Category Archives: Olivia

Olivia Coffey’s blog posts

It’s All About the People

September 25, 2014 Olivia Coffey Leave a comment

It is four weeks into the Fall semester and recruiting is in full swing. Last week, on-campus interviews began along with pre-interview dinners and other networking events. It has been exciting to meet with prospective employers and move forward through the application process. While recruiting, students will often ask employers “Why did you choose Firm X over Firm Y? What makes your firm different?” Especially when it comes to similar companies like the Big 4, students want answers beyond putting on the mythical Hogwarts sorting hat and then figuring out which firm corresponds to which house. I doubt employers would condone this method anyhow. So, one of the tropes we have been hearing to answer that question is that “it’s all about the people.” At first, the advice may sound trivial or even an like an excuse to not answer the “real” question, but in digging deeper, it has immense value and truth. Nearly all of us MPAs are aspiring to start out in demanding positions that elicit long hours in hopes of growing our careers, and we will thus be spending more time with our co-workers than any one else we know! It will make a tremendous difference in our quality of life whether or not we actually like these people. Though we all should think about where we would like to be geographically and what type of work we would like to be doing, we also cannot forget to reach out to the people who will be central to our lives once we finish the MPA program.

With those words of advice, I will leave you with two interesting things I have seen when I have been able to take a break from the school and recruiting bubble:

Lily Allen at Stubb's — Lily Allen at Stubb’s

215 lb "Hogzilla" at a Smoke Out at Banger's — 215 lb “Hogzilla” at a Smoke Out at Banger’s

Academics, Austin, Career, Employment, Events, Olivia, Recruiting, Student Life

Orientation, Recruiting, and Easy Tiger

September 4, 2014 Olivia Coffey Leave a comment

Things have been quite busy for us MPAs these last few weeks between the close of summer classes, orientation, recruiting events, and the start of the fall semester. With the kickoff of fall classes comes OCR deadlines, employer information sessions, and mock interviews in the next week or so. Some tMPAs have already had actual interviews and before we know it, we will be receiving offers even though we officially started school just one week ago!

Despite the hustle and bustle, I managed to find some time to explore Austin. Most notably, I checked out Mozart’s on the lake (stunning lake view, tasty coffee drinks, and delicious pastries), relaxed on the rooftop of 219 West (great view of downtown and tasty drinks of another variety), saw the kickoff football game versus North Texas (burnt orange everywhere; we won!), and most recently explored Easy Tiger.

Easy Tiger is a unique space that combines bakery and beer garden in a way only Austin could. When you enter the building, you are first presented with their bakery counter that serves house-made breads, pretzels, sausages, and corned beef. You can see straight back into the bakery itself and watch the magic in action. If you proceed downstairs, you find yourself in their dining and bar area where they have a large selection of craft beers, wines, spirits, cheeses, sandwiches, etc. Go through the back door and you are on their outdoor patio that straddles Waller Creek. There are walkways and bridges around the creek that are fun to wander around. Easy Tiger is right on the edge of “dirty sixth” where it turns into east sixth and is a low key and welcome alternative to the nearby offerings of sixth street. I will be going back for the bread, chai tea, and the outdoor atmosphere.

Austin, Olivia, Student Life

Adventures at the Gym and a Gallery

August 6, 2014 Olivia Coffey 1 Comment

We’re into in our fourth week of summer classes, which means our five week jaunt is drawing to a close. We had two exams already and have two more this week. There are projects due in both classes next week, and finals aren’t far away. It has been somewhat challenging to make time for non-academic ventures but I certainly have not been holed up exclusively with my textbooks. One of my favorite activities has been going to aerobics classes at the gym. I have tried kickboxing, zumba, yoga, and pilates. Kickboxing was absolutely hilarious—there was so much choreography and I had no idea what I was doing so it was entertaining to say the least. All in all, the gym facilities are great and Gregory‘s proximity to McCombs can’t be beat. The TeXercise pass is definitely worth it. I also went to the outdoor lounge pool last weekend, (there are 3 outdoor pools) which has a small waterfall and a water sprayer that feeds into it. It is a nice spot to relax right on campus.

Totem Installation by Karen Hawkins at Gallery Shoal Creek

Off campus, I really enjoyed an art opening called “Texas Soil” at Photo Méthode gallery which is in the Flatbed Press building. Flatbed Press rents out space to a few galleries and as a result, the building is really unique and the art diverse. Karen Hawkins’s Totem Installation at the Gallery Shoal Creek was quite visually stunning. The totems hung from the ceiling and were made from deconstructed books. It was a lot of fun to walk among the sculptures. The photographs in Texas Soil, which I ventured out for, were fantastic as well and it was such a treat to be able to chat with the artists. I guessed correctly that one of them had used a Hasselblad film camera for his shots but was a bit disappointed to learn that he scanned his negatives instead of making prints in the darkroom. It is really unfortunate how few people still print in the darkroom as the materials become more scarce and cost prohibitive. It is a very meditative and special practice that will soon be all but lost. Nothing beats the smell of developing chemicals and the buzz of the red safe light, or in the case of color printing, being confined to your own closet sized printing room that is completely sealed off from any light whatsoever. I am very lucky to have been in the last color film class at UPenn before they demolished that darkroom. This show reminded me that I need to shoot and print more soon. Nonetheless, I will definitely be going back to Flatbed and believe they are a part of the East Austin Studio Tour which I will be checking out in November.

Academics, Olivia

Summer Classes are Here

July 30, 2014 Olivia Coffey Leave a comment

We are two weeks into the second semester of summer courses and time has been flying by. Between both of my classes, I have already read 13 textbook chapters this semester—McCombs professors do not mess around! This past week was especially busy between our Financial Accounting exam on Wednesday and our Introduction to Taxation exam on Friday (there was a bit of a sleep deprivation epidemic going around). Everyone in the program has at least some experience with Financial (Introduction to Financial Accounting is one of the program prerequisites, plus we were sent that whopper of a self-study packet I mentioned in my previous post), so some material is familiar there, but Tax is different because it is completely new to most of us. I definitely find tax interesting and I think it is wise for this class to be scheduled first thing so students can have time to feel out whether or not the tax track is something they would like to pursue. I know there are a few people in the class heavily considering it.

Both Brian Lendecky (Financial) and Terri Holbrook (Tax) have been great professors so far. They know summer courses are intense, so they make an effort to keep things fun and interesting. On Tuesday, Brian showed us a few methods for compiling a Statement of Cash Flows, one of which employed the formula: △Cash = △Liabilities + △Shareholder’s Equity – △Non-Cash Assets (a derivation of the standard accounting equation Assets = Liabilities + Shareholder’s Equity). Each time we would use the formula, he would call on a student to solve the equation and ask something along the lines of “What is 0 + 0 – 20,000?” The student would answer (always correctly of course), and then Brain would say “#1 accounting program in the country right here.” We laughed every time…or at least I did. Who knew Accounting could be so entertaining?

Academics, Austin, Olivia, Recruiting

New to Austin and Ready to Go

July 9, 2014 Olivia Coffey 2 Comments

Hello to the UT MPA blogosphere! My name is Olivia and I am currently gearing up to start my tMPA experience in about a week. First…some information about my background. My undergraduate degree is in Fine Arts, so my path to the UT MPA is a bit atypical. Though I was strong in math in high school and started off in Engineering as a college freshman, I quickly discovered the dark rooms on UPenn’s campus and fell hard for photography. When I graduated with my bachelors, I headed out to San Francisco on a whim and soon found myself at a 9-5 desk job that included a sprinkling of Accounts Payable. Yearning for more, I signed up for an evening Financial Accounting class. That class quickly spiraled into more coursework that inspired me to research graduate programs.

Two years and four months after that first Financial Accounting class, I am thrilled to be writing on this blog, which was akin to a bible for me throughout my application process. I moved to Austin just under a month ago, and so far I am loving it. Truthfully, a lot of my time has gone to setting up my apartment, brushing up my resume, and most significantly, hunkering down and making my way through a 243 page learning resource that the MPA office mailed out to those of us enrolled in Financial Accounting this summer called “Solid Footing.” I just finished it and must admit, I feel like a master of debits and credits. Hard work aside, I have had some time to explore the city. Some of my favorite experiences have been: meditating in The Color Inside, eating at Kin and Comfort (unique and delicious Thai/Southern fusion), lingering on Rainey Street (especially on a weekend afternoon), exploring The Ransom Center (their WWI exhibit is incredible), seeing Obvious Child at Violet Crown (the theater has a modern design, reserved seating, and tasty food), relaxing on Spider House’s patio, and tubing on the Guadalupe River. High on my to-do list are the Umlaf Museum and Sculpture Garden, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the Baylor Street Art Wall, and ziplining on Lake Travis at night. Between all of the festivals, museums and galleries, restaurants, parks, and historical landmarks, I don’t think I will run out of things to do in Austin anytime soon.

Though I could easily occupy my time with non-academic, non-career pursuits, there is work to be done! I came to Austin for UT’s MPA program of course, and things will kick off for me this summer with ACC 381 – Financial Accounting with Brian Lendecky and ACC 380K.11 – Introduction to Taxation with Terri Holbrook. This is a pretty typical summer schedule for those entering the tMPA, unless you come to UT with academic waivers. After 5 weeks of those courses, we have a week of orientation. The orientation schedule was recently published and it is a jam-packed week including a faculty lunch, an Academic Advising presentation, a career panel, an etiquette dinner and finally, a two and a half hour career fair. Five days later, fall classes officially start. There really won’t be a break for most MPAs as BA 285T – Financial Management with Ramesh Rao starts during orientation week, before the start of most Fall classes.

I’m ready. Are you?

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