Lifted from the comments in response to someone who pointed out the Big 4 don't make a habit of overstaffing Meet the Firms at University of Illinois at Chicago – that's if they show up at all:
There is no need to be bitter because that is the way it is. Unfortunately firms still go for the brand name schools with a legacy than relatively new schools like UIC (when comparing the legacy and history of DePaul, Loyola, Notre Dame, etc). It hurts more when we consistently send so many CPA candidates and still have a pass rate higher than close to all of Illinois schools.
Let me correct you on last years Meet the Firms though; Deloitte and KPMG had a fully staffed table. However, last year Deloitte was the only one who recruited both full-time and interns for summer and fall. KPMG came but only for interns in the winter.
Traditionally, PwC sources their interns through their Chicago Honors Program participated by students from multiple local schools including UIC, DePaul, Loyola, and Roosevelt.
E&Y is the only firm missing, which strikes me as odd, considering they claim all the buzz words including diversity and equality, when UIC is undoubtedly one of the most diverse schools in the nation.
That's not exactly true. In order, the top Illinois schools (in terms of CPA exam pass rates in 2011) were the Illinois Institute of Technology (seriously), Olivet Nazarene, Trinity, Wheaton and Northwestern rounding off the top 4 with 66%. UIC? 56.8%. That's good but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's higher than close to all of Illinois schools. No need to overcompensate. In fact, the overall Illinois pass rate was 51.0% (including first-time exams and retakes) so really that's not really that much more impressive.
Still, the UIC recruiting diss appears to be true. Anyone else have any insight to share into the Illinois campus recruiting process?
Just as Washington is finally passing a bill that will reduce unnecessary risk-taking by financial institutions, here comes this commercial from KPMG in the UK doing the opposite. KPMG parties like it was 2005 and sub-prime was a bad cut of steaks. The commercial celebrates risk-taking in a manner that only a BP executive could rationalize deepwater offshore drilling.
Almost everything is wrong with this commercial:
Its heroes, a man and a woman, presumably KPMG employees, are living in a risky world. Risk is all around them, from the moment they get up. But don’t worry. These two nitwits know how to engage in risk management. Mostly in jingle and parkour, in fact.
Wikipedia tells us that Parkour “is where participants jump, vault, and climb over obstacles in a fluid manner. Skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves are employed. The object of parkour is to get from one place to another using only the human body and the objects in the environment. The obstacles can be anything in one’s environment but parkour is often seen practiced in urban areas because of the many suitable public structures available such as buildings and rails.”
The two heroes run, jump, flip over and take maniacal risks along the way to the office. Along the way the tag line, “Turn Risk Into Advantage”, is reinforced by embedded messages, in case we did not get the main theme”: “Know Risk, Know Reward”, “Do You Have The Risk Appetite For Success?” “Always Be Ready For The Unexpected.”
I actually like the “Turn Risk Into Advantage.” It is clever, memorable, and summarizes nicely what corporations are seeking in risk management advice. Yet it is completely overshadowed by the flip execution and the manner that suggests that KPMG employees, and by extension KPMG, take risks haphazardly.
Besides being out of context and lacking a narrative, the commercial ends on a cheesy note: upon arriving into the KPMG office and performing obligatory back flips, the couple race up the stairs, looks over the rail, look at each other, smile, and decide not to jump and take the elevator instead. This is a sensible move, perhaps the first one in this commercial.
Risk management is an essential practice, and perhaps as this advertising suggests, more in need than ever. Yet, it is not clear to me why the issue cannot be addressed heads on and intelligently. The irrelevant “packaging” simply detracts from the appeal of the practice.
Avi Dan is President & CEO of Avidan Strategies, a New York based consultancy specialized in advising professional service companies on marketing and business development. Mr. Dan was previously a board member with two leading advertising agencies and managed another.
Barry had a [recent] session in LA at which time he said essentially the following about comp:
1. Raises and bonuses will be distributed this year
2. Raises and bonuses will be larger than last year, but are unlikely to return to “pre-recession” levels any time soon
3. More people will be receiving raises and bonuses this year
Unfortch, Deloitte doesn’t seem to be getting involved in the pissing match with E&Y and PwC by putting a number out there but “more people” and “larger” are both somewhat encouraging, no? Well, not really, according to our source:
To my knowledge, we’re not getting any more info. On the people side; the video didn’t say anything new and everybody knows that the economy’s getting better and that Deloitte’s doing better; so we all assumed it was going to be like he said. Without a number benchmark, words are pretty much useless.
Before you go!
Are you Looking for a fresh accounting career opportunity?
Going Concern now has thousands of open accounting jobs.
Lifted from the comments in response to someone who pointed out the Big 4 don't make a habit of overstaffing Meet the Firms at University of Illinois at Chicago – that's if they show up at all: