told me, every firm kind of audits its own way. While we enter the internship with a sense of how an audit is executed from studying GAAS and GAAP, the nitty-gritty mechanics are at the discretion of the respective firms. It is almost similar to being a musician: every ensemble may receive the same printed sheet music, but each will have its own similar but unique method of interpreting a piece. Thus, in terms of how I felt and what my perception was like, here you go!

Jefferson Smith from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

In this film, Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is appointed to fill the senate seat of a recently deceased senator until the next election. The governor, just trying to fill in the spot with a good name, appoints a popular boy scout-type figure to take the seat. Smith is relatively naïve going to Congress and is actually misquoted and mocked by the media. Jefferson Smith, who went into Washington full of stories of the principles established by the Founding Fathers, starts his political career without bridging the gap between those principles and real world politics.

Likewise, I feel I went into my internship trying to “light it up” without considering the nuances that fill the gap between what it actually takes to achieve the noble concept of auditing financial statements. Am I saying I was naïve? Kind of, but mostly due to putting unnecessary pressure on myself to do well; likewise, Smith tries to push a bill for a boys’ camp without considering the political ambush that he would face as a result.

Happy Gilmore from Happy Gilmore (1996)

This may well be due to my short temper, but honestly, come on! A computer put these numbers together….Why wouldn’t EVERY ONE OF THESE NUMBERS tie?! Essentially, being inexperienced, I was kind of surprised when I saw how often figures weren’t perfect. Continue reading Internship Series: II. Ambiance of the Audit Room…in Movies…