<p>Glad to provide some insight. My best advice is to embrace the process and keep your head held high. Always put your best foot forward, learn from each interview experience, and keep on trucking along through the interview process. Whether someone likes you or thinks you are a good fit for their company is really out of your control. You do the best you can to show them the type of person you are and how you can create value. After that, the ball is in the company’s court.</p>
<p>I hope I will get to enjoy the process like you did. It sounds like sports free agency. I’m a sports freak so thats what im relating it to lol</p>
<p>If you are someone in high demand…it can be fun, but it is always stressful no matter what. Going through 50+ interviews (1 and 2 round of interviews at every place…interview count goes up in a hurry) and then all the emails and phone calls you have to field…all over the course of about a month. Also, all the “rejection” letters you have to send at the end if you were lucky enough to get multiple offers. So, it is ‘fun’ but it is also a lot of responsibility. Every email I sent I would read over 7-8 times to make sure everything checked out…it would sometimes take 45 minutes to send a basic email response, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t mess up. (A little OCD but I think necessary in recruitment; attention to detail matters). I enjoyed meeting so many professionals though.</p>
<p>If someone is being turned down by everyone they interview with, then it can be one of the most depressing experiences of his or her life. I’m very thankful for the opportunities I had; I have seem many classmates that still do not have any leads with less than 2 months of school remaining and most recruitment already over.</p>
<p>Goose… do you mind saying what school you went? and what is your GPA?</p>
<p>What will you say you have done differently compared to your peers at your school?</p>
<p>Congratz for all the job offers!</p>
<p>I’m with Goose, the process can be a blast if you like going to networking events and interviewing :)</p>
<p>I want to pass along a joke my son heard the other day that is very funny, and very true :)</p>
<p>An accountant dies and is given a choice between heaven and hell. He asks St. Peter if he can have a day to make the decision, and is given the opportunity to look at both.</p>
<p>He goes down to hell first and finds a beautiful golf green, where he plays a round, is wined and dined and chatted up. He’s thinking this is pretty great, but he wants to see heaven first.</p>
<p>Next, he heads up to heaven, and there are pretty clouds and angels playing instruments, but it seems boring compared to the fun he had in hell, so he tells St.Peter that he wants to go down to hell.</p>
<p>When he arrives, it is a stark, awful place, where people look like they’re miserable - tired and worn out. </p>
<p>He asks, “What the heck? When I was down here yesterday, everything looked wonderful!”</p>
<p>The devil responds, “That was your internship, now you’re an associate.”</p>
<p>Now, that my son’s internship is ending, and he’s worked with the associates, he’s seeing how true that joke is! ;)</p>
<p>Haha, I’ve heard that one before. All I have to say is, Big 4 is not for everyone.</p>
<p>^^hahah…very true.</p>
<p>Not sure how this hiring process works. My S just called and was offered a Spring Internship with Deloitte. He is currently a Junior. They also offered him full time employment following graduation. We were not anticipating a job offer before completing the internship of his Junior year! S also has three other Summer Leadership sessions lined up for this summer that he was hoping would lead to Spring internship. So his problem now is that he needs to let Deloitte know within a couple of weeks if he’ll accept their internship offer for next Spring. But he’d still like to participate in the Summer Leadership sessions with the other firms this summer. Can anyone give us any insight into how this might play out? Would it be awful for him to accept the current offer and then reject it later should a “better” offer arrise following the Summer Leadership sessions?</p>
<p>I don’t know about your son’s situation, but the way it worked for my son was, he started the recruitment process spring of his Junior year for spring of Senior year internships (he’s in 5 year masters program). The offers were first verbal, and then firm written offers that came with a bunch of information about the companies. He had a couple of weeks to decide which to go with and then sign the contract for the internship. There was no overt mention of offers of permanent employment after the internship, but since the internship is basically a training period for permanent employment, it is implied. </p>
<p>He just completed his internship, and just received the firm offer of employment after he finishes his masters. It was a verbal offer from a partner, and he will receive his contract to sign in the next couple of weeks. </p>
<p>He’s signing with the company he has been interning with, but he knows a bunch of guys who interned with one company, but then declined their offer and signed permanent with another. I don’t think it is particularly frowned upon in the industry, because it happens somewhat often, but I doubt very seriously you can go back and say, “woops, I made a mistake, take me back.”</p>
<p>I would encourage your son to explore every opportunity he has come his way. If he has to back out of the offer from Deloitte, he may have burned his bridge with them, but it is because he has a better offer from someone else.</p>
<p>OK, thanks Ag54. I haven’t seen anything in writing yet so hopefully that will clarify some things when son receives the letter/packet. I may be back in touch!!</p>
<p>I am interested in undergrad accounting programs and would be paying in-state tuition to UWM and Carlson and would pay significantly higher tuition at Olin. I was wondering (1) how these accounting programs are considered by recruiters for the Big4 and other accounting firms and (2) whether advantages of the accounting/general undergrad business program at Olin would justify the higher cost. Thank you for your opinions!</p>
<p>I would love to one day start up my own accounting firm…how difficult is this and what are the steps taken to achieve this?</p>
<p>Ag54, my S e-mailed to me today a copy of his internship offer letter AND a separate offer letter for permanent employment beginning in Fall, 2013. S is presently finishing up his junior year. As I mentioned earlier, this is quite unexpected. It seems as though the internship is contingent upon “accepting” their permanent employment offer. While S has an excellent GPA, we are surprised with the permanent job offer before the completion of his Spring internship. He had hoped to entertain offers from other firms before “committing” to one but it seems as though that may not be possible unless he accepts this offer now and then potentially “breaks” the agreement if he gets a better offer during the next two years of his schooling?</p>
<p>If your son’s offer is in the service line and location he wants to be in, and he knows he wants to work for the Big 4, accept it and be done with it. </p>
<p>In practice, there is next to no difference between the firms for a staff. He’s just another number. After recruiting, he won’t even be talking to any of these partners he’ll meet in these leadership PR nonsense events save a “hello” in the hallway. </p>
<p>If it’s the money you mean by “better offer”, just keep in mind right now you’re chasing what, 2-5k? Work for any Big 4 for 1-2 years and you can easily switch between them and get much more. This also applies if you end up in the rare bad office that really does have a poor culture.</p>
<p>Midwest Pop, that is weird! But, maybe different parts of the country do it differently? I don’t know. It seems strange to commit to a job in 2013 in order to secure an internship. He may find that he hates the company, or they may find that he’s not a good fit in the organization. I don’t know what I’d advise my son to do in your son’s situation. He obviously is a strong prospect and may get many other offers without the “strings attached”, but a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush!</p>
<p>Good luck!! </p>
<p>I want to add that from what my son said, there were less than 5 people who interned in his area that did not get permanent offers - and the stories he heard about why were pretty bad. IOW, you have to screw up royally to not get an offer -seems they do the major vetting process before offering internships.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thoughts. I guess at this point I’ll encourage S to accept the internship and see if he can “informally” accept the permanent employment offer without actually committing him!!</p>
<p>Employment is “at-will.” If he wants to quit his pseudo-FT job after the internship, then he has every right to do so. Accept the internship and FT offer and if he hates it or has something better roll along then drop the FT offer.</p>
<p>Thanks goose. Thanks probably the approach S will take. He doesn’t want to pass up on the internship but at the same time doesn’t want to committ himself to the FT job. Guess you’re right - he can always “quit” the FT job before he ever starts! So he’ll probably accept them both for now!</p>
<p>Taxguy or anyone,</p>
<p>You mentioned on the first page about the school being AACSB qualified but I checked out their website and i found two accreditations.</p>
<p>I just have a quick question what is the difference between AACSB Business Accreditation VS. AACSB Accounting Accreditation? The school I am planning to attend is AACSB business accredited but not AACSB Accounting accredited. Does it make a difference at all? The school is UH-Victoria branch. Thanks to any help in advance!</p>