SWAG

Stuff we all get. That has been the theme for the accounting program thus far. The first week of the program there was a "Meet the Firms" evening where 40 or so firms showed up looking for students to have intern at there various locations across the world. Deloitte had a dinner provided by Cafe Rio (although by the time we got to the dinner they had run out of Cafe Rio and we got Little Caesar instead) and a presentation for potential Deloitte interns. It was really good to experience and gain a better understanding of what working for a Big 4 might be like, but best of all, Laura had her own presentation. They had all of us split off into seperate groups such as tax, audit, financial services, and spouses. Laura obviously went to the spouse meeting and had a great time learning of all the perks families get (as well as the long hours during busy season). Laura was most excited about the international opportunities provided by the firm and is now gung ho on living abroad at some point in our career.
The next excititng firm was Grant Thornton and their hot dog eating contest and their root beer contest. There, we met with some workers, including a freind of Steve DeVore who lives in Seattle, but couldn't talk much about internships because we cannot get recruited at this point of our education. Basically, it was not too informative, but pretty fun to be at.
I visited KPMG in the Wilkinson Center and was invited to a breakfast by the old Bishop of the Devore's of Valencia. He works in the tax department at KPMG in Los Angeles. Unfortunately I was not able to go because technically, the big firms cannot actively recruit members of the Jr. core this early on.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers had all members of the Jr. core go through a leadership training program that was unlike anything I had ever done. Because pitcrews from NASCAR and other racing circuits have to be so efficient, business people have been looking to the pitcrew for inspiration. PriceWaterhouseCoopers had us go through a training meeting where we learned leadership qualities while changing the tires of a real race car. I had a blast as I gunned the the two back tires in record setting time.
The last fun experience that has occured thus far was with Earnst and Young. Two individuals from Earnst and Young came and gave a seminar on how to be a better public communicator. We watched a great video created by a real pro who is hilarious and was very enteraining to watch.
In the end, the SWAG that we accumulated included items such as two mugs, a tee shirt, a hat, half a dozen pens, two water bottles, quite a few brochures, and a lot of free food. The only thing that we will do differently next year is try to get more SWAG to last us the whole year long.
All of these experiences have been very educational and very fun. Throughout the seminars and different meetings that the firms have held, Laura and I have been reminded how fortunate we are to be in a situation where we can have numerous opportunities given to us. We are very grateful to the Lord for blessing us so much.