Monday, July 13, 2009
July Poll: What do you like to do on vacation?
It's the middle of the summer and for many, it's vacation time. My vacation to the beach is coming up soon, I'm counting the days myself right now. Vacations are (or should be at least) all about fun, so let's have some fun with this month's poll. Our July Poll on the top right corner of the screen wants to know, What do you like to do on vacation?. We had almost 90 responses last time, let's see if we can beat that this time around!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Once Again, McGladrey Is One of Chicago's Best
McGladrey's Chicago offices have done it once again, winning the National Association of Business Resources’ list of Chicago’s 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For! We have several great offices in the Chicagoland area (including in The Loop and Schaumburg), and this award once again reflects our commitment to our employees as our greatest asset.Interested in working for one of the "Best and Brightest Companies To Work For? We have a couple openings in the Chicago area right now. To learn more and apply, click on the links below.
Tax Manager, Schaumburg, IL
International Tax Director, Chicago, IL
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Career Development - The McGladrey Way
At McGladrey, it's important to us to ensure that our employees feel confident that they can achieve their career objectives with the firm. Over the past year, unprecedented efforts have been made to help define for our employees just what it takes to grow their careers at McGladrey, and what options are available to them.
Earlier this summer, the results of this work began to roll out to our employee population, starting with our Tax Practice. A powerful site on our intranet is already serving as a useful tool our employees and their advisers to help them start to understand better what knowledge, skills and experiences they need to have to get to the next level, and how they can literally map their career progression moving forward. Similar resources will be rolled out to the rest of the firm in the coming months.
The video below will provide you a glimpse into what this initiative is all about. You will hear from Mike Metz (Executive VP, Tax Services), Kimpa Moss (Chief HR Officer and former Tax Services Leader), Teresa Hopke (Director of Talent Management), and others as they describe the importance of career development at McGladrey, and the useful tools that are now available to our employees in the Tax Practice.
Thanks to CareerTV for producing another great video for us.
Earlier this summer, the results of this work began to roll out to our employee population, starting with our Tax Practice. A powerful site on our intranet is already serving as a useful tool our employees and their advisers to help them start to understand better what knowledge, skills and experiences they need to have to get to the next level, and how they can literally map their career progression moving forward. Similar resources will be rolled out to the rest of the firm in the coming months.
The video below will provide you a glimpse into what this initiative is all about. You will hear from Mike Metz (Executive VP, Tax Services), Kimpa Moss (Chief HR Officer and former Tax Services Leader), Teresa Hopke (Director of Talent Management), and others as they describe the importance of career development at McGladrey, and the useful tools that are now available to our employees in the Tax Practice.
Thanks to CareerTV for producing another great video for us.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The June Poll Results
I think that we hit a nerve with our June Poll: 89 RESPONSES! Thanks to those of you who took the time to complete this poll, and who once again offered up some interesting, and even somewhat surprising results. In this poll, we asked you what are the top 3 things that you consider when in a job search. Let's review the results:
Salary/benefits (64%) - I'm not surprised that salary/benefits (i.e. Total Compensation) would be ranked at the top, but I have to say that I'm surprised that it was the #1 choice by such a large margin. It's no secret that we could all use for our dollar to stretch more and more all the time. It's also no surprise that a good benefits package is important at a time when it seems that companies have to cut back on what they have been offering. When it comes to this survey though, a new job is clearly All About the Benjamins (and other perks too)...
Work/Life Flexibility (43%) - No surprise that this ranked high either. We all need more time to do more things in today's society, and those organizations that offer good work-life flexibility options are clearly placing themselves ahead of the game with their candidates. Fortunately, McGladrey has several great work-life flexibility options that place us as a leader in our industry.
Career Growth (34%) - It's not just about getting a job, it's about what the future may hold as well. You indicated here that the future, and how an employer can help you achieve your goals, is very important to you. McGladrey is doing some great things in formalizing Career Development plans with their employees. Check back here in the coming weeks for more information on how we are helping our employees understand and take control over their own career growth options.
Nature/Scope of Work (33%) - Now this one really shocked me. This essentially what the job is all about. For me personally, it would of been my number one choice, but that's just me.
Surprisingly, Job Security (30%) comes in tied for 5th in the results. With unemployment at 25 year record highs, layoffs still threatening many organizations, and many people still concerned about their current job stability, I really expected this selection to be ranked much higher.
Also in 5th place, Location (30%). I also thought that I would see this ranked a bit higher. With concerns about work-life flexibility and the environment, I expected that the location of the job would play a much stronger role in one's decision making process. I guess however that when jobs are not as plentiful as they once were, that location can take a back seat when it comes to landing that next ideal job. For those of you who have a strong interest in location, you can check out our McGladrey Location Google Map to see just what type of commute you would have to one of our offices.
The only other selection that surprised me in this poll was Company Reputation (23%). In light of the scandals and challenges that many organizations have experienced over the past year, I really had thought that more people would of had this high on their radar when considering future employers.
Since you only had three choices however, they all couldn't be ranked high. These are interesting and unusual times, which makes me wonder just how different the results might of been if we had run this poll a year ago.
Thanks again to all of you who participated in this poll. Check back in the next few days for a new poll for July!
Salary/benefits (64%) - I'm not surprised that salary/benefits (i.e. Total Compensation) would be ranked at the top, but I have to say that I'm surprised that it was the #1 choice by such a large margin. It's no secret that we could all use for our dollar to stretch more and more all the time. It's also no surprise that a good benefits package is important at a time when it seems that companies have to cut back on what they have been offering. When it comes to this survey though, a new job is clearly All About the Benjamins (and other perks too)...
Work/Life Flexibility (43%) - No surprise that this ranked high either. We all need more time to do more things in today's society, and those organizations that offer good work-life flexibility options are clearly placing themselves ahead of the game with their candidates. Fortunately, McGladrey has several great work-life flexibility options that place us as a leader in our industry.
Career Growth (34%) - It's not just about getting a job, it's about what the future may hold as well. You indicated here that the future, and how an employer can help you achieve your goals, is very important to you. McGladrey is doing some great things in formalizing Career Development plans with their employees. Check back here in the coming weeks for more information on how we are helping our employees understand and take control over their own career growth options.
Nature/Scope of Work (33%) - Now this one really shocked me. This essentially what the job is all about. For me personally, it would of been my number one choice, but that's just me.
Surprisingly, Job Security (30%) comes in tied for 5th in the results. With unemployment at 25 year record highs, layoffs still threatening many organizations, and many people still concerned about their current job stability, I really expected this selection to be ranked much higher.
Also in 5th place, Location (30%). I also thought that I would see this ranked a bit higher. With concerns about work-life flexibility and the environment, I expected that the location of the job would play a much stronger role in one's decision making process. I guess however that when jobs are not as plentiful as they once were, that location can take a back seat when it comes to landing that next ideal job. For those of you who have a strong interest in location, you can check out our McGladrey Location Google Map to see just what type of commute you would have to one of our offices.
The only other selection that surprised me in this poll was Company Reputation (23%). In light of the scandals and challenges that many organizations have experienced over the past year, I really had thought that more people would of had this high on their radar when considering future employers.
Since you only had three choices however, they all couldn't be ranked high. These are interesting and unusual times, which makes me wonder just how different the results might of been if we had run this poll a year ago.
Thanks again to all of you who participated in this poll. Check back in the next few days for a new poll for July!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Capstone Summer Intern Conference - Day 3 Recap
122 Interns + 2 Countries + 40 Offices + 68 Universities + 13 faculty members + 4 speakers + months of planning = 1 Great Conference
Planning events like these can often feel like planning a wedding. Months of hard work goes into getting every detail right to ensure a flawless event, and then before you know it, it's all over. They say that time flies when you are having fun, and that was certainly the case at this year's Capstone Summer Intern Conference. This was my first Capstone Conference. I had heard about previous Conferences and was always a bit envious of those who got to attend. I can really understand fully now why these have been so popular. It was 3 long, tiring, fun days, but as our Interns were departing O'Hare yesterday, they looked like they really had a great time. I was able to follow up with a few interns from the Baltimore-DC area at O'Hare, and they confirmed for me just how much they enjoyed the experience.
Day 1 and Day 2 were indeed, long and busy days. Day 3 wrapped things up very nicely. We began the day with more presentations from our intern project teams. Who said that accountants weren't creative? These presentations were well thought out, funny and informative. At the Winter Intern Conference this year the project teams produced videos, and we had them create videos once again at this conference. What was new however was having them develop podcasts and live presentations. This was new to many of our interns who had not dealt with the recording technology before, or who may of been a bit uncomfortable doing a presentation in front of so many people. The results overall were outstanding, the interns all had alot to be very proud of.
Following the presentations, the interns heard again from Ken Bansemer, who continued on his theme from Tuesday by talking about how to live with purpose. "Life is more than just a career..." he said, "How will you define your future and what will make you happy?" Ken's message was that everyone has control over what keeps their life in alignment, and shared personal stories about how he has been able to balance his career, his family and his personal achievements.
John Blumberg came back to discuss with the interns how their Kolbe profiles impacted their project teams, and how they could use their Kolbe profiles after they left the conference. The conference finished with an inspiring message from Rory Vaden, a 26-year old phenom who has been his spreading his formula for personal success to audiences far and wide. According to Rory, successful people do things that failures are not willing to do. Successful people don't take short cuts, they 'Take the Stairs'. Rory also challenged everyone to participate in Rory's Take the Stairs World Tour. I also liked that his organization is called Success Starts Now (sounds familiar, huh?) Rory's inspirational message was a great finish to a great event.
I'm home now and catching up on a few days of work before the long weekend. I hope to have a new slideshow video of the event to share with you here soon. In the meantime, you can check out some more of my pictures below.
Planning events like these can often feel like planning a wedding. Months of hard work goes into getting every detail right to ensure a flawless event, and then before you know it, it's all over. They say that time flies when you are having fun, and that was certainly the case at this year's Capstone Summer Intern Conference. This was my first Capstone Conference. I had heard about previous Conferences and was always a bit envious of those who got to attend. I can really understand fully now why these have been so popular. It was 3 long, tiring, fun days, but as our Interns were departing O'Hare yesterday, they looked like they really had a great time. I was able to follow up with a few interns from the Baltimore-DC area at O'Hare, and they confirmed for me just how much they enjoyed the experience.
Day 1 and Day 2 were indeed, long and busy days. Day 3 wrapped things up very nicely. We began the day with more presentations from our intern project teams. Who said that accountants weren't creative? These presentations were well thought out, funny and informative. At the Winter Intern Conference this year the project teams produced videos, and we had them create videos once again at this conference. What was new however was having them develop podcasts and live presentations. This was new to many of our interns who had not dealt with the recording technology before, or who may of been a bit uncomfortable doing a presentation in front of so many people. The results overall were outstanding, the interns all had alot to be very proud of.
Following the presentations, the interns heard again from Ken Bansemer, who continued on his theme from Tuesday by talking about how to live with purpose. "Life is more than just a career..." he said, "How will you define your future and what will make you happy?" Ken's message was that everyone has control over what keeps their life in alignment, and shared personal stories about how he has been able to balance his career, his family and his personal achievements.
John Blumberg came back to discuss with the interns how their Kolbe profiles impacted their project teams, and how they could use their Kolbe profiles after they left the conference. The conference finished with an inspiring message from Rory Vaden, a 26-year old phenom who has been his spreading his formula for personal success to audiences far and wide. According to Rory, successful people do things that failures are not willing to do. Successful people don't take short cuts, they 'Take the Stairs'. Rory also challenged everyone to participate in Rory's Take the Stairs World Tour. I also liked that his organization is called Success Starts Now (sounds familiar, huh?) Rory's inspirational message was a great finish to a great event.
I'm home now and catching up on a few days of work before the long weekend. I hope to have a new slideshow video of the event to share with you here soon. In the meantime, you can check out some more of my pictures below.
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| McGladrey Capstone Day 3 |
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Capstone Summer Intern Conference - Day 2 Recap
It was an early start as I watched the still waking interns stumble into the Q Tower Dining Hall for breakfast. Before the conference stared up again, I met two interns, including Alex, who just graduated, is working in our Kansas City office, and told me about how she was preparing to start her Masters of Tax degree at DePaul in the fall, and Daniel from St. Bonaventure, who was working close to their home this summer in Cleveland. Both were highly engaged and energized to get another day started.
At 8AM, the conference got started again with some words from our Director of Talent Management and Recruiting, Ken Bansemer. Ken shared his wisdom by talking about taking control of your career by focusing on what you can influence, not what you can’t control, and by figuring out your personal assets and liabilities, and how they make up your equity characteristics. Following a group photo, the project teams reconvene for the balance of the morning to continue their work. Each team was assigned one of three themes and a means for presenting the results of the project (podcast, video, and live presentation). The teams got fast to work on defining the roles and responsibilities of each team member, and the concepts for what they will do and how they will do it.
After lunch, everyone comes back to the amphitheater to hear from our Chief HR Officer, Kimpa Moss, and our new company President, C.E. Andrews. Listening to Kimpa is always a treat as she spoke about the some of the core leadership competencies at McGladrey. It was an added bonus however to have our new President join us as well. He started in his new role on Monday and made the time to come out to St. Charles to participate in this event. Mr. Andrews backed up his participation with some inspiring words about why he decided to take on this new role, and where he hopes to take the firm in the future. He shared with us that he actually started his career at Arthur Andersen 35 years ago at The Q Center, with some courses in the same room that we were in. He also let the group know that he took his new role with McGladrey because he saw a lot of the same attributes here that appealed to him at Andersen, specifically McGladrey’s focus on people and their development. Kimpa and C.E. then took questions from the interns for over 40 minutes, with many excellent questions and insightful answers.
Following Kimpa and C.E., the teams reconnected for the rest of the afternoon to finish their projects. After dinner and some free time, it’s time to start to see the results of the project teams work. A faculty member (Jen Poklemka) and myself had the honor of emceeing the project team presentations, which we will continue to see through Wednesday. This is a competition BTW, and the early results are promising. The interns and faculty get to vote on each presentation, and the winners get rewarded at the end of the conference. The first set of presentations we saw were all entertaining and creative. More on that tomorrow.
A long day isn’t quite done yet though. The day ends with a Casino Night event inside the ballroom. It’s a fun night as faculty members like myself dealt out the cards, and the interns compete with chips to ultimately win raffle tickets that they will redeem tomorrow. The event wraps up at 10PM, and like Monday night, some retire, some continue the networking into the night. Be sure to check back again tomorrow for a recap of the final day of Capstone. In the meantime, look below for some pictures from Day 2.
At 8AM, the conference got started again with some words from our Director of Talent Management and Recruiting, Ken Bansemer. Ken shared his wisdom by talking about taking control of your career by focusing on what you can influence, not what you can’t control, and by figuring out your personal assets and liabilities, and how they make up your equity characteristics. Following a group photo, the project teams reconvene for the balance of the morning to continue their work. Each team was assigned one of three themes and a means for presenting the results of the project (podcast, video, and live presentation). The teams got fast to work on defining the roles and responsibilities of each team member, and the concepts for what they will do and how they will do it.
After lunch, everyone comes back to the amphitheater to hear from our Chief HR Officer, Kimpa Moss, and our new company President, C.E. Andrews. Listening to Kimpa is always a treat as she spoke about the some of the core leadership competencies at McGladrey. It was an added bonus however to have our new President join us as well. He started in his new role on Monday and made the time to come out to St. Charles to participate in this event. Mr. Andrews backed up his participation with some inspiring words about why he decided to take on this new role, and where he hopes to take the firm in the future. He shared with us that he actually started his career at Arthur Andersen 35 years ago at The Q Center, with some courses in the same room that we were in. He also let the group know that he took his new role with McGladrey because he saw a lot of the same attributes here that appealed to him at Andersen, specifically McGladrey’s focus on people and their development. Kimpa and C.E. then took questions from the interns for over 40 minutes, with many excellent questions and insightful answers.
Following Kimpa and C.E., the teams reconnected for the rest of the afternoon to finish their projects. After dinner and some free time, it’s time to start to see the results of the project teams work. A faculty member (Jen Poklemka) and myself had the honor of emceeing the project team presentations, which we will continue to see through Wednesday. This is a competition BTW, and the early results are promising. The interns and faculty get to vote on each presentation, and the winners get rewarded at the end of the conference. The first set of presentations we saw were all entertaining and creative. More on that tomorrow.
A long day isn’t quite done yet though. The day ends with a Casino Night event inside the ballroom. It’s a fun night as faculty members like myself dealt out the cards, and the interns compete with chips to ultimately win raffle tickets that they will redeem tomorrow. The event wraps up at 10PM, and like Monday night, some retire, some continue the networking into the night. Be sure to check back again tomorrow for a recap of the final day of Capstone. In the meantime, look below for some pictures from Day 2.
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| Capstone Day 2 |
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Captone Summer Intern Conference - Day 1 Recap
Today marked the beginning of our Capstone Summer Intern Conference. McGladrey hosts these conferences every summer (and for the first time last winter) at The Q Center in St. Charles, IL, which is about 1 ½ hours west of Chicago. The Q Center is a former college that was transformed into a corporate training and conference facility. Being as far as it is from Chicago (and just about anything else) is a good thing as it allows it’s visitors to focus on the facility and the event at hand. It really is a great facility too, with nice accommodations, all you can eat dining and snack stations, a full gym, a clubhouse with a game room and bar, and outdoor facilities as well. Essentially, they make you feel very comfortable here, and ready to connect and learn.
The interns begin to arrive in the early afternoon, but the conference doesn’t officially begin until 5PM. The conference faculty members, dressed in their alma mater’s shirts, welcomed our interns, help them get situated, and direct them to the amphitheater for the start of the event. At 5PM, the conference begins with an inspirational video, a warm welcome, and an introduction to the first speaker, John Blumberg, who sets the stage for the conference by explaining the Kolbe Index. The concept behind Kolbe is that we all have innate instincts and strengths which help define how we are most effective working individually and as a part of teams, which ultimately the interns will use to learn how to interact more effectively with each other.
Dinner is next. Q Center dining really is a great experience. It’s all you can eat, with several stations serving a wide variety of cuisines (I had sushi tonight). The conference has only been going on now for a couple of hours, and it’s great to see our interns from all over the country start to mingle and get to know each other better.
After dinner, we reconvene for our next activity, where everyone creates Who Am I? poster boards using a variety of materials to describe themselves. As John Blumberg said during his presentation, everyone is creative, and it certainly showed with the work the interns did on their poster boards. To finish off the evening, the interns broke out into project teams, where the teams got to know each other better using their poster boards. Their faculty engagement leader explained the projects that they were been assigned to work on for the conference (more on that tomorrow). At 10PM, it’s time to wrap up. It’s been a long day for everyone, and it’s an early day tomorrow. Some head to their rooms, some keep the networking going for a little longer. I know that I’ll be up early for a quick workout and breakfast before the conference continues. Be sure to check back tomorrow for a recap of Tuesday’s activities.
Click below for a slideshow of some pictures from Day 1.
The interns begin to arrive in the early afternoon, but the conference doesn’t officially begin until 5PM. The conference faculty members, dressed in their alma mater’s shirts, welcomed our interns, help them get situated, and direct them to the amphitheater for the start of the event. At 5PM, the conference begins with an inspirational video, a warm welcome, and an introduction to the first speaker, John Blumberg, who sets the stage for the conference by explaining the Kolbe Index. The concept behind Kolbe is that we all have innate instincts and strengths which help define how we are most effective working individually and as a part of teams, which ultimately the interns will use to learn how to interact more effectively with each other.
Dinner is next. Q Center dining really is a great experience. It’s all you can eat, with several stations serving a wide variety of cuisines (I had sushi tonight). The conference has only been going on now for a couple of hours, and it’s great to see our interns from all over the country start to mingle and get to know each other better.
After dinner, we reconvene for our next activity, where everyone creates Who Am I? poster boards using a variety of materials to describe themselves. As John Blumberg said during his presentation, everyone is creative, and it certainly showed with the work the interns did on their poster boards. To finish off the evening, the interns broke out into project teams, where the teams got to know each other better using their poster boards. Their faculty engagement leader explained the projects that they were been assigned to work on for the conference (more on that tomorrow). At 10PM, it’s time to wrap up. It’s been a long day for everyone, and it’s an early day tomorrow. Some head to their rooms, some keep the networking going for a little longer. I know that I’ll be up early for a quick workout and breakfast before the conference continues. Be sure to check back tomorrow for a recap of Tuesday’s activities.
Click below for a slideshow of some pictures from Day 1.
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| McGladrey Capstone 062909 |
Note: BTW, this is the 100th post on this blog! A big milestone to match up with a big event!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Coming Next Week: Capstone Intern Conference!
This coming Monday I'll be travelling to St. Charles, IL, the site of our Capstone Summer Intern Conference. I've been to The Q Center before, but this will be my first Capstone Conference, and I'm really excited to finally be a part of it. 120 Interns and 20+ faculty and speakers will be descending upon this event Monday as well for three days of learning, networking, collaboration, and fun.
So check back next week for daily recaps of Capstone so that you may experience this event for yourself. Each Capstone Conference is unique in it's own way, but to get a flavor of what will be happening next week, take a look below at a slideshow of last summer's Capstone event. See you next week from St. Charles!
So check back next week for daily recaps of Capstone so that you may experience this event for yourself. Each Capstone Conference is unique in it's own way, but to get a flavor of what will be happening next week, take a look below at a slideshow of last summer's Capstone event. See you next week from St. Charles!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Ask BJ - Options for Submitting Your Resume
This question has come up a few times lately from candidates that are submitting resumes to positions on our Career Site:"Why are there two different options to submit a resume? One that is an upload option and one that is a cut and paste option?"
We offer different ways to submit a resume so we can best accommodate the needs of different situations. We have a 'browse' and 'upload' function so somebody may submit a version of their resume directly from their computer. But, we realize that at times, somebody may be using a shared or work computer and may be unable to access a saved copy of their resume. In these situations, the copy and paste feature becomes handy. The copy and paste feature also works well for a candidate that may be experiencing technical problems while trying to upload.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Podcast: New Summer Intern Phil Li
Summer Interns are starting at McGladrey offices around the country this month. Listen to Phil Li as he describes what he is looking forward to as he starts his internship with McGladrey, why he chose McGladrey as a firm he wanted to do his internship, his expectations about next week's Intern Conference, what his goals for the internship are, and what he hopes to gain out of the exposure he will get working with our clients.
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