accountant-in-progress

[accountant-in-progress]

Hey everybody!

I hope all is well with you all! It’s been an incredibly long time since I’ve last typed a blog, and so much has happened since then! 

I recently finished my Big 4 internship and I have officially accepted an offer with KPMG! I’ll begin working full-time next year after I graduate with an MBA. In this, I recently applied for the CPA Exam and am now studying for it (FAR). Receiving a job offer from the Big 4 was by far the largest goal I possessed during my undergraduate studies. However, now that I’ve attained it, I’ve move towards my next largest goal: Passing my CPA exams before I start working full-time. If anybody has any tips on studying, please reach out with them!

- Nate

[accountant-in-progress]

Hey! I'm a new follower, but I just wanted to say congratulations on graduating! A great accomplishment, and you should be proud!! Take care, and i wish you the best in the future :)

Hi, I appreciate your support!! It means a lot :) Thank you so much for the kind note! Good luck to you and your studies!

[accountant-in-progress]

Hey everybody!

I hope you are doing great. I’m officially graduated from college with a degree in accounting!! I can officially say that I live in STL now!

Looking back on my previous posts, they brought back all of the memories and struggles I have had during my time at college. I can say that my experiences at college have truly changed the individual that I am for the better. 

I was able to achieve so many of the goals that I had set for myself in college, plus more. I graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors (by the skin of my teeth), graduated with a job offer and internship with the Big 4, and also received numerous amounts of scholarships. I can say that I graduated college with minimal debt!

With all of this to say on my accomplishments in college, I am truly just an average guy. I believe that the sole reasons I was able to do what I accomplished is because of God and hard work. The main thing that college taught me was that ANYTHING is possible with God and hard work. I’m not saying this to act like I’m a humble person, but I truly believe this.

During high school I didn’t take anything seriously. I was just focused on having fun! I did stupid stuff and made a fool out of myself the majority of the time, if we’re being honest. I graduated with mediocre grades and opportunities. 

However, this quickly changed when I went to college. After a brief bout with partying and greek life, I found out that accounting majors needed high GPAs to be successful in college. In fact, the third week of the semester, the professor who told me this mentioned that most accounting graduates had 3.8 GPAs (which isn’t true, but I didn’t know this and it got the point across to me) or above when they graduated. I remember calling my dad after the meeting and asked him advice on what major I should change to. I was scared of the “3.8 GPA requirement” because I had never attained a GPA that high in my life. 

Instead of telling me which major was best to switch to, he told me to instead stick with accounting and see how the semester played out. With God and hard work, I attained a 4.0 that semester, as well as all of the other semesters after that. Just reminiscing on this story allows me to remember how much of an impact God and hard work have had an impact on the successes in my life. It’s inspiring to me!

If you take anything from this, let it be that fact that you are able to achieve anything with faith and hard work. I mean this when I say it, anything is possible. 

- Nate

[accountant-in-progress]

4/22/2018

Sup, everybody!!

I hope y’all are doing great. This weekend I celebrated my Birthday and landing the internship!! However, the semester is coming to an end, thus exams before finals are here. Although I’ve taken the majority of them for my classes, the last one I have is next week and it’s for my FAR 2 class. In my opinion, these tests are the most important, as they determine the amount of stress for finals! 

With me landing this internship, I’ll admit that the idea of relaxing/coasting has crossed my mind. After all, my main goal in college was to get on with the Big 4 (internship/full-time), right? 

WRONG MINDSET. Luckily, I caught myself from falling into this mindset! This is the time to do anything but relax. I was listening to a podcast on my walk this morning, and the title was 100 - 0. Basically, Andy Frisella discussed the mindset of 100 - 0 (racking up the score); this mindset is where you show NO mercy to your competition, despite getting ahead. 

I’ll save the rant, but this podcast heavily resonated with me. When we achieve the success of any kind, that is when we’re the most vulnerable. This is because we have the mindset of relaxing/celebrating, yet our competition is still working- working to get ahead, ALL while we’re not doing a thing but sitting on past achievements. 

As soon as I got back to college today, I attended a fellowship with my Campus Ministry and then got back home to study. This test is next Tuesday, but I’ll be using this whole week to get ahead. This definitely is not the time to celebrate (that was this weekend), but it’s the time to focus and finish the semester strong.  

I hope everything is going great for you all, especially with finals coming up!

-Nate

[accountant-in-progress]

Sup, everybody!!

Tonight, I would like to talk about vision and how I relate it to my goals. You can also say this is how I use the Law of Attraction! In this picture, you can see my hometown. This town consists of ~15,000 people, more or less. However, this past weekend, I drove with a friend and saw this view. As you may/may not know, I am in LOVE with big cities! On every device, my screen saver is a skyline (Chicago, NYC, LA). I know for a fact that I am called to a big city- this is one of the reasons why I decided to pursue Accounting and Business in general! As we saw this view, I was instantly inspired. I know it may sound silly, but all of these lights resemble a huge skyline to me. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but in person, the view was just enough to allow me to refocus on my objectives. Protip: Whenever you’re grinding in life- be sure to remind yourself of your goals (Whether that be reading your mission statements, looking at pictures/videos, etc.) Remind yourself of the why! If you don’t remind yourself consistently about your why, you are sure to lose focus quickly. It happens all the time to me!

As you might’ve read in my last post, these past few weeks have been a tad rough. In short, life and inconsistent pressure sometimes don’t mix well! In all honesty, these bouts with pressure, fear, etc. really shook my focus. However, with time, conversations, and self-assessments, I feel that I am now more focused than ever. I know that’s a big claim, but I feel that it’s true.

In fact, as I was driving back to college this weekend, I had a fantastic conversation with my best friend. This past week was phenomenal in regards to recruitment. With that in mind, he said something that really hit me: “Nate, when people undergo those breakdowns, they either fold or use them to their advantage. Just a few weeks ago, you were at a low point. Now, look what’s happening. You have momentum on your side. Instead of folding, you capitalized.” The reason this hit me so hard was that it got me to think really deeply about myself. The last time I hit a low point in my life was when I was dumped in a relationship- that was the key turning point in my weight loss journey. I don’t ever want to be the person who folds under pressure- I want to be the person who thrives off of it. When he said that, it motivated me immensely, as that’s the person I want to be.

- Nate

Just for personal reference: Nate, on 4/3/18 you received an invitation to an office interview with KPMG for an Audit internship. Even though you got turned down by EY for their summer program a few days ago, God is still confirming his plans to you. Also, today you received a nomination for a prestigious Accounting scholarship! No matter what, stay faithful to God and He will provide. 

“Not thy will be done, but Your will be done.” 

[accountant-in-progress]

One year later, and I’m finally looking at graduating at the end of this week. Time flies and I’m so excited for this new chapter of my life to begin.

I hope everybody’s doing great!! My summer began this week, but one of my summer classes began on Monday! I’m happy to say that I finished my HARDEST semester with a 4.0. This is definitely a blessing, as my Tax class was my lowest grade and I made a 52 on the final (haha, thank you curve). Also, the day I found out that I pulled a 4.0, I received news that I had landed and Audit internship with a large STL firm, and we’ll be auditing my University in the fall!! This is so exciting, as my current summer internship is with my school’s accounting department. In short, I’ll be getting both perspectives of an audit! 

I try to place a beneficial piece of information in all of my posts, both for the readers and personal benefit. As I approached finals week, I was empty of motivation! This is because I was having to study for finals that were all cumulative. However, as I’ve said in previous postings, it’s key to keep your goals in front of you. Both with connecting my finals with my ambition and remembering that there was a short amount of time left with school, I was able to capitalize on the tests. However, don’t get it twisted!! This was definitely a blessing from God, as it wasn’t possible for me to study all of the material I learned all semester in EVERY class in such a short amount of time. THANK YOU, JESUS!!! 

ONE MORE YEAR OF COLLEGE; ONE MORE YEAR OF SOUTHEAST MO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

100-0

-Nate

[accountant-in-progress]

Hey everybody!

I hope all is well. 

I finished my last final exams of my undergraduate studies today! It’s a relief that they’re over. I passed the exams with the grades I needed to keep the letter grades I had. I’m glad I’m finally done!

All that stands between graduation is a group presentation and moving my things to St. Louis. I’m so excited to finally be moved! The group presentation is not going to be bad at all because I have my part down to nearly a tee. 

In regards to updates, I received a job offer from the internship I completed this semester. This was a goal because I want to have options in front of me when making a decision on employment. I don’t want to be in the situation of signing on with a place just because I did not have any other options to sign elsewhere. However, receiving the offer itself put me in the perspective of realizing that my hard work in college is beginning to pay off. My main goal in life is to be able to provide for my family and others- everything I do in life ties back to this one goal. Attaining this offer made me realize how much closer my education has put me towards attaining that one goal. I’m so excited for what the future entails!

Good luck on finals, everybody! Summer has almost officially started :) 

[accountant-in-progress]

Hey everybody!

I hope everybody is doing great. I’m writing this halfway through my last semester of undergraduate studies. 

2 weeks ago, I spent my Spring Break in Paris and London! It was by far one of the best experiences in my lifetime. There were a lot of different things I was exposed to, and I’m so happy that I was able to go. This picture is my favorite picture out of the ones I took during my trip. The two cities were gorgeous in their own ways!

With SB over with, that means I’m halfway through my final semester of undergrad. I’m so ready to be done. Things are beginning to slow down in my studies, at least that’s what it feels like. I don’t know if I’m losing motivation (senioritis), or what. I just feel so unproductive lately! I’m unable to discern whether it’s me just not being able to relax, constantly being driven by the idea of having to constantly be busy or stressed, but with not having that much to do besides studying for little assignments, I am filled with the feeling of laziness or unproductiveness. It’s hard to explain. Has anybody else felt this way? 

A lot has passed throughout this semester- I was accepted into the school I wanted to go to for my MBA and I was accepted into both Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi! Joining these Honor fraternities has been my goal since last year. It was awesome finding out the news that I had been invited! It was also exhilarating being accepted into graduate school. Although it’s not viewed as a hard school to get into, it’s been a goal for the longest time and it’s a relief to have it off of my shoulders. I’m officially moving to STL!

I sign for an apartment this coming weekend. I’m so excited to see where I’ll be staying for these next few years. :) 

I hope everybody is getting through these last few weeks of the semester. Summer is almost here!

[accountant-in-progress]

I hope everybody is having a great day!

The spring semester is beginning for me tomorrow. I’m so excited to begin my final semester of undergrad! 

This final semester will entail a variety of things for me, including: my first trip to Europe, a tax internship, and graduation. Although I will miss it to an extent, I’m so excited to be out of my college/small town and to be living in the City. The reason that I am so excited is because I’ll finally be able to work on my goals that I have set for both my life and career. I don’t know what it is, but with me being in college, I feel that I am stagnant in attaining any of my long term goals in a sense. I understand that receiving an education will allow me to attain those goals, but I don’t feel as if I’m working directly toward them- if that makes sense. In short, I’m very excited for this semester and I am SO excited to graduate! 

As I am an accounting major, I share all of my current classes with accounting majors in the same position as I am- in their final semesters of college. The main message that I hear on a consistent basis is the idea that people will take it easy their last semester of college, as grades don’t matter all that much (besides passing, of course). At my school, Latin Honors are delegated based on the individual’s cumulative GPA the semester prior to them graduating. For example, my current GPA is a 3.88, therefore I’d receive the honors for 3.79 - 3.89 at graduation, regardless of my cumulative GPA after this semester. With this in mind, what is the point of striving for a 4.0, when in a sense, it doesn’t count towards anything? 

I understand where my peers are coming from, but that is the complete opposite mindset I need to have going into my final semester. You must finish strong! I’m currently reading a book that I have read in the past called Relentless by Tim Grover. This was actually one of my first book reviews if you wanted to read more in depth on my opinion on it! Reading Relentless is a great book to read prior to beginning my final because it has reminded me of the correct mindset to have. In order to be relentless, you must always strive for more! After reaching your goals, you must set goals that are higher than those. You won’t be successful if you settle- even if it is your final semester in college and grades aren’t as “important” as they have been in previous times.

What idea/concept keeps you motivated?

I hope you all had a fantastic break and an even better semester! 

P.S. I am close to a 1000 followers. This has been a goal of mine since I began this blog- could you help me out by reposting your favorite post of mine so that I’m able to gain a larger audience, please? Let me know if I’m able to return the favor in any shape or fashion. Thank you!! :)

- Nate 

[accountant-in-progress]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!

I hope that everybody has a fantastic holiday and day of relaxation with family! I’m currently waiting for my family to get ready to open presents :) 

Side note: I recently have picked up photoshop and am learning the processes of it. If you need any work done (thumbnails for youtube, social media banners, photo editing, etc.) Let me know! I’m wanting to turn this skill into a side hustle for additional income. 

Once again, I hope everybody has a fantastic holiday!

[accountant-in-progress]

Hey everybody!

It’s been a long while since I’ve last been on Tumblr. 

To say the least, a lot has happened! I’m officially about to begin my last semester of undergrad. After the semester ended, I sat for the GMAT and was able to pass with a score of 600 (Law of attraction and God were a huge play in this!!); this is a huge relief to me, as I put in 70 hours of preparation and needed a score of 500 to get into grad school! Instead of focusing purely on finals this semester, I focused on the GMAT, as that was the utmost importance for me. Even though I was limited on study time for finals, I made the grades that I needed to keep a 4.0! These were two goals of mine for the semester, to finish the GMAT in one try and to finish the semester with a 4.0. 

What am I doing now? I’m taking a well needed break at home relaxing with my family and spending time with my girlfriend. Although I am taking a winter class so that I can graduate on time, it is a light load and I’m not allowing the course to hinder me from chilling out. 

Over the course of this break, I finished applying to grad school earlier this week and now I am just waiting on my last recommendation to be submitted. I’m so excited to officially be considered and accepted! I’m so ready to be in the city :) 

As this last semester approaches, I’m beginning to come to the realization that I’m actually about to graduate and begin this next chapter in my life. It’s definitely surreal, as so much work has been put into this coming period in my life. I’m seriously so excited to be done and out of the town I’m in now. 

As this next semester will be one of my lightest loads, I promise to be more consistent :) 

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year everybody!

Nate

[accountant-in-progress]

This just put me in a fantastic mindset. Definitely a good read that’s applicable to any day 

4/22/2018

Sup, everybody!!

I hope y’all are doing great. This weekend I celebrated my Birthday and landing the internship!! However, the semester is coming to an end, thus exams before finals are here. Although I’ve taken the majority of them for my classes, the last one I have is next week and it’s for my FAR 2 class. In my opinion, these tests are the most important, as they determine the amount of stress for finals! 

With me landing this internship, I’ll admit that the idea of relaxing/coasting has crossed my mind. After all, my main goal in college was to get on with the Big 4 (internship/full-time), right? 

WRONG MINDSET. Luckily, I caught myself from falling into this mindset! This is the time to do anything but relax. I was listening to a podcast on my walk this morning, and the title was 100 - 0. Basically, Andy Frisella discussed the mindset of 100 - 0 (racking up the score); this mindset is where you show NO mercy to your competition, despite getting ahead. 

I’ll save the rant, but this podcast heavily resonated with me. When we achieve the success of any kind, that is when we’re the most vulnerable. This is because we have the mindset of relaxing/celebrating, yet our competition is still working- working to get ahead, ALL while we’re not doing a thing but sitting on past achievements. 

As soon as I got back to college today, I attended a fellowship with my Campus Ministry and then got back home to study. This test is next Tuesday, but I’ll be using this whole week to get ahead. This definitely is not the time to celebrate (that was this weekend), but it’s the time to focus and finish the semester strong.  

I hope everything is going great for you all, especially with finals coming up!

-Nate

[accountant-in-progress]

Hey everybody!!!!!

I’ve missed y'all so much! I’m so sorry for not writing on a consistent basis. I’ve been so caught up with school! 

I just have 5 weeks left of this semester. 5 WEEKS!!!! 5 weeks away from my last semester of undergrad! I get chills when I type that. 

To say the least, I am SO ready to be done with college! I definitely have a case of senioritis, but I’ll be able to make it through. 

A lot has changed since the last time I updated y’all!

Because of the amount of scholarships I have received this year, I was able to quit my job for the semester and focus on school. This has been a TREMENDOUS relief to my stress and mental/physical health. I would be in a total different place if I wasn’t able to quit my job (relationships, family, social, etc.) My grades have also been reflecting this relief as well, as I’m now able to focus purely on my grades (and relationships, family, friends, etc.) 

I wasn’t able to attend the trip to Europe in the winter because I have to take a winter class (pre-requisite for the senior capstone class). However, I was able to squeeze onto the list for the spring break trip to France and England!

My girlfriend and I are going to see my best friend/her brother this weekend in a different state. How crazy is it that I used to live in the same city as her brother (500 miles away)?! I’m so excited to take a break from the daily grind of school and just relax with my homie and my girlfriend. On a side note, I’m so excited to take this first trip with my girlfriend!!

After this semester, it’s all downhill. I’ll only be taking 12 credit hours and I’ll be done! I’m getting the hardest accounting courses out of the way this semester, so that’s the main thing getting me through it all. After next semester, I’ll be working for KPMG and I’ll finally be getting my life started in the City. I’m so freaking excited, man. 

How is school going for everybody else??

As I said, I have missed you guys and I hope you all are having a fantastic night/day!!!

- Nate 

[accountant-in-progress]

Whats up!!

It’s definitely been a while since I’ve last posted! Just an update, I started my last year at college 2 weeks ago, my Audit internship ended this past week, and I have some awesome recruitment news.

This is the final stretch for me at college! To graduate with my undergrad in 3 years is unfathomable for me, to be honest. At time I realize that I’m graduating in a year, but at the same time, I feel that it hasn’t truly hit me yet! I’ve been told (especially during this Audit internship) that I’ll regret graduating a year early. I can’t read my future self’s mind right now, but in all honesty, I don’t feel that this is true. Yeah, I’ll miss the times and all, but in all honesty, I feel so complacent at my small Univ. It’s just that there’s nothing to do in this small city, and I feel that the common mindset around here doesn’t match mine. I’m so ready for the future and I feel that the common mindset here is to have fun in the here and now (while not caring about what the future brings). I mean, there’s definitely nothing wrong with that, but I don’t feel that way! I’m not going to let the best 4 years of my life be in the first quarter of my life. In all honesty, I think that’s the most depressing outlook to have on your life. Who knows, I might be making a mistake now, but I don’t want the best years of my life to be in college. I came here to get a job and an education. My goals don’t align with an individual who peaked in college. I want huge things with my life, and I’m so excited to get started on them after college.

Sidenote: To fulfill the hardest accounting course without taking it, I’m going on a study abroad trip for 2 weeks in January to Italy and England!!!

I’m so glad that my internship ended this past week! I had so much fun participating in it, because that’s what I’ll be doing as a career! However, it just felt like I wasn’t able to focus on school as much because whenever I wasn’t in classes, I was at work. Now, I’ll just be working my part-time job at a cookie store and I’ll only be working the weekends (only downside of the job) and evening shifts! I feel that working at the cookie store until the winter will be the best thing for me in regard to earning income and keeping my grades up. 

Recruitment wise, I’m sitting down with Deloitte’s recruiter at the end of September! She reached out to me (which no recruiter has done) out of the blue and asked if I was still interested in opportunities with Deloitte. Of course I said yes! Even though I have an opportunity with KPMG next summer, nothing is guaranteed. One of my goals is to graduate with security and to have multiple offers on the table. With the firm I did an internship with these past few weeks, they are one of the largest firms (people wise) in the  area. According to them, I exceeded expectations and that I did an excellent job. This is so uplifting for me because like I said, this is what I’ll be doing as a career! I told them that I’m interested in future opportunities, and they said that they’ll get back with me on information in the next week. I’m so excited!!

I hope everybody has a fantastic and safe Labor Day!

[accountant-in-progress]

Sup, everybody!

This past week, I was able to go on vacation with my family and to D.C. with my Beta Alpha Psi chapter. Overall, the trips were great! It was great being able to relax with my family and recover from a busy summer! D.C. was also great. This is because I was able to learn so much about the accounting profession! I also was able to tour D.C.!

This week, I was able to start my new Audit internship. This week is also the last week with my summer internship! In all honesty, I’m excited that it’s my last week. I don’t mean that in a negative perspective, but I’m excited to move on to different things! The main thing that I was able to learn from the summer internship is that I don’t have the personality/desire to do the same thing every day at my future job. This is why I’m going into public accounting profession with the mindset of staying! I’ve talked with a lot of people with public accounting experience, and they all describe how public accounting is different every day. I feel that I will love this! As of now, I am LOVING my Audit internship. As I was talking to my girlfriend earlier, I realized that I feel this way because I understand that this will be in my future, and that I’m gaining real experience with my future career! I also love the people I’m working with; the people I work with are so funny!

Next week, classes for the Fall 2018 semester begin! I’m BEYOND excited for classes to start. This is because I’m ready to finally be on a set schedule! Also, this is the beginning of my last year of undergrad. It’s truly surreal and I don’t think that it has hit me that I’m graduating in less than a year! Graduating a year early . . . Now that I think about that, you could’ve told me how 4 years ago how I’d be now, and I definitely wouldn’t believe you. Anything is possible with hard work! I’m so excited to be in the city and I’m so excited to start my life.

Thanks for reading!

Nate

[accountant-in-progress]

What’s up everybody!!

I hope everybody is doing great. 2 more weeks until school starts for me!!

This past week, I finished my summer semester.  I was fortunate enough to be allowed to take 15 CREDIT HOURS and I successfully completed them! This will put me at the 150-hour requirement for the CPA after I complete my MBA. 

Not gonna lie, the summer was definitely a grind! With the compressed class workloads and work, it was stressful at times. However, this current week I took the whole week off for a family vacation and the Beta Alpha Psi Annual Meeting!

In my opinion, I feel that taking a mental break from the grind is REQUIRED. I was reading a book and it explained how the concept of constantly working towards something guarantees “burnout”. With working and doing classes, I definitely felt the burnout coming! If I didn’t take this week off, and instead worked, I don’t know if I’d start this upcoming semester on a positive note. With that, I fully understand that personally (I don’t know how it is with everybody else), I need breaks every now and again! It’s definitely a constant battle of living in the moment with an intent on the future.  

Does anybody else feel this way?

This is the last night of my family vacation and it has definitely been one for the books. It’s just been a great experience being able to spend time with family and not having any responsibilities. On Wednesday, I’ll fly out to Washington DC for the BAP annual meeting!

Will anybody else be going to the meeting? Send me a message if you are!

With this meeting, I’ll be learning more about the accounting profession and making connections. I’m so excited! Also, earlier this year, I applied to tour the White House! Earlier this past week, I received news that my application was accepted and that I’ll be able to tour the White House!!!!!! I’m BEYOND EXCITED! This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for me! I’ll be sure to upload some pics, the next time I upload! 

I hope everybody has a great rest of their summer and a FANTASTIC semester!

- Nate

[accountant-in-progress]

Wassup, guys!!

I hope all is well with everybody! I am almost done with my last summer class, Ethics. After my Mission Trip to NOLA, I’ll only have 2 chapters of reading and an exam to do! I finished the final Case Study today, and it was an amazing feeling to be done with it! 

This past weekend I was talking to my Dad about the future and my career. This conversation caused me to think of a prior conversation regarding the CPA exam and being able to take it early! After contacting the people I needed to ask, it turns out that I am able to take the CPA as soon as I graduate from Undergrad. I’ll be able to take it during my graduate studies, rather than cramming all 4 sections into the summer before I start full-time (hopefully at KPMG!!!). This may not seem like much, but it is definitely a huge relief. The CPA will probably be the hardest test I’ll take in my lifetime, and being able to allocate the sections over a span of a year is MUCH better than just a span of 3 months. In short, this news is HUGE!

This also gives way to me potentially being the youngest CPA in Missouri. After figuring this out, I have set this as one of my BIG short-term goals!

I’m so excited for the future and what God has planned. 

What motivates y’all? (Take a look at the pic - This is a big motivator for me!)