Saturday, March 7, 2009
Well, I know. It has been a few awhile. I must apologize for my absence. There was a freak accident that prevented me from blogging. That freak accident happens to be that evil that is the Marriott School of Business. While it is the 5th best business school according to Business Week, it also ranks #1 in home-wrecking ability, #2.4 in blog delinquency, and #450,983,143 in free time availability. I guess I got myself into this whole mess, but you know, it was really worth it. I have seen a lot of progress at the business school this year. I thought I would justify my absence by filling you in with the highlights of this sheltered soul. Here is a quick look at the past year at the Business School:
1. New Extension to the Tanner Building
For those of you who do not have the opportunity to grace the great and spacious building of Provo, it just got a lot bigger. This addition hit especially close to home for this Information Systems nerd because it came with a fully equipped ISYS lab, that my teammates and I have placed at roughly $1 million dollars. Its a pretty sweet setup, its a perfect get away for all of your homework needs. That lab is awesome, we have an incredible opportunity to play with some pretty high tech gear. It does loads for our program's growth, and we are getting there. Tech Republic said BYU's ISYS program is among the top 10 ISYS programs in the nation. Sure its no Business Week, but that report is still pretty cool.
2. Shameless Recruiting
One of the joys of the ISYS program is the recruiting process. We are extremely lucky to be actively pursued as we have been. The primary recruiting players in our program have been the big 4 accounting firms: Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte, and Price Waterhouse Coopers. We were also graced by professionals from Accenture, Protiviti, Exxon Mobil, WallMart, Apple, Microsoft, Capital Group, and many more.
Day one of the ISYS program in our orientation was my first exposure to this process, an aspect of the program that I didn't expect at all. I would have never guessed we would be so lucky as to have weekly networking events and several recruiting fairs. During that first day they informed us that applications were due for internships for the big 4 later that week for IT auditing/consulting. I didn't even know what IT auditing was at that point, and as for consulting? That was the coverup my Dad used during his underground drug circle in the late 90s. Who knew what consulting really meant? (Inside joke of course, the Papa Bradley is free from all charges as far as I know...) At the time I figured I would be applying for the Masters program in ISYS, so I didn't bother with applying. Then it all hit the fan, I realized technical superpowers was not my calling in life. I was made for something much more, that is why I dropped out to pursue my career as a rapper. We all knew thats where my true talents lie. Ok, maybe it wasn't rapping, but I did feel like it was too much technology for me to swallow. I preferred the people side to ISYS much more than the technical, so I decided to abandon ship on the masters degree. At this point I had missed the first round of internship offers, so I had to get busy. I did my best to get applications off to as many firms as I could, these are firms I met with (in order of appearance):
- Apple - Software Development
- Ernst & Young - IT Audit/Consulting
- KPMG - IT Audit/Consulting
- Protiviti - Risk Consulting
- Accenture - Systems Integration
Its a humble list, many of my fellow students interviewed with dozens of firms. By the end of this short list I was warn out. The High of the recruiting experience was my response to the favorite "what is your greatest weakness" question. My answer? "My looks, they have torn too many homes, obsessed too many women, and caused limitless feelings of jealousy." Obviously I didn't actually use that in the process, but it was a funny answer I came up with my roommates.
3. The Final Destination
After the several 4am homework runs, recruiting events, and failed exams, its nice to finally see the reward at the end of the academic tunnel. This last week I had the chance to fly back to San Jose, California for a 2nd interview with Ernst & Young. I was there for the summer advisory internship, with an obvious emphasis in technology. You may be wondering why I chose San Jose? I know my immediate family would have preferred something closer to Orange County, but San Jose was the place for me. The primary reason I wanted to head to the Bay Area was the client base. Silicon Valley is synonymous with nerd heaven. E&Y has a very impressive list of clients they serve in that area including Google, Facebook, Apple, Cisco, Intel, AMD, and many more. I wanted to get under the hood of these juggernaut organizations and see what makes them tick. One of the presentations at the San Jose office was recounting E&Y's initial involvement with Google and Facebook before they made it to the big leagues, they left us with one of those intriguing hypotheticals: you may work on the next Google or Facebook. Ooooo. Ahhhh...
Anyways, my time in San Jose was incredible. They treated us super well out there. We stayed at the Hilton which was right across the street from the San Jose headquarters. I had the chance to meet with some very impressive people in the San Jose office. I was there with about 20-25 students from various universities in the west, 5 of those students were from BYU. I was already impressed with the firm, but meeting everyone in San Jose sealed the deal. Everyone I spoke with carried a respect for the firm that proved they really do put people first. Its a little scary joining a developed firm like E&Y as run the risk of becoming a number, but you could hardly feel the size of the firm due to the warmth of the people.
I left San Jose with an even greater desire to contribute to that team, and left feeling fairly optimistic. I didn't do anything that I knew of the scare them off completely, it was just up in the air. They told us they would let us know their decision the following week, so I landed in SLC thinking just that. The very next day while at work I missed a call and subsequent voice message from one of the principals (partner without a CPA) informing me that they would like to extend me an offer for an internship this summer. I called him back and the rest is history. I start in June and finish in August.
Businessweek reported E&Y as the #1 firm to launch your career from. To say that I am excited would be an understatement.
End.
Well that is this past school year in a nutshell. I just wanted to take a second and thank the academy for this honor. With an honor such as this, it does make you feel very grateful for all those who made it possible. So thank you family and friends for all of your love and support through the years. I have to give my Dad public praise, partially because I defamed his name earlier. Thanks to this great man, I know what it is to meet potential. He always saw it in me and pushed me until I realized it myself. I would never be who I am without your help, so thanks again.
Well, I'll be San Jose this summer if you need me.
-Nelly
3 Comments:
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March 7, 2009 at 4:24 PM
What?? Your blog lives! Man, we are so happy for you and your summer job! Just don't forget the little people, would ya?March 7, 2009 at 7:02 PMI don't like to think of you as a fish, big or otherwise.March 19, 2009 at 6:02 PMCONGRATULATIONS NELSON!!!! That is great news. You will be great. Love you!
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