By: Daisy Pham

Accounting Meet the Recruiter is always an important event for those pursuing an accounting degree or even finance degree. A flock of top accounting firms and some corporations in the Indiana area come to this event looking for top students. I was very fortunate to have only gone to this event once looking for a “career” my sophomore year, and hopefully, it will be the only time I have to.

As you may know if you follow my blog even sporadically, I interned with Ernst and Young, a “Big 4” accounting firm, last summer and will be interning with them again Spring 2012. I worked hard to establish a great relationship with the firm and developed some pretty intense firm loyalty, and when I offered to help at Meet the Recruiter, I was thinking I would help set up and hand out swag (or as Michael Scott from The Office say “Stuff We All Get”). It turned out that I did do those things, but also, I was going to speak to potential recruits and help recruit!

I wasn’t nervous in the sense that I wasn’t comfortable answering questions people had. I can spit out Ernst & Young facts just as good as any employee. I was nervous about talking to fellow classmates who were looking to be part of the firm. It’s a fine line of a) (s)he is a friend, b) s(he) is a solid student, and c) I didn’t want to seem biased. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it was definitely awkward sometimes. The most awkward/weird position I was in was when I talked to people in the Kelley MBA program or MSA program or people who have already graduated and were working on their CPA already. They would ask about me, and I would respond with something like, “Oh, … I’m actually only a third year undergraduate student.”

Being on the other side created immense gratitude from within me and appreciation for my luck thus far. I am sure that all my colleagues here at Kelley Indianapolis will find something no matter what though – considering we are one of the top 10 business schools.