Less than thrilling news out of the Denver office of PwC as a source has filled us in the firm’s plans for tax graduate students:
“PwC told tax graduate students at the University of Denver that they werent [sic] hiring again until September 2011.”
We touched on this last month, as campus recruiters have found that their intern pipelines will end up filling their full-time budgets for the following year. We can only assume that students specializing in tax at the other schools that P. Dubs-Denver visits are being told the same thing. If you’ve got news on firms’ hiring expectations at your school, discuss or drop us a line at tips@goingconcern.com.
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University of Tampa Wants Accounting Firms to Get to Know Beta Alpha Psi Members with New Recruiting Tool
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.
Better Learn to Like that Intern
Time to give a little love to everyone’s favorite prank victims, the interns. The word on the street is that this year’s dinner delivery specialists at the major firms will serve as the major pipeline for next year’s fulltime hires.
According to our source, next year’s budgets for much of the audit, tax and advisory service lines for the Big 4 will be met if all of this year’s interns accept their offers. And unless they’ve all suffered serious brain injuries, we’re guessing they’ll be accepting those offers.
More, after the jump
What hell does this mean? Well, in years past, the firms have had large budgets to go back to campus and hire additional new staff in addition to the offers that they made to the crop of interns from the previous year. And just like merit and bonus pools, the hiring budgets have shrunk to the point of the absolute bare minimum. Why? Because no one is jumping from the sinking ship like in years past.
So for you interns out there, it sounds like if you’ve got an internship you better learn to love that firm because if you decide it sucks, finding a fulltime gig at another Big 4 firm will be next to impossible.
Your Words Say, ‘I want this job’ but Your Body Language Says, ‘I’m really interested in my shoes’
It’s our understanding that there are still interviews to go before offers are made so we thought we’d discuss some not so good things to do while you’re sitting across from your interrogator.
U.S. News & World Report lists 15 ways to annoy your interviewer and we’ll expand on a few to get the ball rolling:
• Knee jiggling or finger drumming – Performing the Wipe Out drum solo is typically frowned upon in any social setting. Double thumbs down during an interview.
• Playing with your pen – No one is impressed by your David Letterman-esque flipping technique.
• Checking your cellphone – Um, yeah.
• Nail biting; Sniffling; Picking at, rubbing, or scratching any part of your body – Bodily functions, while a fact of life, should be controlled as much as possible. If you think you’re going to explode, just internalize and try to keep your eyes from watering.
• Smiling too much (or not smiling at all) – On the one hand, permagrin is totally acceptable if you’re planning to engage in a Seth Rogen marathon. Not so if you’re trying to get a job. If you’re totally incapable of smiling, this is also not good. Your mortician face will not go well around the office.
This is just a starting point. Since your life experiences are far more interesting, kindly discuss your strangest encounters as an interviewer or an interviewee. Since we’ve already discussed the words that are actually coming out of your mouth, we’ll ask that you stick with non-verbal faux-pas.