CAREER FAIR LEADS TO INTERNSHIPS
A range of firms and companies recruit at the Adkerson School of Accountancy each year, knowing they will find highly educated students who are prepared for the professional environment. The annual ASAC Career Fair is a primary venue where representatives meet our students and decide whom to interview not only for employment but also for internships.
The 2016 Career Fair – sponsored by ASAC, the MSU Career Center and Beta Alpha Psi – was held August 31 at The Mill Conference Center in Starkville. It was well attended, with more than 167 students present and 28 firms and companies represented. One result was that 2016’ s numbers of employers and interns has been significantly higher than ever before, with 22 firms and organizations hiring 65 ASAC students. Internships allow our students to try out a particular firm or field of accounting while providing professional experience that gives them an edge when beginning their careers. It is not uncommon for full-time offers to be extended to them upon completion of their internships.
The following firms have hired ASAC interns for the spring and summer of 2017:
BKD Brenda Nicols-Freeno, CPA Carr, Riggs & Ingram CBIZ MHM Deloitte Dixon Hughes Goodman Ernst & Young FedEx
Georgia-Pacific Haddox Reid Eubank Betts HORNE International Paper Jackson State University KPMG Matthews Cutrer & Lindsay MSU Poultry Science Department
PACCAR PwC Reynolds, Bone & Griesbeck T. E. Lott & Company Warren Averett Watkins, Ward and Stafford offer counsel on what might be the best fit. Dr. Alan Stancill helped him prepare for his Southwest interview, reviewing financials and identifying questions to ask. Preparation was vital – the company had some 25,000 applicants in 2016 and the previous year had hired 311 interns.
Both of these ambitious
Hannah Skurzewski students will ultimately have three internships under their belts. Skurzewski has accepted another internship with Georgia-Pacific for next summer in Lexington, KY. Taylor interned with Senator Roger
Wicker during his sophomore year. His tasks ranged from giving Capitol tours to constituents to gathering the Senator’ s briefing materials, but he was also able to sit in on meetings that interested him and gained new perspective on laws that govern accounting.
“ One of the senior advisors on staff had helped draft the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The semester before, I had been reading about it in class, and now I was talking to the people who had written it!” he shares, noting that all his internships will give him insight in determining a career path and the type of location and atmosphere he prefers.
Skurzewski’ s internships have affirmed her choice of the accounting profession and redoubled her commitment to her studies.
“ They were very different types of work, but both have helped me to know it’ s all worth it!”
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