MAC student perspectives: Office visits

With interview week behind us, it is time for office visits. Now we are back in class in the early weeks of our second module, and there is a buzz of excitement in the air as we reconvene and recount who is visiting where and when. With office visits affecting our schedules, we have to be sure to email our professors to let them know in advance and confirm that we can jump into another class section for that week, making class attendance irregular for now, never knowing who might be out this week.

I have heard back from two firms with confirmed office visits: one in Charlotte with RSM and the other with EY in Raleigh. As someone looking for Risk Advisory opportunities, my structured recruiting process has been a little different than most of my classmates’. For both visits, I make arrangements with my professors and set my calendar.

>> Learn more about the UNC MAC student experience

For Charlotte, I leave class on Tuesday and drive down, not knowing what to expect. After checking into the hotel, I change and make my way to the pre-visit social in a restaurant directly across from the RSM office. Here, myself and other applicants – both from UNC and other schools – meet and greet more of the RSM team we will be seeing tomorrow during our visit, including our interviewers. After some time getting to know the RSM team, we all retire and rest for the office visit the following day. The visit consists of lunch and 2 interviews interspersed with touring the office and hearing from associates about their experience with RSM. It is a long day, but I leave feeling good about things. I drive back to school to make up for lost class time and to prepare for EY next week.

The following week, I repeat the process with EY in Raleigh. Fortunately Raleigh is closer and more convenient, so the strain of traveling is lighter. After another pre-visit social, myself and the other applicants proceed to the office visit the following morning. The beats of the visit prove to be largely the same as my visit last week, but the people and the office are unique. These interviews also prove to be more rigorous and the day feels longer, so I leave the office feeling less confident than last week but hoping I have put my best out there.

Now for the waiting. I hope to hear from one or both of the firms I visited in the coming days or weeks, but this is always the worst part. All in all, this is an exciting and invigorating time, one where we need to balance class with the real world and hope for the best once we have put all of our work in. So, for now, here’s to the best!

by Ryan Naziri, MAC ’18

I’m interested!

Complete the fields below. Fields marked with “*” are required.