Recruiting

I just finished an incredibly exhausting week but I had a ton of fun.

In my last post I mentioned that I interviewed with 5 different accounting firms for internships this coming fall. I interviewed with the “Big 4” (Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG) and a smaller firm called Protiviti. I found out the following week that 3 of these firms (Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC) liked me and wanted to continue recruiting with me.

The PPA program regulates what these firms can and cannot do when they recruit us. This past week was “open week” where all of the firms brought people down and could have as many events as they wanted. Basically the entire week I went from one event to another - all day, everyday. The events were lots of fun but doing all that stuff plus talking to lots of people and trying to impress them and getting to know as many different people as I can and getting to know the personalities of each firm was pretty tiring.

This was my schedule this week:

On Monday, I went to work for a couple hours, had breakfast with Deloitte, played golf with PwC, went to 2 classes, had dinner and played Bingo with KPMG, went to dessert with PwC, and then went to Impact prayer meeting.

On Tuesday, I went to breakfast with PwC, went to 2 classes (w/ quizzes in both), had lunch with KPMG, went bowling with Deloitte and then we had the night off to go to Aggie Muster, which I went to with a couple of my friends.

On Wednesday, I worked for a couple of hours, went to lunch at a restaurant on the lake with Deloitte, went skeet shooting with PwC, went to a baseball tailgate with Deloitte and had dinner at Excell Steakhouse (i.e. one of the nicest restaurants in CS) with a partner from KPMG.

On Thursday, I went to 1 class, went to lunch with PwC, hung out at Research Park with Deloitte, went to another class, went bowling with KPMG, went to a crawfish boil with Deloitte, and then went to another dinner at The Republic (also one of the nicest restaurants in CS) with PwC.

On Friday, I went to breakfast with PwC, lunch with Deloitte, hung out at the Rec with KPMG, then helped set up for Impact retreat and when we found out we didn’t have to stay for the actual retreat, a couple of the Crew girls and I went to a Dave Barnes concert in downtown Bryan.

This coming week is “restricted week” and each firm has 24 hours to do whatever they want, so I just have 2 events with each firm and I won’t have to choose between events.

I have a pretty good idea right now who I want to go with, assuming I get an offer. In May I’ll get to do an office visit with each of the firms and meet more people that I would potentially be working with. If all goes well, I will be doing my internship in the fall and then will get to be back in College Station for 3 more semesters before I graduate.

I can’t even believe that this is really happening. I have friends that are graduating in May and don’t know what they’re going to do because it’s hard to find jobs right now and here I am, not even close to graduating and I have 3 firms wining and dining me – it’s crazy.

As much as I try to ignore it, I really am growing up and it won’t be very long before I have a real job and will be pretty much on my own. Even though I love college, I’m excited to see what this next stage of my life will be like.

6 months later...

Well it's been 6 months since I last posted on this blog. This hiatus was somewhat intentional, but nonetheless I thought I'd give a quick update.

Last time I wrote I had just gone to an informational for the PPA program, the 5-year professional accounting program at A&M. Well, turns out I applied for the program, got accepted and am in the middle of the recruiting process for internships now. I had 1 interview this past week with Protiviti (a risk and business consulting firm) and have 4 interviews coming up this week with all of the "Big 4" public accounting firms. If these firms like me, I'll go through a process of recruiting where they will host lots of events and I'll get to meet their people and get a feel for the culture of each company and hopefully end up with an office visit in May. After office visits they will extend job offers. If all goes according to plan I should be spending the fall semester in Dallas working at one of these firms.

What's cool about having an internship this fall is that I will get a small taste of the real world. I'll have a real job working on real clients doing real accounting work (scary but true) but then I will get to go back and be in college again for another year and a half. I love college and am not in a hurry to get out anytime soon so I'm really glad I don't graduate for another 2 years!

Another cool thing is that I'm in Austin right now hanging out with my parents. They are here just for a week, doing a conference over the weekend, so they will be flying back to Greece on Monday. They actually will be coming back semi-permanently (meaning they don't currently have any plans to go back overseas but things are still up in the air) on June 1 so I'm excited about that! They will be temporarily living in Brenham, TX which is only about a 45 minute drive from College Station. It will definitely be an adjustment to go from being 6000 miles away from them to being 50 miles away but I'm still happy that they'll be close by.

If anyone reads this and wants to keep up with me I wouldn't necessarily suggest relying on this blog since I clearly don't update very often. I recently decided to try out Twitter and although I don't really know if I'll stick with it, I can pretty much guarantee that it will get updated more than this. The twitter updates are short and sweet but it should give you a feel for what's going on in my life. To check out my twitter go to http://www.twitter.com/amylmarks

Old

I’m growing up. And that’s scary.

I went to an informational tonight for the Professional Program for Accounting (PPA) here at Mays Business School. The PPA program is a 5-year program where I will get my BBA in Accounting and an MS in some other business degree at the end of my 5th year. Assuming I get into the program I’ll start being recruited for internships this spring. It’s a pretty cool deal. The program has developed a little bit of a prestigious reputation among accounting firms so the “big 4” accounting firms as well as some middle market and industry firms come in and basically pamper you and try to get you to come do an internship at their firm.

I found out a couple things tonight that I didn’t know (or had heard but didn’t know for sure). For one, if I do the track of PPA that I’m currently most interested in (Management Information Systems) I’ll be doing my internship next fall. Yeah, that’s right. Less than a year from now I’ll be employed. At a real job. With real accountants. Doing real accounting stuff. That blows my mind. I feel like I just started college. I’m still a kid. I can’t have a real job yet. Crazy. Also, if I don’t do that track, I’ll be starting graduate classes next fall. If I really want to, I could possibly start them next semester or this summer if I end up taking summer school. What? I shouldn’t even be close to taking grad classes yet! I just started college remember? Dang, I’m old. How did that happen?

As of now my first choice will be to do an internship in Dallas either next fall or next spring (depending on which program track I end up choosing.) Even though it totally blows my mind that I’m even having to think seriously about this right now, I’m really excited about this program and everything that I’ll be doing for the next 2 and a half years. It’s a really cool opportunity and I’m really glad that A&M offers it. But now I’m off to write my resume. Because I hear those are important.

See you Soon

Anyone that knows me knows that the biggest commitment for the last 9 months of my life has been Impact. Last week, 9 months of preparation came together at a 4 day retreat for incoming freshmen at Texas A&M. I have been on Impact staff for the last 2 years and have experienced a lot of ups and downs in the positions I have been in. Both years, however, I have realized coming away from the retreat that everything that we did to prepare whether I thought it was necessary or totally stupid, all of it was worth it when I saw and spent time with my freshmen. I consider both retreats to be some of the best times of my life. Probably my favorite part about Impact, though, is the fact that the relationships don’t stop at the retreat. The entire next semester (more or less) will be spent pouring into the freshmen in our camp and doing everything we can to make sure that they have an incredible beginning to their experience in college.

I spent the evening Thursday night hanging out with my camp and we had a really great time. ALL of my counselors/prayer teamers came (which is incredible considering their collective attendance record in the spring ☺) and a lot of the freshmen made it out too. Although this was our first and currently only official hangout, I’ve been hanging out with my partner and various other Impact people every night this week and have been having the time of my life with them. (On a side note, school starts next week but the week before school in the fall is one of the best weeks of the year because everyone is in town but no one has school so its always lot of fun.) We were all friends and spent some time together in the spring but spending 4 days together doing what we did at Impact really made us feel like family.

Something that I have been able to say a lot this week, which I really love is to tell people is “I’ll see you soon” and know that it’s true. I’ve had to say a lot of “goodbyes” in the last couple of years but I love being back in College Station with everyone and knowing that I can (and usually will) see them again any time. I love knowing that these people that I’ve grown to love will still be there for me when I need them and they’re just a phone call, text, or facebook message away. I really have come to love living in College Station and spending time with the amazing people here and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what this next semester will bring.

Our entire camp just before we got our freshmen on the 1st day of Impact.

Home

For the past 16 months, home has been a very relative term for me. Although I moved around quite a bit when I was little, I would say that I “grew up” in Austin. From the summer before I was in 4th grade until I graduated from high school I lived in Austin and continued going “home” to Austin during my freshmen year of college. When my parents moved away last April after living there for 10 years, I felt like Austin would still always be my home. After spending last summer doing an internship there, I realized that although there are a lot of people in Austin that still care about me, it’s just not quite the same anymore.

My friends there have changed, and more than anything, I’ve changed. The truth is, I’m just not the same person I was when I graduated from high school. I still love the people that I lived my life with for so many years, but that’s just not where I’m at anymore. I’ve moved on and made new friends, found a new church and really developed a new “family.”


It’s always interesting when right around finals time, or before Thanksgiving or Spring Break, people ask me the question “So when are you going home?”

I’m never quite sure how to answer that question. I usually say something along the lines of “Well…I’m not exactly going ‘home,’ but I’m leaving College Station on the 12th.”

All of my A&M friends live in College Station just like me – except if you ask them where home is, they tell you the place where they went to high school, where their parents live, and where they go during the breaks from school. Unfortunately for me, those are three different places.

The truth is, I don’t really know what to call home anymore. I was thinking about this today since I’m leaving tomorrow to go back to America. It’s so strange to be leaving the country where my parents are, to go back “home.” Austin was my home for so long, but its not really anymore. Greece is where my parents live, and where I’ve spent the last 10 weeks, but it certainly doesn’t feel like home. College Station is where I live, where my friends are and where I spend the majority of my time – but can I really call it my home?

Luckily, by the grace of God, I live 9 months out of the year in a place that I love – where I have friends that care for me, ministries that I’m involved in, an incredible church family, and where I go to the best school in the world. I will be flying into Dallas late on Tuesday night, staying the night with my aunt and then driving back to College Station on Wednesday. Even though Tuesday will be extremely sad saying goodbye to my parents, knowing that I won’t see them for at least 5 more months if not longer; I am so excited to get back to the place that I feel like is truly my home – at least for now.

Paris

Last night my mom and I returned from our 4-day trip to Paris. It was a lot of fun but we were both exhausted. We walked all over the place and by the time we got to our hotel at the end of each day, neither of us wanted to even stand longer than the time it took to brush our teeth and get into bed.

On Wednesday morning (actually a better description would Tuesday night – it was that early) we left Thessaloniki for our connecting flight to Prague. Our flight left at 5:00, which meant that we had to leave the apartment at 3:00. My mom got a couple hours sleep, but I was taking care of some stuff back in Texas and was on the phone so I ended up not sleeping at all – bad choice. When we got to Paris, we checked into our hotel and then met my cousin Mark who is studying for the summer in the law school at the Sorbonne University there. Mark took us up to the Sacré-Cœur, which is at the highest point in the city and took in the view. After eating lunch, we headed down to Notre Dame and then walked around near the Pantheon. My mom and I were exhausted so we headed back to the hotel for a nap before exploring the area in search of dinner. We looked at several French restaurants but couldn’t understand a single thing on the menu – so we settled on pizza.

(The Sacré-Cœur)

On Thursday we set out on our on to all the classic tourist spots. We started out on the Champs-Élysées and headed towards the Arc de Triomphe, which is massive and has some very intricate designs. I found during this trip that I am far more impressed with size than actual artistic design. I was more impressed with the artwork in the Louvre that took up the entire wall and had incredible detail in every little part than I was with say, the Mona Lisa.

(my mom at Starbucks on the Champs-Élysées)

(the Arc de Triomphe)

From there we walked to the Eiffel Tower. Once again I was incredibly impressed with it’s size. I guess I knew it was big but for some reason, I didn’t know it was that big. We spent a good amount of time looking around but didn’t go up into the tower.

(the Eiffel Tower...obviously)

After soaking in all that we wanted of the Eiffel Tower, we headed over to the Louvre. To be honest, we seriously contemplated just looking around and not actually going in, because neither one of us really cares much for or appreciates fine art. We eventually decided to go inside to look around and like the previous two sites we had been to, I was shocked at how big it was. We spent an hour or two in the museum and only went in one of the three major wings. The most famous artworks that we saw were the Venus de Milo, and of course, the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa looks pretty much exactly like it does in the pictures. It’s not a huge painting and you can only get within about 10 feet of it. Maybe if you looked really closely it would be more impressive, I don’t know.

(Venus de Milo)

(the Mona Lisa)

(the pyramid in front of the Louvre)

We made a quick trip back to our hotel before setting out again to see the Eiffel Tower when they turn the lights on at night. I have a good friend that strongly suggested it so we decided to check it out. Every hour on the hour starting at 10 pm that turn on the 20,000 flashing lights for about 10 minutes and the whole tower sparkles. It was a very cool sight. After leaving that area, we took an hour-long boat tour on the Seine to see some of the areas we hadn’t seen yet.

On Friday we headed off to none other than Disneyland. They have two parks in Paris: the main Disneyland Park, and Disney Studios. We got a pass for both and had a lot of fun. Disney Studios was very small but had some good rides including the Tower of Terror and Aerosmith’s Rockin’ Roller Coaster (both of which I have ridden at Disneyworld in Florida). We also saw a short High School Musical show which was cute but, well, very Disneyland.

(the main entrance to Disneyland Studios)

(the High School Musical show)

The main park was quite a bit bigger but is nothing compared to Disneyworld. This park also had some familiar rides and was set up similar to the Magic Kingdom, except with Sleeping Beauty’s castle as the centerpiece instead of Cinderella’s castle. We had a lot of fun but once again, we were completely exhausted by the end of the day.

(the main entrance to Disneyland Park)

(Sleeping Beauty's castle)

On Saturday, we only had until 5 pm before we had to head to the airport so instead of wearing ourselves out again, we decided to take a bus tour. It was really nice to see some of the same places we had already seen plus a few more, without having to walk anywhere! It was also very nice to have some commentary about each site, because up until this point we had only seen the places and didn’t really know much about them.

We had a lot of fun in Paris, but I know I was ready to come back to Greece. I only have one more day here before I have to head back to Texas. I am excited about going back but I know it will be very difficult to say goodbye to my parents again. I will definitely make one more post tomorrow before I leave.

Volunteers

Over the past week we've had a few friends from America come to do some volunteer work around the city. And by a few I mean 120 of them. They were from several different churches but almost half of them were from Nashville, Tennessee. They weren't Texans, but it was nice to see some people from the South. Almost my entire study abroad group is from the Midwest and I've been realizing how many cultural differences there are, even within our own country!

The group was split up into teams and they each did a job in the morning, had some free time in the afternoon, and did another job in the evening. I wasn't able to help out in the mornings because I had class, although on Wednesday I was out early so I met my mom in the park where she was helping with the kids from the refugee center. My mom took this picture of me and a sweet little boy named Adi. He has 2 brothers and a sister and they are all adorable.



Also, on Fridays I don't have class so I went out to the Roma Gypsy camp with my dad. The gypsys (gypsies?) in this particular camp live in a very run-down "neighborhood"-type area. In some of the other camps they are just squatters that live on the land until they get kicked out and have only makeshift shacks, if anything at all. Most of them have at least some money but they choose to live in this very different culture. The children are very dirty and don't usually have very many clothes. To put it bluntly, they are very wild. The boys are especially mean to the little girls. It is a great experience to show unconditional love to a group of kids that probably aren't shown a great deal of love on a day to day basis -- at least not the way the we generally show it.

Here are a few pictures of the Americans with the gypsy kids and also a picture of one of the homes near the "field" that we were playing on.







In other news, my mom and I just booked a trip for next week and we're going to PARIS. We are leaving really early on the 23rd (which also happens to be my birthday) and coming back here on the 26th. After that I will only be here for a few more days and my plane leaves on the 29th to come back to Texas. I can't believe my time here is almost over!