Category Archives: Career

recruiting, internship, professional development, career workshops and events

Academics, Career, Employment, Events, MPA Council, MPAC, Recruiting, Student Life

First Impressions

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First impressions are important because they always last, and the same goes for my entrance to the MPA program. Notwithstanding a brief visit last fall and interacting with career services over the summer, my first impression of the actual MPA program began just a few weeks ago when all the new Traditional MPA students met, many for the first time. It was orientation week, and we were finally starting the journey we had been planning and anticipating for several months.

As we all gathered in the large banquet hall set aside for the first day, I was nervous about the people I would soon meet. What was everyone going to be like? Where was I going to fit in? Quickly, the fear passed to excitement as I began introducing myself to my new classmates. I’ve always enjoyed meeting new people, and there was no shortage of interesting backgrounds to discuss. Various schools, different areas of the country, and multiple nationalities were represented in the newest cohort. One thing we all had in common was our ambition to succeed and the stuff to make it happen.

Most of orientation week was centered on career services and academic planning. Vinh Nguyen spent time speaking with us about the different career paths available to MPAs. The “industry, audit, or tax” question could be a dissertation on its own, but it was something that many of us were still struggling with as we approached our first day of class. We had the chance to meet our professors at a breakfast and then hear their perspective on the “industry, audit, or tax” question. Also thrown in the mix were several events where we had to make our first impression on potential future employers: an etiquette dinner, a networking reception, and a career fair were all on the bill for the first week. We even had a chance to socialize as a class at a pizza and bowling party thrown by the MPA Council.

Back to first impressions, though. The professors are clearly passionate about what they do, and it is evident that they are proud to be a part of the MPA program. I’m sure you are aware of how big of a difference it makes when a teacher is excited about what they are teaching, and these folks have it. The career services department is top notch from their support and preparation to facilitating interaction with future employers. I ended the week with a pleasant optimism about my job prospects. The students I will be learning alongside are an extraordinarily bright and diverse group of fun people. The connections I made that week are sure to last a lifetime. Hopefully I left a good first impression on a few people, too!

Career, Jamal

The Pur$uit of Happine$$: Part 3

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Hi everyone,

Like Melissa, I just wanted to cap my experience spending a semester interning. Melissa talked about how she utilized the things she learned from her academic studies for her internship, so I thought I would talk about some of the softer and more intangible skills that I took to public accounting from my time at UT.

Being patient: I assumed that when I would start my internship, I’d be put in the same room to interview some high ranking officers. Surprisingly, that doesn’t happen in your first week. I know as business and McCombs students, we want to be given the opportunity to prove ourselves and be challenged. However that takes time. Being given grunt work is how you learn about the industry you work in and allows you exposure to the professionals that you hope to become.

There’s no “I” in “Team”: I can’t even tell you the number of times I made dinner, Route 44’s, and Walmart runs. As an intern, your number one prerogative is to keep your team happy. Auditing/Performing Tax Services/Assessing Risk comes second. Help out where you can and do what you can to help the team. And keeping them content makes them more inclined to let you do real work.

Being professional: I don’t care how wacky the client or senior management is, professionalism is a requirement in the working world. We have to play extra, extra, extra nice. When I interned, there was definitely a relaxed atmosphere. People were cracking jokes, talking about current events, analyzing Sean’s actions from The Bachelor. It definitely made 8 hours a day in the audit room fly by faster, but as an intern, it’s important to distinguish when you’re overstepping your boundaries. Save all that raunchy humor for the intern events!

Accountants are people too: I’m sure it’s been drilled into your heads if you’ve done MPA spring recruiting, but accountants are people too, and they don’t want to talk about work all day. The same principal applies to when they’re working. Yes they work hard, but everyone needs a couple breaks throughout the day. When you aren’t calling XYZ bank to confirm 123 account, ask how their daughter’s play went or if they enjoyed their trip to the beach over the weekend.

Internships are an incredible opportunity to learn these little lessons that have a major impact on the success of your career. I’m grateful for the experience but so glad to be back at McCombs!

Career, Events, Sarah, Student Life

I Met a Famous Author Thanks to UT!

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One of the most overlooked benefits of attending a large, prestigious school like the University of Texas is the abundance of interesting events available to students. So even though I’ve spent most of this semester hiding from the world and studying for my CPA exams, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see one of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult, speak at the LBJ Library as part of the Middleton Lecture series. You might know her from some of her older books, such as My Sister’s Keeper and Nineteen Minutes, but she was here last week to discuss her new New York Times bestseller, The Storyteller; a hauntingly descriptive story of Holocaust survivors and the legacy they left behind.

In addition to convincing me that I needed to put aside my studying and immediately read her new novel (hey – who doesn’t need a break now and then anyway?), Picoult also shared some thoughts on more widely applicable topics such as the publishing industry, equality issues for women writers, and work-life balance.

Although I was, of course, intrigued by her discussion of the business side of self-publishing, the emergence of e-book sales, and the various issues related to piracy (you can see the entire discussion here), I think her most interesting topic of the night was the depth of research that goes into each book she writes. Beyond the research of historical or scientific facts, she discussed the care she takes to build relationships with people and diligently take in their opinions, thoughts, and stories.

It just goes to show that no matter how successful you become or how technically proficient you are at your job, the ability to connect with people and take the time to find the value of what they have to offer can still be your most valuable skill.

Academics, Career, Sarah

Lessons from McCombs

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In the name of full disclosure, I have an obsession with Facebook. Not with posting statuses and pictures and monitoring my news feed (although I waste plenty of time on that as well), but with the company itself; its business model, and, of course, its fascinating CEO. I get excited every time a new article about Facebook pops up in the paper or in Fortune (which at the student rate, is probably one of the best splurges I’ve made in college), and I spent weeks monitoring the the stock price after the IPO – y’know, just for kicks.

So naturally, I also have an obsession with the not-so-official movie, The Social Network. My favorite part of watching this movie is picking through the drama and finding the concepts and lessons that do or don’t match up with what I’ve learned at McCombs – which leads me to…

3 Lessons from The Social Network that McCombs Taught Me Better

1. The value of a good idea – Although the value of the site certainly came from the coding and developing, the Facebook we know and love today wouldn’t have been possible without the “ wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if” idea that started it all. Beyond business law discussions about the legal implications of intellectual property and the accounting concepts of intangibles and R&D, McCombs professors have always been quick to point out that not all valuable assets show up on the balance sheet. You often have to look past the financial statements to see a company’s potential.

2. Persistence pays off – Admittedly, in the movie, the development phase of the website didn’t get a lot of screen time, but that’s definitely not to say that it was trivial. What does show up in the movie is the never-ending coding and updates and the refusal to settle on “good enough” when improvements can still be made. From classes, to recruiting, to informal conversations with professors, these themes have been drilled into my brain from the moment I set foot in McCombs.

3. It’s not all about the money – Although some might disagree that this was really the point of the movie, the social, legal, and ethical consequences of money-driven actions were undeniably pervasive in The Social Network. One of the greatest things about McCombs, and the MPA program in particular, is the constant discussion of ethical implications in business decisions. We hear it again and again in business law, the accounting lyceum, and inevitably in almost every course. Money is what makes the business world run, but it’s not the only thing to consider.

Career, Internships, Jamal

The Pur$uit of Happine$$: Part 1

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Hi everyone! Long time no read! Right now I’m interning at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their assurance practice in Dallas. I thought now would be a good time to talk a little bit about my experience so far and give some perspective on the ominous MPA internship. I’ll try to make a blog every week, so hopefully some of my many fans might benefit.

Moving to Dallas has been quite the shock for me despite the fact that I have done my fair share of travelling. I’ve been all over the U.S., traveled through the Middle East, and even lived in Bangkok for two years. But moving to Dallas, just a couple of hours from Austin, has been really something. Not only has there been a psychological shift, but in the span of a week: I got into some serious paperwork trouble, I got into a car accident, and I went to the gym everyday (for that last one I’m just bragging). Similar to school, I have always been held liable for my actions. Except now it doesn’t involve just going to office hours or studying harder. Instead I am learning how to deal with people that don’t necessarily want to be dealt with. I’ll tell you, dealing with strangers is a lot more time consuming and difficult than dealing with group members for a class project.

Despite a few hiccups, the overall transition has been a relatively peaceful one. I just started working at the client site, and though it’s not quite as exciting as I had hoped accounting would be, I’m getting to see some real world application (albeit a small amount so far) of transactional policies. Meeting the staff and other interns has been enjoyable and I’m definitely learning a lot about the corporate life and the best ways to present yourself to co-workers and clients.

There are a lot of intangible qualities that I think people don’t really think about when they’re working for the first time. Things come up that can really set you back, but the nice thing about the “real world” is that grades don’t define who you are. Sure there are performance evaluations, but they aren’t quite as looming as seeing a B or C on your UT grade report (I would know). Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to reconcile a bank statement…

Best regards,
Jamal

Continue reading with Part 2 of The Pur$uit of Happine$$!