Hello everyone,

I have received the following pieces of information from a recent IPFW graduate on steps current IPFW students can do to jump start their careers.

1. Do your research and get to know the firms summer leadership
programs. I did a couple this past summer and the firms really rely on
those when it comes to placing interns. If students want to do public
accounting and are expressing interest in larger markets, applying to
the summer leadership programs is a great foot in the door. This may
be a valuable talking point for people talking with KPMG and will help the students get in their recruiting pipeline.

2. Click here for an article the Managing Partner from Grant Thornton
in Minneapolis sent me. It has some great takeaways for accounting
students looking to get hired as well as for companies. It is a little
lengthy. I just skimmed for points of interests.

Here a few additonal pointers that I have been hearing from local companies:

1. Always use bond paper to print your resumes on. It looks more
professional and some firms really notice it.

2. Always send a thank you note to a firm or business contact that you meet at AS meetings on campus. One student recently told me this was key to his landing of an internship.

3. Become a Student Member of the Indiana CPA Society. The
membership is free and will help you connect to several networking
opportunities. You can visit their website at incpas.org.

4. Attend as many AS events as possible. These are great ways to meet local and regional CPAs who can really help you network. Our next event is Firm Night on Tuesday Sept 14th. More information on this event will be sent out tomorrow.

5. Plan on taking the CPA exam as soon as possible after graduating.
At tonights meeting, a local CFO talked about how it is extremely
difficult to move up the private company ladder without the CPA
designation.

It is a tough job market out there so please use the above tips to
help improve your percentages of starting a long and successful career in accounting.

Take care,

Dr. Hanke,
Accounting Society Faculty Advisor