Tag Archives: advice

Academics, Employment, Feature, Melissa, Recruiting, Student Life

“Okay, employers don’t REALLY look at my Facebook, right?”

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WRONG!

YOU control your online persona

For me, Facebook has always been a positive thing- barring it’s impeccable ability to distract during finals week. Facebook is an efficient way to keep up with old friends and family, and to stay in touch with friends around the world. It is often entertaining, and merely a way for everyone to share their life with each other. However, Facebook is not all fun and games.

Facebook holds us all to a new level of accountability. There are countless stories of employees who have misled their employers. And now, in a world governed by social media, employees’ indiscretions are being discovered via Facebook. Take, for example, the story of Kevin Colvin, a NYC bank employee who asked off for a family emergency that just so coincidently landed on Halloween weekend. When pictures surfaced of Colvin in costume celebrating the holiday, he was promptly discovered. Many other employees have chosen Facebook as their channel of communication with which to rant about their employer, and thus are discovered as well.

While recruiting –and even when you secure a job– it is important to remember that your Facebook is NOT completely separate from your work life. Any online representation of you is free to the public. Anything that you post online should match the reputation that you are trying to withhold.

What it all boils down to, is that if you question whether or not something should be posted online, the answer is probably that it shouldn’t.  Be smart about what you post because you aren’t just sharing it with your friends, you are sharing it with the internet- aka anyone who inquires.

Sidenote: If you read through this and thought, “Oh, this is ridiculous. Obviously this girl doesn’t understand that Facebook has privacy settings.” Although a valid point, Facebook updates often reset your settings back to “default” (not private!) and anyway, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Academics, Allison, Student Life

Challenge Yourself and Keep Giving Thanks

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A student in my valuations class taking diligent notes and having fun while doing it!

As I come back from of the Thanksgiving holiday, I realize it is almost the end of my first semester here.  As one of my professors said, it takes forever to get to Halloween, but once Halloween comes, the rest of the semester flies by.

I wanted to talk a little about one of the specific classes I am taking right now.  It is my Valuations class in the finance department.  Finance is not one of my strong suits, I will be one of the first to admit that, but I know its great importance in the accounting field and more in the business world.  I took an intro to finance in undergrad and again in an accelerated course here at UT.  I was very ambitious in making my schedule and decided to take the accelerated valuations class for the second half of the semester.  During orientation, we had a faculty panel when several professors gave the advice to challenge yourself, take the hardest classes you could and the classes in which you are least confident.  Needless to say, I took this advice and registered for valuations even though it was not a requirement for my degree.  (Other advice I was given included to take as many accounting and finance classes you can, as well as to take courses outside of your track i.e. tax classes if you are in the audit track and audit classes if you are in the tax track in order to broaden and deepen your knowledge.)

As the first half of my semester went along, my intro to finance class proved to be a lot more difficult than I had imagined.  The whole time I was thinking – what am I going to do in valuations?!  Why did I ever think I could do more advanced finance when I cannot even do this?!  I ended up doing fine in finance, but let’s just say, not with flying colors. Continue reading Challenge Yourself and Keep Giving Thanks →

Events, Feature, Student Life

New Batch of Bloggers

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Meet (back row) Paul,Alexandria,Valerie, Xinmiao, (front row) Karen, Melissa, and Allison.

We are happy to welcome our newest batch of student bloggers. As MPA students, they have a unique perspective of the college experience. Being a part of the top program for accounting can be very challenging but it is also very rewarding.
Follow them as they share their visions of what it means to be a part of McCombs MPA, live in Austin, and balance the tricky world of fun and education. For new students and old, these writers have tons of helpful tips and real world experience for you to learn from.

Welcome Paul, Melissa, Karen, Allison, Valerie, Alexandria and Xinmiao. You can learn more about each of the writers in their profile pages.
   

With so much going on in Austin and in Accounting, there is certainly a lot to blog about.