Tag Archives: melissa

Academics, CPA Exam, Melissa, Student Life

CPA FAQ

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My MPA friends and I at a recruiting event last week. With all this recruiting, the CPA exam is the last thing on our minds.

Hey everyone! A lot of my friends are starting to sit for the CPA exam and I realized that I probably don’t know enough about the exam or what it entails. There is so much online about the CPA exam and I will share some of my findings with you!

First, you have to qualify to sit for the exam. The AICPA does a great job at covering anything and everything you would want to know about qualifying for the exam in their Uniform CPA Candidate Bulletin.

Next, be sure to know the specific rules that your state requires. UT does a great job at helping MPAs to meet the Texas exam requirements. Some of which include: 150 semester hours and a BBA degree, 30 upper division accounting hours and 24 related business hours as well as a 3-hour ethics course. What is great about McCombs is that when we graduate we have met the educational requirements- even the ethics course!

As far as preparing for the exam, I haven’t started since I am just a third-year, but I know it takes a lot of disciplined studying. There are many different prep courses and I would definitely recommend talking to the 5th-year MPAs to see what they have used to study.

Lastly, there are 4 sections of the exam; Financial, Regulation, Audit, and Business. Since MPAs love acronyms and abbreviations, you’ve may have heard the sections referred to as FAR, REG, AUD, and BEC, respectively. FAR and AUD both contain 90 multiple choice questions and 7 task-based simulations. REG has 72 multiple choice questions and 6 task-based simulations. And finally, BEC has 72 multiple choice questions and three written tasks. It is quite a lengthy exam which is probably why each section is taken separately.

The CPA exam seems so far in my future, but it is good to be prepared before starting the process! Good luck, everyone!

Academics, Career, Melissa, Recruiting

Getting the final rose: MPA edition

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some of my favorite MPAs.

Every time a new season of the Bachelor or Bachelorette comes on, I try to avoid it, however if I happen to watch the first episode, I’m hooked. Going through MPA recruiting is a lot like the Bachelor. I promise I’m not crazy- so I will explain.

1. You must dress and act to impress. The bachelor isn’t all about looks. I’d parallel this to the fact that MPA recruiting is not all about your resume. Sure, the Bachelor probably looks for a few characteristics in the women the first time they meet, just as firms are attracted to certain things on resumes such as teamwork, community service, extracurricular activities, and a good GPA. However, as recruiting continues, it is less about your resume and more about who you are.

2. There must be a mutually agreed fit. As in any relationship, there must be 2-sides of respect.  There should be trust from both sides and there must be a genuine interest in mutual success. Whenever you recruit with the firm where you are meant to work, this will become a reality for you.

3. You have to be genuine or it won’t work out. Here’s the thing about the Bachelor- sometimes these girls (Courtney for those of you who watched Ben’s season) act one way with the other girls, and another way with the Bachelor. When you act like something you aren’t to impress someone, it won’t work out in the end. This is probably why 90% of Bachelor relationships end up failing. As you recruit and try to find your perfect fit (#2), you have to be genuine. You must be real and true to yourself and your beliefs. If you are lucky, your internship will turn into a full-time offer, which turns into a career. This being said, it is important to begin the student-firm relationship with a true and authentic attitude and be sure that it is the real you that the firm knows.

HOWEVER, there is one huge difference between MPA recruiting and the Bachelor. There is more than one rose in recruiting!

When recruiting is over, I guarantee that everyone will receive “the final rose” from the firm that is perfect for them, as long as you are true to yourself throughout the process. Good luck!

Career, Events, Feature, Melissa

And the Oscar goes to…

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Accounting firms in the public eye

Did anyone else see the PwC partners walking the Academy’s votes down the red carpet at the Oscars? There are a lot of things in the popular media that are actually done by accounting firms. The accounting nerd in me was really excited to see “PricewaterhouseCoopers” on the screen of the Oscars. So of course I snapped a quick iPhone photo, as displayed on the left. This spun me into some web research (Googling) about accounting firms in popular culture and I want to share it with you all.

PwC has been in charge of counting the ballots for the Academy Awards for 78 years, and the accountants in charge actually know the winners 48 hours ahead of the public. But even crazier is that, for all eternity, these partners know who came in second place, and are sworn to secrecy- probably because sometimes, the runner-up misses the Oscar by one vote. In the 78 years of counting ballots, there has been no security issues, leaked winners or miscounts. On the day of the awards, the two partners in charge take separate routes to Kodak Theater, with LAPD officers in tow. They both hold identical briefcases with one whole set of the winning envelopes. Also, they MEMORIZE the winners in case something happens to these briefcases. At the show, they stand in the wings and hand the envelopes to the presenters before they walk on stage. Sounds like a job I would LOVE to have!

It is interesting to note that after all the accounting scandals in the early 2000s, when the world looked down on the accounting industry, there were critics who actually raised suspicions that PwC was not to be trusted with the counting of the Academy Awards ballots. Of course, as I stated before, PwC has always handled the task with the upmost professionalism and accuracy, however, this was a reflection of the times.

Other instances of public accounting firms in popular culture:

  • E&Y counts the ballots for the Golden Globes
  • KPMG sponsors professional golfer, Phil Mickelson
  • Deloitte Sponsors the U.S. Olympic Committee
Academics, Employment, Melissa

Spotlight on MIS

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Imagine doing all your accounting on this paper!

Last week was the deadline for resume submissions for Spring MPA internships. It was a stressful process and it is such a relief to be done! That being said, I do not have much recruiting-wise to talk about in this week’s blog.

Instead, I am going to talk a little bit about another discipline that I believe is becoming increasingly important in the accounting industry. Management Information Systems, or MIS as it is known around McCombs, is essentially a technology/business hybrid. MIS focuses on bridging the gap between the business world and the computer science world, which is every so important as the distinction between those two fields begins to blur. If you are interested in MIS, you should definitely consider it as your minor.

If you saw the picture above, there is a good chance you didn’t know what that is. That’s ledger paper. Accountants use to use it to report journal entries and reconcile accounts. My Audit professor likes to show it to us occasionally to remind us how important technology is to the accounting profession today.

I stumbled upon a crazy article on Forbes.com this morning about how Target uses data mining in its operations. Data mining is “process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information – information that can be used to increase revenue, cuts costs, or both.” Target uses data-mining to discover which coupons/promotions are most appropriate for each customer. By analyzing customer’s purchases over time, Target professionals see patterns that they can then use to interpret buying habits of each customer. The Forbes article describes a situation where Target discovered, based on buying patterns, that a young girl was pregnant and thus, sent her coupons for diapers, cribs, etc. Her father was infuriated and insulted until he realized that his daughter actually was pregnant. Target is definitely not the only company using data mining- so be aware! I think data mining is so interesting, but there are certainly some critics who believe that we are heading towards a Big Brother situation with all of this personal data being stored by different companies.

Speaking of Big Brother, I love this 1984 Apple computer commercial.

Academics, Events, Feature, Melissa, Recruiting

Surviving my first week of career events

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Recruiting is all about finding your perfect fit among the firms.

It is the point in the semester where all of the firms hold “Career Nights” for the third-year MPAs. Essentially, it is a less formal information session paired with a networking reception. To mirror my blog about mock interviews, I will tell you a few things I learned this week.

1. You really will start to discover the firm where you will fit best. Originally, I approached that notion with skepticism, thinking there was going to be a consistency between the firms. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. By no means are there “good” vs. “bad” firms, but moreso you will start to see where your personality fits in.

2. Know what makes you fun/unique. Of course it is important to know what year you are, what track you are pursuing, where you want to intern, etc. But how long do you think you can talk about that in a networking setting? Not very long. It is great when you talk about where you studied abroad, your favorite hobby, or your favorite food in Austin. And when you connect with someone who also lived in Paris, or also loves P. Terry’s, it makes the conversation more memorable and personal.

3. Get business cards and send thank you emails. But, do this because you WANT to, not because you think it something you have to do. The professionals can tell if your email is genuine or if it is forced. Make it personal. Do not have a shell email with which you “fill-in-the-blank” for firm and professional’s name.

These are just a few tips- but hopefully you get an idea for what Career Nights are really about, and I hope that my advice helps you in the future.