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Anyone who has ever been on a job interview knows the level of intimidation a silent stare from across the desk of a potential employer can cause.
Now, take away the desk, the stare, and the business suit. In fact, take away the entire office.
That was the idea behind the Beta Alpha Psi charity volleyball marathon, which pitted students from Temple University Ambler’s accounting majors against executives from some of the area’s largest accounting firms, according to Beta Alpha Psi (the national accounting honor society) president Kristin Johnston.
“Four firms came to the tournament and seven firms donated to the event. — Grant Thornton won the tournament. We were able to raise $2,300 for the United Way,” Kristin said. “There were at least 25 or 30 students there throughout the day.”
In addition to raising money for an excellent cause, the event also provided students with potential long-term benefits.
“The students were able to talk to executives in a setting that couldn’t be any less formal. It’s a lot less scary when they aren’t behind a desk,” Kristin said with a smile. “One particular girl hadn’t realized that the sign-up date for interviews with firms on campus had passed. By playing in the tournament, she was able to get an interview and get a job.”
Score one for the home team and head to the locker room.
While Kristin is of the firm belief that talking to an executive in shorts and a t-shirt is far more comfortable — mentally and physically — she really hasn’t had that luxury during the laundry list of interviews she’s undertaken to ensure that she has a job landed before May when Temple hands over her diploma and sends her out into the world.
“I’ve been doing everything lately but sleep. I feel like I’ve been going on interviews every other day,” she said. “I’ve had eight first-round interviews, mostly at the Main Campus, with various members of the big four firms — Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG. I’ve also met with two regional firms, Grant Thornton and RSM McGladrey, and I’m setting up an interview with Kreischer, Miller & Co.”
Being a student in the Fox School of Business and Management, Kristin said, means, “you really don’t ever have to run for the phonebook,” to set up interviews or research employers.
“Having access to FoxNet, I can post my resumé and search potential companies not just in Pennsylvania but across the country,” she said. FoxNet is an online job database program offered through the Fox School of Business and Management’s Center for Student Professional Development. All Fox students have a profile on FoxNet and can access its resources at any time.
So, since shorts and a t-shirt are out, just what does one wear to an interview these days?
“A navy suit, a skirt to the knees, a nice blouse, stockings, and nice shoes — not chunky or clunky,” Kristin said with a smile.
It’s an ensemble she had on display as a model in the Fox School’s Dress for Success Fashion Show earlier this month. She was one of several Fox students who portrayed the do’s and don’ts of dressing for business success.
“Trying to prepare for an interview, really every firm is different. Some just asked me to describe myself,” she said. “When I’m nervous I always say ‘um’ so there have been a lot of um’s lately. Fortunately I haven’t said ‘dude’ yet. That’s a plus.”
Preparing for potential questions can be quite an exercise in and of itself, Kristin recalled.
“I think ‘why do you want to work at this firm?’ is one of the hardest. I’ve found some of the second round interviewers ask some of the most off-the-wall questions,” she said. “I had one ask me how many gas stations I thought there were in America. Another asked me to describe my perfect day.”
That one stumped her.
“My perfect day could revolve around almost anything. I asked him what his perfect day would be,” she said. “He told me I was only the second person who had ever asked him.”
Before Kristin leaves the hallowed halls of Temple for the working world, however, there are a few things to take care of, like passing her courses.
“In Cost Accounting we’ve been reading Corporation Nation, a book that deals with a little bit of the politics involved in corporations. It looks at the Gilded Age of the 40s and 50s and compares it to today; they are surprisingly very similar periods,” she said. “It’s an interesting topic to look at right around the elections. Corporations put so much money into politics.”
In Cost Accounting, Kristin completed a paper for the Pennsylvania Institute of Public Accountants comparing the inner workings of principle-based accounting and standards-based accounting.
“Principal-based accounting gives you a broader agenda; you are allowed to think outside of the box more often,” she said. “Standards, or rules-based, accounting is very strict. I think principle-based allows accountants and auditors to judge more professionally what they believe should be done instead of corporations dictating what is done.”
Business Law for Accountants continues for Kristin without incident while Volleyball has turned into a bit of a headache…well, knee-ache actually.
“I hurt my knee and had to go to the doctor,” she said, “but it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t keep me out of it for long.”
It certainly didn’t slow down Kristin’s typically breakneck pace any that’s for sure. Her Beta Alpha Psi organization has managed to provide a different professional experience for its membership nearly every week throughout the semester.
“We recently visited Becker Conviser in Valley Forge, which offers CPA review courses,” she said. “We also took a field trip to Deloitte & Touche, which I think is a big benefit, particularly for the sophomores and juniors. They get to see what it is actually like in an office setting.”
One recent speaker gave the group a look into an all-together different aspect of the accounting profession — forensic accounting.
“It’s an up-and-coming field in accounting, a fairly new subject. Think of it as ‘CSI’ accounting,” she said. “You’re helping the courts and firms determine if fraud is taking place, how it happened, and who did it.”
Off campus, Kristin, who somehow still finds extra time in her schedule, continues to volunteer with the youth group at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Doylestown.
“We recently did a leadership and teamwork program at Camp Neumann in Warrington called High Ropes — you’re climbing walls, poles, various obstacles. It builds trust,” she said. “In the third climb my partner was Mark Farzetta (a communications major at Ambler who keeps the WRFT 1610-AM student radio station on the airwaves). You climb and walk to a point where two ropes become one. From the middle to the end, you have to work with each other or you’ll never make it.”
When all is said and done, Kristin has a simple view on free time…what little there is of it.
“When I have time to think…it’s nice.”
This is the second part of an “A Year in the Life” series featuring Kristin Johnston. Kristin, of Doylestown, was completing her Accounting degree at Amber at the time of the series.
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