Just a quick reminder gang – the deadline for the AccountingWEB Accounting Student Scholarship is tonight at midnight. So if you or anyone you know might be interested in winning some free money for college, I suggest you get on this ASAP.
We now return to your regularly scheduled inflammatory nonsense.
As previously discussed, the fall recruiting onslaught is a huge part of the major accounting firms’ strategy to keep as many bright-eyed and bushy-tailed auditors, tax and advisory professionals on staff. Some schools simply rely on their reputation for churning out dynamite candidates on paper to keep the firms coming back but what about other schools that don’t necessarily enjoy the sterling reputation?
Well for starters, you could burn those other schools to the ground. If doing a 6 to 10 stretch doesn’t work for your career plan, then perhaps getting your name out there before you meet the firms will help.
That’s exactly what the University of Tampa’s Beta Alpha Psi chapter is doing for their members – posting their photo, bio, résumés and email address to allow firms to get to know candidates prior to meeting on campus.
So far the feedback has been positive, including some from KPMG that was included in the chapter’s press release:
“It was a great resource for us to be able to recall the individuals that we had the opportunity to meet, and then easily review their goals and current status, and then further review their resumes. It allowed us to obtain quick and accurate information on those we met.”
Perusing around some of the other chapters like Texas, Notre Dame and BYU it’s pretty obvious that U. Tampa’s site is more interactive and easier to navigate. Plus, if you’re participating in the recruiting in the process for your firm, it’s a great way to prepare to meet recruits as opposed to the standard awkward small talk.
Kudos to U. Tampa BAP for getting their members names and faces out there. Hopefully other chapters will follow their example to engage more effectively with the firms in their cities and regions to assist members as they go through the recruiting process.
Maybe demands are a stretch but they do have some ideas of what they would like. CPA Success has a short list that covers stuff that isn’t related to money or free booze:
• Mentoring with senior people in your organization.
• An understand the big picture and why they are doing things.
• A career pathway or road map: What are the rules of the game and what do they need to do to get promoted?
• Flexibility when possible. They believe work is an activity, not a place to go.
• An open-door policy to the senior management.
• Involvement and a sense that they are valued for their talents and education.
How realistic do you, as the current members of the bean counter workforce, believe these to be? “Rules of the game” sounds a little like, “how do I get promoted without being good at my job”. Plus, “sense that they are valued for their talents” isn’t exactly a strong suit from what we hear.
Are students in for a rude awakening? Help them out people For the students out there, feel free to add other demands to the list, this can’t cover everything. Run with it.
It’s been far too long since we had a Big 4 dominated list to share with you. The last that we can dig up was PwC’s three-peat for Training 125. We were starting to get the shakes…
Thankfully the drought has ended with the latest list from Universum, who we last hear from in the fall with their 50 Most Attractive Employers.
This time around, it’s the Top 100 IDEAL Employers, that is described as “annual employer image survey…based on more than 163,246 employer evaluations, reflecting the opinions of approximately 56,900 Undergraduate students.” In the “Business” field of study, the Big 4 have, once again, landed high on the list:
Ernst & Young – #2
PricewaterhouseCoopers – #3
Deloitte – #4
KPMG – #6
FBI – #11
IRS – #23 (IRS 2, Sarah Palin 0)
Grant Thornton – #30
Accenture – #66
Frankly, the number beside the firm name is irrelevant. The firms will boast the latest ranking in press releases and on campus visits per standard operating procedure. This continues to demonstrate that the firms are impressing college recruits effectively. They are presenting the image they want to present and they are doing so with an ever increasing online presence. We will continue to see them high on these lists.