Category Archives: Career

recruiting, internship, professional development, career workshops and events

Career, Paul

Internship Series: I. Embarkation

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Rolling down the interstate, gazing in awe as the Hill Country slowly becomes vibrant with the life of spring, I begin to reflect upon the experiences of the past ten weeks. I turn up Led Zeppelin on the radio and try to make sense of a whirlwind of the emotions endured from invincibility to hopelessness to redemption. Finally, once I’m in range, I switch from Zeppelin to KVET only to be reminded, “Ain’t it great to be alive in Austin, Texas?” Thus, as I was constantly reminded during my internship, it was time to stop worrying for a while and just enjoy the rest of the day.

Back in Austin, I will follow up my Recruiter Series with an Internship Series. (Note—As per MPA guidelines, I will not refer to any organization or person by name.) As my usual tradition though, I’ll start with tidbits. So, while I was auditing…

Bust out your DANCIN’ SHOES!

In case you haven’t noticed from all of my other blogs, I’m a tremendous college hoops fan! Anyone that knows me personally knows that I will temporarily change my major from Accounting to Bracketology. The NCAA Tournament is one of the only events I will actually wake up early to watch. (The other being the National Spelling Bee; I’ll save a lot of blog for that in June.)

The Longhorns earned a #4 seed in the tournament and will face Oakland on Friday. The Horns finished second in the Big XII this year and take a balanced attack into the tournament. If they win, then they’ll face the winner of Arizona and Memphis. Both Arizona and Memphis are in the tournament for the first time under second-year head coaches Sean Miller and Josh Pastner; should the Horns win on Friday, they’ll have their hands full on Sunday with either of these teams.

Congratulations to two future Longhorns

This is a shout-out to two fellow interns who were accepted into the Texas MPA program traditional approach in February. Congratulations, and I cannot wait to see you on campus in the fall!

Hello, Audit Team!

It was also discovered during my final engagement that I blogged for Texas MPA, so this is a shout-out to my team! Thank you all for making so much time fly by! (From now on, queso will always hold a special place in my heart.)

Okay, so about that internship…

What was this internship? Continue reading Internship Series: I. Embarkation →

Academics, Career, Karen, Student Life

Life in the real world begins…

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So, where have I been all this time? Well, after that fall semester roller coaster ride, the spring semester has been an outer space kind of journey.

It began with my early and short spring semester that actually started on January 4. I was in an accelerated six-week program, where I took two three-hour graduate classes before I went out for my public accounting internship in the middle of February. Oh boy, it was intense! There was never a day that I did not think about Corporate Tax. I only had classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., but I did not feel I had a weekend off, at all. From group projects, homework assignments, essays, and readings, the accelerated semester would constantly keep me on my toes. Nonetheless, even though it was not an easy semester, I am glad to say that everything I learned from it will stick with me. It gave me confidence that I have some knowledge to take with me during my internship.

And so my life in the real world has begun. The first week was training, where I met interns from other universities, as well as other students interning in different locations within the southwest region. The first week gave me reassurance that even though I don’t know everything I possibly can about accounting, the MPA program has transformed me into a determined knowledge-seeker. I never thought I would say this, but when the firm’s senior managers talked about doing tax research effectively, I got so excited about it because the MPA program has prepared me for it well. Also, seeing Form 1120, Schedules M-1 and M-3 didn’t daunt me as much either. I may not be an expert in filing tax returns yet, but I’ve seen them before and filled them out in my classes.

The second week was my first real work week. As a tax intern, I was told by many that I would just stay in my cubicle every day and would not have the chance to travel or interact with the client. My experience, however, has proven this wrong, because I do not go to the office now. I’ve been out working with my team at the client site, and it has been a great learning opportunity. So far, I’ve been learning how to navigate the software and workbooks the firm uses, and familiarizing myself with several international tax forms and how information flows through them. To be honest, it was an information overload, and I never thought that there is still so much to learn in the accounting field, even though I’ve taken several accounting classes already.

Everything is happening very quickly, and I am ready for the future weeks to come. Work will start coming in and I am looking forward to it. Who knew doing taxes can be exciting?! Well, my life in the real world has truly taken off…

Career, Paul, Student Life

Recruiting Series: III. The Attitude

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This segment is almost as embarrassing for me to write as it may be for you to read. It is imperative that although public accounting firms recruit Texas heavily, we are not by any means entitled to any sort of job or internship. As my usual custom though, let’s start with some tidbits since my last installment.

Artillery Fire Between North and South Korea

After North Korea warned South Korea not to participate in military drills near their sea border, South Korea responded by firing artillery, albeit away from North Korean shores. North Korea retaliated by shelling Yeonpyeong. The skirmish lasted an hour. For more, read here.

Former Player of the Year Kevin Durant (35) and Coach Rick Barnes; Barnes earned his 500th victory last night over Sam Houston State.

Congratulations to Coach Rick Barnes

Coach Barnes earned his 500th victory last night with Texas’ win over Sam Houston State. Barnes (500-250) is the 12th active coach to achieve the milestone and only the 50th in NCAA history. Congratulations, and I look forward to supporting the team this Saturday against Rice.

BA 324…Again…

I was going through the New York Times site earlier today, and I stumbled upon an article called Numbers in the News. This post shows how the New York Times style manual would handle certain sentences and their syntax. This is BA 324 heaven from probably the most renowned periodical in the country. Oh, and there are previous articles in this post also, so feel free to read older posts as well. (You know you want to…) Anyways, this serves as a good refresher, especially if you are GMATting, LSATting, or writing any sort of publication within the next couple of months.

Anyway, on to topic.

The Attitude

This episode is going to be short, mostly because there aren’t any sorts of steps or tips to make, other than to ensure that you enter recruiting with the correct mindset. Make no mistake about it—you are applying for a job. So yes, while you have the array of bright lights and glamorous recruiting events, at the end of the night, you better remember you are going to work with your recruiters and you better be able to account!

Be a Pro!

I know it’s weird trying to be cool while also being professional—at the outermost layer, these two almost seem to contradict each other. How can you do it? Continue reading Recruiting Series: III. The Attitude →

Academics, Career, Paul, Student Life

Recruiting Series: II. How do I study during Recruiting Season?

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This past week, I spoke to the ACC 151 classes about recruiting (i.e. the things I did well, the mistakes I made, etc.). This question came up that I feel needs extra attention. As my usual blog format though, first I’ll talk about some of the tidbits of the week!

Could you really use a wish right now?

Well stop looking for airplanes, silly! The annual Leonid Meteor Shower started on Wednesday. The shooting starts you’ll see are the remnants of a comet (Tempel-Tuttle) that passes through the system. When I was eleven, a couple of friends and I drove out to the middle of desert outside El Paso to see it, and it was awesome! I’m not sure where I’d drive here in Austin, but if you have a chance to see it, do it.

Giunta received the Medal of Honor Tuesday.

Congratulations to Salvatore A. Giunta

The staff sergeant received the Medal of Honor from President Obama this past week. Giunta “placed himself in the line of fire…to try to save his fellow squad-mates and to protect and comfort a dying American soldier.” Giunta was serving in Afghanistan. We thank you and commend you on your bravery!

New World Record

This is kind of off-topic, but I thought it was cool. A new world record was set this past week for the tallest married couple. Check it out.

Anyway, onto topic!

How do I study during recruiting season?

This is a very good question. As I told the ACE classes, the workload you undertake is a choice that you need to make based on your own personal characteristics. I would recommend that this is not the semester that you want to try to take more classes than usual. Here’s a quick background on the justification for my recommendations:

The Suzuki Method

If you didn’t know before, you’ll hear it now. I’ve studied the violin for more than19 years under this method. This method was started by Shin’ichi Suzuki of Japan; his rationale was that if a skill was nurtured for a period of time, then a student could learn a skill the same way one learns to speak a new language. (No, I’m not going to get into nature versus nurture.) Suzuki recommended repetition, to a degree, until the student gained “intuition” of the skill he was trying to accomplish; this type of learning is a process, and learning the nuances of a skill does not occur overnight. (There are, of course, many other factors involved in the Suzuki Method, but I will focus mainly on those I feel are apropos to helping MPA students.) For further reading on the philosophy, read Suzuki’s book Nurtured by Love or check out this synopsis.

Are you basically going to introduce us to the Suzuki Method…of Accounting?! Continue reading Recruiting Series: II. How do I study during Recruiting Season? →

Academics, Career, Riny, Student Life

When All Else Fails, Go With Your Gut!

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Professor Jeri Seidman
Professor Jeri Seidman

People don’t necessarily make better decisions when they are more informed. I think intuition is more important than information, most of the time. In the book, Blink, bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell talks about how people often make great decisions based on an inner feeling. It’s a really good read.

Anyway, I found this to be true (at least for myself) this semester.

I really like my Intro to Tax with Professor Jeri Seidman, not because I love learning about rules (or more appropriately, their exceptions) though the night, but because of the way they focus on preparing students for real work (and world) issues. For example, I was watching the MSNBC show, “Meet the Press” last week and David Axelrod, White House senior adviser, was talking about the some challenges associated with extending the Bush tax cuts. I appreciate some of the problems he was talking to a much larger degree now, more so because Professor Seidman had briefly talked about about them in class. And that feels good. Another speaker (whom I don’t remember now) was talking about why there there may be no real correlation between tax cuts and job creation, which I found pretty interesting as well. I ended up discussing some of these topics during an interview, and found myself really getting along with the person who was interviewing me! (Side note – regarding bringing politics into interviews – I would say…Please don’t do it!) However, the fact that I had an opinion was something that my interviewer really liked. And his responses and questions really helped me gauge the culture of the firm I was interviewing with. Basically, what I think I am trying to say is, I have found myself leaning towards firms for inexplicable reasons. People always talked about “culture-fit” and I thought that it was just a lot of nice sounding words. It’s not. Many of my classmates also talk about “gut feelings” and how they have helped make their decisions about which firms to join. I really believe that is what it boils down to for most people. Feeling comfortable.

So what is the culture at UT? Well, the culture is defined by the people here. And what words would I use to describe them?

Energetic? Yes, for sure.

Ethical? Yep.

Professional.

Fun.

But what makes faculty and students at UT stand out?

….Being here for three months, I would  say it is the standards they strive for.

So, if you ever find yourself trying to make a decision for school, work or anything else…and you have some tough choices, try narrowing them down based on instinct. And if UT is one of those choices, just think to yourself: Do I want to be with people who set the bar high? If you answered yes, then you would fit right in!