Micah's Blog

Job for Next Year = Done!

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:13:00 GMT

Times are crazy right now with all I have going on. I am finishing my last month as president of the Creighton Students Union. I am trying to finish our organization's five year strategic plan, manage elections, transition the new officers, ensure that everything is in order, and a bunch of other things before I get out of office. However, one thing is off my mind for next year: I have a job!

Next year I will be working here in Omaha at one of the Big Four accounting firms. I will be auditing clients in town, and Omaha is at no lack for large and interesting clients. Companies like ConAgra, First National Bank, Mutual of Omaha, Peter Kiewit, Berkshire Hathaway, etc. make Omaha their home. So, now this coming summer, I will be studying for the CPA exam and preparing to start my professional career as an auditor. Although with all of this exciting news comes new adult responsibilities...

Over Fall Break (this past week), my father and I played a not-so-fun game called "make Micah a budget for her adult life". For all of you that have not yet participated in this game, it stinks. You think you will be making plenty of money when you get out of school until you see all the places that it has to go...a mortgage, medical insurance, 401(k) plan, Roth IRAs, car insurance, taxes (lots of taxes!), the list goes on.

You know you are an adult when:
1. You realize how much Uncle Sam really takes from you...and it hurts.
2. Instead of coming home from the library and watching TV, you research your new firm's medical benefits for bedtime reading.
3. You spend more time figuring out how much to put towards your 401(k) plan than the time you spend figuring out what you are doing this weekend.

Homecoming Week

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:54:00 GMT

This past week was our Homecoming, and this year it coincided with Alumni Weekend. It was a really exciting week with a comedian, a hypnotist, the golf cart parade, and our Homecoming soccer game. However, it is crazy to think that this is the last time I will experience it all as a student. I have loved my time here at Creighton these past three years, and it is hard to believe that it is close to an end. Things are starting to happen in a whirlwind...I am interviewing for jobs and deciding where to settle down initially. I am interviewing with the two largest accounting firms in Omaha, and I will also be making the trek down to Wichita to interview with a privately-held company there. Things are going well because Creighton has prepared me well, but that doesn't make me any less nervous to be out there on my own. On the up side, I will be excited to come back and visit Creighton as my alma mater. I saw how much joy it brings our alumni to be back on their old stomping grounds. You can see how much this place meant to them when they were here, and how much it still means to them now. They look at St. John's with reverence for the past, and see the Harper Center with bright hope for Creighton's future. They love this place, just as us current students are learning to. Because if you learn one thing at Creighton, it is: once a bluejay, always a bluejay...

Advanced Investments

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 05:04:00 GMT

I am really excited for my senior year because this is the time where you really get deep into your major(s). For my finance major, I am in a class called Security Analysis and Portfolio Management (FIN 425). I know this may sound nerdy...but it is really fun! In the first few weeks we have essentially learned that everything we were taught until now about investments is wrong! Now we are being taught by the methods employed by investors such as Warren Buffett, and they make a lot of sense. Who knew portfolio management could be so interesting?!