Meet one-on-one with firm representatives – summer Firm Office hours will be posted to COOL next Friday, May 2^nd.   The link to download the office hours schedule can be found at the end of this post. 

Before you register for office hours, please review the following information:

1. Registration Procedures and Policies
   Students are permitted to sign up for a maximum of two office hour appointments, with a maximum of one session per firm (i.e. maximum of 1 appointment with 2 different firms).   Signing up for more than two spots could result in cancellation of all appointments.  This is in consideration to all students as there are a limited number of appointments available.  In fact, showing up for more than one appointment with the same firm would reflect very poorly on you with that firm, so it would not be to your advantage to do so.Once registration opens, you can find the available office hours on COOL (select the Events tab, then the Workshop tab).If you register for an event on COOL you are committed to attending. If you’re unable to attend you must either cancel your registration for the event on COOL or, if it is less than 24 hours before the event, notify the DAP Office by email. Failure to show-up to events for which you are registered is taken very seriously by the DAP Office and the Sauder School of Business. Not only is it a poor reflection on you personally, but it is also a poor reflection on all Sauder School of Business Students and the School, especially in the eyes of our recruiters. Students who sign-up for events and do not attend without notifying the DAP Office ahead of time will have their access to COOL revoked indefinitely.
2. Tips for Using Your Office Hours Effectively – This is your meeting, treat it like an information interview!
   
   Treat Office hours just like an Informational Interview. Do your research first, you may not know who you are meeting with but you do know what company they are representing. Make sure that you learn as much as you can about them from their company website and follow them on social media to learn the latest and greatest.

   Do come prepared with questions you want answered. No dry, flakey outside of the onion questions either! Show that them you prepared for this meeting by sharing with them what you have learned to get to those deeper, personal experience, insight, “make you cry, middle of the onion” questions.

   Make sure you know your brand and what makes you a unique and valuable candidate to THEIR firm. At some point during the meeting you will get an opportunity to tell them a bit about yourself. Make sure you know your unique value to them based on what you have learned they are looking for. Be able to communicate your value in a professional and succinct way.

   Be a professional! Realize that this is a business meeting and you need to represent yourself as a business professional. It might be summer and you may be on campus but that’s no excuse to for showing up in shorts and a t-shirt, slouching in your chair or not being prepared with written out questions or your business card. Remember they are sizing you up as a potential candidate.

Have fun and remember they want to get to know the real you!

For more tips and guidance on how to approach your meeting with firm representatives, be sure to attend the CPA Summer Series: Workshop 1 – Making the Most of Office Hours on May 7th.  Registration for this workshop is now open on COOL.

2014 DAP Summer Firm Office Hour Schedule