Category Archives: Employment

Cities (Probably) Overlooked During Recruiting: Part 2

Beautiful Boston Skyline

Greetings from Red Sox Nation, home of the Boston Tea Party, Beantown or whatever you like to call it. Clearly Boston is a city full of life (and United States History).

As I said before, Austin is a city with many accolades, but we should consider all the alternatives during recruiting. All Big 4 have offices in Boston!

The Skyline is beautiful especially at night. I’m sure many of you would argue that it holds no candle to the skyline of Austin, but I’m still a big fan.

Apart from the skyline, Boston has a lot of other great sites to see.

1. Fenway Park: I may have mentioned before that I am not the biggest sports fan (other than the Longhorns, of course.) But nothing beats the atmosphere and camaraderie of Fenway Park.  The park opened in 1912 and is considered one of the most iconic sports venues in the world. If you get the chance to intern in the city, I definitely recommend you check out a Red Sox game. And if you can, sit on the Green Monster!

My cousin and I on the Green Monster at Fenway

2. North End: Akin to New York City’s “Little Italy,” the North End is a historic neighborhood in Massachusetts that has been inhabited since the 1600s. The neighborhood is rich in Italian culture and DELICIOUS food. If you visit the North End, be sure to check out Mike’s Pastry- best pastries and cookies you will ever have! Continue reading Cities (Probably) Overlooked During Recruiting: Part 2

Pop Culture: The key to success?

My professors tell me the best way to prepare for interviews, is to read newspapers every day. They highlight the importance of being aware of what’s going on with the economy and current events outside of the 40 Acres,  because that’s the world we will be living in. When speaking with adults, being able to apply what we are studying to current events creates more stimulating conversation than talking about assignments and grades.

What better place to follow sports than at our own Frank Erwin Center cheering on the mens Longhorn B\basketball team!

I have accepted this as something I need to do to be successful with recruiting. I thought this was all that I needed to do, until I read a blog by the Young and Frugal highlighting the importance of sports in the business world. They made an excellent point:

“In the real world most people won’t talk politics with you for fear of offending you (or someone else), and not many people want to talk business because that’s what they do all day.”

Sports is something that you can talk about with everyone, and use as a gateway to talk about most anything: from the business of sports, player gossip, personal experiences from playing the game, and locations you have traveled to watch games. It is a topic almost everyone can relate to or have an opinion about, and a great way to join a conversation. In fact, a Green Mangoes blog made an interesting point on the importance of sports in the business world:

“My friend Anna, who is Hungarian, told me once that when she was in school in Hungary, studying English, she took a course on doing business in America.  (Maybe that wasn’t the title, but that was the topic.)    One of the things they stressed as a key to being successful in business dealings with Americans was to be familiar with the names and current records of sports teams.   Because there is no better way ‘in’ than , ‘Hey, how about those [fill in name of appropriate sports team here]?  Think they can go all the way this year?’”

To summarize up the underlying reason why sports are essential in business, I would like to go back to the Young and Frugal blog:

“Talking sports is about relationships. The emotional connection that forms between you and “your” team, the relationship that forms with your co-worker because his team is your team’s rival, and the relationship of feeling that if you can have a good conversation with someone about sports, you can have a good conversation with them about anything. On the contrary, when meeting someone who doesn’t follow sports it’s extremely difficult to break the ice and find a common ground. Up- to-date knowledge of sports is a key part of business in today’s world because businesses are about relationships, and sports can be the key to developing strong relationships.”

After this I thought I had what I needed for recruiting down: news and sports. In addition, when I think back to my prior experiences with recruiters, it is true that I have discussed sports and current events many times, but many conversations centered on pop culture like movies, music and TV shows. Talking about these things has the same effect as sports, they help establish relationships. Talking about these things helps me to determine if I could work with someone for over 8 hours a day. If we like the same movies and TV shows, we most likely have very similar senses of humor and personalities.

This revelation helps me in two ways. First, it will help me prepare for recruiting and building relationships. Second, it will help me convince my parents  it is essential for me to catch up on all my TV shows over break!

Cities (Probably) Overlooked During Recruiting: Part 1

Dinner in San Fran with my brother and cousin

Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope you all survived finals. I know it can be a rough time of year.

This is the first MPA blog from California!
If not, my apologies to the MPA blogger of the past for stealing your thunder.

Spring recruiting is coming up for us third-years, and I wanted to highlight a few of my favorite cities that I will be visiting over the holidays.  Don’t be afraid to recruit for an internship in a city that isn’t Austin. Of course, Austin is one of the best cities in the world, but let’s not forget the other contenders.

First stop, San Francisco!

I’m here in San Francisco visiting some family and am reminded of my love for the city. There is just so much to do and see.

Disclaimer: All Big 4 firms have offices in San Fran, as well as tons of midcap and boutique firms. Could be a good life for an accountant!

There are lots of great things to do in and around the city, as well. Some of my favorite spots are: 

1. Exploratorium: This famous science museum in San Fran is fun for everyone. I have always been a nerd, and I proudly embrace it. Thus, my first time at the Exploratorium I was wide-eyed and grinning the whole time. And to this day, it is still an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. If we are being honest, when I visit the Exploratorium today, I probably still sport the same cheesy grin I did when I was a kid. Continue reading Cities (Probably) Overlooked During Recruiting: Part 1

Accountants: Unexpected Heroes of the World

As the semester has gotten harder, a good number of my peers have considered if all of this work is truly worth it. Some of the people I’ve spoken to are thinking of trying to find a more rewarding profession, such as nonprofit work, or helping people in some way or another.  As much as they love accounting, sometimes it’s hard to see the big picture of why accounting is such rewarding work and how it can change people’s life. I took these sentiments personally because I feel accounting can be one of the most rewarding professions in helping others, and decided to do some research.

 

The first article I found was by Brenda Lee Tang of the Trinidad Express from November of last year called “Why accountants are the new heroes”.  In this article she says that accounting is “important work to be done on an ethical level.” Accountants are committed to the public good and are taught in ethical practices. We are an independent voice that stakeholders can trust. My personal favorite part of the article was the following paragraph:

“The impact of accountants’ professionalism will be most keenly felt in developing economies. Aided by their integrity and commitment to sustainability, accountants will be able to help create sustainable economic infrastructure, regulatory mechanisms, and codes of governance in places where there were none before. Most importantly of all, they will be vital to the development of the educational infrastructure that will equip the next generation of accountants.” – Brenda Lee Tang

Some people might think that accountants as “heroes” might be too strong a statement. However, I personally use Christopher Reeve’s definition of a hero:
“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”
I think it’s interesting that it is so hard to find articles that praise the work accountants and auditors do. Especially recently, it seems like every article about accountants is describing audit failures. There are hundreds of front page articles about alleged auditing mistakes, but none about  all the audits that are completed every year without any issues. Continue reading Accountants: Unexpected Heroes of the World