Ryan Barrow - Audit Staff

Have you ever felt like you were just another face in the crowd at a recruiting event? Ever wonder if there is anything that you can do to distinguish yourself from other students when meeting firms? Great news! There are a few things that you can do to make that lasting impression that you so strive for.

For starters, make sure that you are confident and SMILE! Approaching a firm representative with a smile and knowledge of the firm goes a long way in making that lasting impression. Be sure to be prepared with intriguing questions that adequately communicate your interest. Ask about the firm culture and the people. Ask about the firm’s work/life balance. It is important to realize that most people choose their employer based on the firm’s culture and people, so be sure to ask!

Finally, follow up with the people you meet at any firm function. This may be the most important thing that you can do to make a lasting impression. Just the other day, I received a handwritten thank you note from a student that I met at a career fair. This shows initiative and is a really good idea! At the same time, do not feel as if you must handwrite a thank you note, a simple email will do.

Follow these pointers at your next recruiting event, and make that lasting impression that you are looking for!

John Payne - Audit Staff

Fall is just around the corner: fraternity parties, early morning tailgates and football Saturdays, but in the public accounting world it is recruiting season. Public accounting is a unique field regarding the hiring process. Rising juniors and seniors often live life aimlessly from weekend to weekend assuming that any major will guarantee them a position in the workforce. In reality, finding a secure, promising job after graduating is challenging. Accounting majors are blessed with the opportunity to weigh their career options before graduation. During the recruiting process not only do you learn about the public accounting firms, but you learn about yourself. Not many undergraduate students are given the chance to acquire an internship, especially one that results in a paycheck. My internship with PKM was rewarding in many ways. Along with the technical side of accounting, I learned how to adapt to the working lifestyle, manage time efficiently, and represent an organization. With that being said, I would strongly urge every accounting major to participate in an internship.

Five Tips to Remember for a Recruit

• Schedule as many interviews as possible, the more options the better.
• Ask the firm as many questions as they ask you. They should impress you as much as you impress them.
• Understand that no one expects you to be an accounting whiz; it is your eagerness to learn that should stand out.
• Don’t get stressed out, have fun with recruitment.
• Smile, be polite, and be yourself at all times.

Hopefully my five tips will help you throughout the recruiting process. There is a firm for everyone so have a stress free approach and keep an open mind. Being recruited is fun and also educational. Just remember it is not a life or death situation. You experience a public accounting job for a few months and get to go back to college and apply the knowledge you acquired, maybe even impress your professors with some accounting jargon. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.- Coach Vince Lombardi

Alison Derringer - Tax Intern

This summer there were 5 interns at PKM - Four in Audit and one in Tax. After collaboration we came up with some things new interns might want to know when coming to PKM. Hope this helps!

In General…

• You probably don’t know much or anything about what you are doing and everyone expects that, so always ask lots of questions instead of guessing.
• During training be extremely weary of sudden changes in your schedule such as flights out the next day and being double booked… it’s most likely a prank to see how you will respond!
• If you set your voice mail, don’t get creative with your access code, because you might forget it. You would need to contact Kim, who would contact the phone company and they will set your phone. It might take up to two weeks before you can retain access to your messages.
• Always lock your computer when stepping away. There are some pranksters at the office.
• Be prepared to speak in front of the entire firm at the intern dinner. You will be called out and stories will be told on any mishap you encountered!
• Don’t eat breakfast before you get to the office on Friday mornings because there is Krispy Kreme in the break room. Gaining weight during your internship will happen, just accept it!
• It might be a good idea to have a comfortable pair of shoes in your desk drawer. It is not fun walking down 18 flights of stairs in heels during a fire drill.

Audit Tips

• When talking with a client, act like you know what you are talking about, even if you don’t because confidence speaks louder than words.
• When doing a cash count, always take your calculator, pen and paper with you.
• Know what bait money and dye packs are and be careful handling them during cash counts! Bait money is strapped cash that is attached to an alarm in each teller drawer in case the bank is robbed. A Dye pack consists of strapped currency where the top two and last two bills are real currency and the middle bills are decoys that are filled with dye and explode when taken outside the bank.
• When you see the letters NCN, this means, “Not considered necessary”.
• When working with Candice, you must love Dolly Parton.
• All in-charges are different so be prepared to adapt to their style. For example, Candice has many unique phrases that you may have to ask for clarification on. (Scrolli-oli-oli means scroll down).
• Make sure you get rest before you travel to Cullman, Alabama because the client enjoys entertaining practically every day and night.
• Submit your time and expense report ahead of time whenever possible. When on an out-of-town engagement, you might have limited Internet access or the server might be down. It would be a good idea to have Margaret’s phone numbers on speed dial in your cell phone. Don’t get frustrated the first time you complete your time and expense report - it is confusing! Everyone is willing to help if you have any questions.

Tax Tips

• There might be days when you have nothing to do, enjoy them because when you cannot get your tax return to balance you will wish you had nothing to do.
• If you see a good snack in the break room, grab it, because if you don’t - someone else will.
• You can work on a couple of clients per day so make sure you keep up with your time. Also, if you are using the timer function in Practice Solution, make sure you stop it before going to lunch!

Jake Nadlicki - Audit Associate

We all know that employers are looking for great employees that will further the success of their companies, but that doesn’t mean they are looking for the “me first” and “star” mentality. In a February article from BusinessWeek, William C. Taylor focuses on the young and fresh talent that is looking to enter the workforce and gives them a little advice.

Taylor states, “The point of this exercise is not to land the fattest signing bonus or sign up with the ‘cool’ company of the moment. The point of this exercise is to do work you care about in a company that matters… achieving that goal means dialing down your short-term ambitions and recognizing the power of ‘humbition.’”

Now what exactly is this “humbition” he is speaking of? Jane Harper, a nearly 30-year veteran of IBM, explains it as: the subtle blend of humility and ambition that drives the most successful leaders—an antidote to the know-it-all hubris that affects so many business stars.

The article goes on to state, “I always urge new people not to worry about ‘getting credit or taking credit’ for great work. If they’re making bold moves, and developing good relationships, they will get more opportunities to grow and succeed. Don’t waste energy on worrying about whether everything you do gets noticed. It does.”

Cayci Moon - Audit Intern

I am the queen of doing silly things, especially when I get nervous. Here are a few of my blunders I had during my internship with PKM. These are to help so you do not have to ask the “silly” questions or sit and wonder what these crazy abbreviations are! I have spent the last two months here at PKM doing an audit internship and I am excited to go back to school and incorporate all my newly learned “audit jargon” into my daily vocabulary!

Things I wish I knew before I started

1. You do not have to ask to go to the bathroom (and believe it or not you can go anytime you want!)
2. P/f/w - pass further work
3. P/d/w- per discussion with
4. I/c/w - in connection with
5. Bus - is an abbreviation for business not a BUS (i.e. more than likely a bank will not have an “entertainment bus”).
6. Know the order of balance sheets and income statements.
7. Nonstandard Journal entry testing is not a gift.
8. Traffic is not the end of the world.
9. “It” happens.
10. If you act like you know what you are talking about, 9 times out of 10 the client will have no clue you are clueless, and visual samples of what you want are always helpful.
11. It is far better to be over dressed than to show up underdressed.
12. You will get fat during busy season.
13. Get everything you need from the client before you leave fieldwork, they tend to be a little slower through email than when you are in their office.
14. GOOGLE everything, it will help to keep you from asking a “silly” question.
15. When you go to talk to a client always take a pen and paper, I got the deer in the headlights look and sweating panic attack when a CFO starting spatting off a monologue about this account detail, knowing there was no way I was going to be able to remember it all!

Laura Snyder - Director of Marketing

Most experts agree that more than 90% of communications is non-verbal. While WHAT you say is obviously very important, HOW you say it is much more powerful. Misunderstandings often occur as a result of inappropriate and/or misinterpreted non-verbal cues. It is vital to understand the role non-verbal communication plays, both in knowing what others are really thinking, and what your own cues tell them about you. Non-verbal signals tell you what others think and feel. If you do not take into account non-verbal language, then you ignore over 90% of what they are saying.

Things to keep in mind: - Facial expression: the face can tell you whether someone is happy, surprised, sad, angry, afraid or disgusted. While they may try to hide these emotions with words, they are “leaked” through the face.

• Eye contact: the eyes communicate intimacy, interest and threat. To show someone you are interested in what they are telling you, be sure to maintain eye contact.

• Gesture: involuntary gestures such as touching the face, scratching, gripping the hands together, or putting the hands near the mouth often indicate intense emotions such as depression, elation or anxiety.

• Posture: posture conveys emotion, social relationship and social status.

• Touch: touch can be a valuable means of reassurance and of demonstrating understanding.

• Proximity: humans are highly territorial and have four spatial proximity zones: intimate, personal, social and public.

If you keep these things in mind, you will better understand others and be sure that you aren’t sending the wrong signals, particularly durning the interview process.