Pathways Externship Event - Gaithersburg, MD

Each summer, several McGladrey locations offer an externship program which gives sophomore accounting students a chance to get to know our Firm through a series of networking events. These events are geared at giving the participants a clear understanding of what McGladrey is all about. We provide them access to our culture, our clients and our people. These students are selected through an interview process which takes place during the spring semester.

This summer, the Mid-Atlantic Economic Unit (EU), hosted four events, including:
- A kick-off event where the Externs met with EU leaders, a client CFO, and finished with a 'scavenger hunt' in Baltimore's Inner Harbor;
- A Bike-the-Sites event where the Externs toured downtown Washington, DC and had more opportunities to network with EU leaders at an evening event;
- A Shadow Day where the Externs were paired with an Associate who served as their mentor;
- And an In Office Interview Day where the Externs interviewed with senior level staff for winter and summer Internship positions, participated in a team building event got a tour of the office, and finished with an evening dinner event.

The video below features some of the highlights from the In Office Interview Day event held last Thursday at the Gaithersburg, MD office. 11 students participated, and from what I witnessed, they all had a great time. You can learn more about the Pathways program when you see us on campus this Fall.

Thanks to Dan O'Brien, the Mid-Atlantic EU Campus Recruiting Manager for access to the event and the supporting information.

Meet A Recruiter - Ben Gotkin, National Recruiting

Success starts here will have numerous contributors, and they will be introducing themselves to you in the coming weeks. Since I have put up most of the posts so far, I'll go ahead and introduce myself to you first.

I joined McGladrey over a year and a half ago as the National Director of Experienced-Hire Recruiting. Essentially, I help the company establish it's large scale experienced-hire recruiting strategy, and lead the development of programs that have a national impact. I've been a Recruiter my entire career, with prior stints at organizations including MITRE, Intelsat, and BAE Systems.

I've also been a blogger for the past few years, starting with a personal blog that I kept up for a couple of years (no longer active), and a blog about recruiting called ...from the trenches, which I ran for about 18 months. More recently, I've been contributing to a great Ning community for recruiters called RecruitingBlogs.com.

Related to my interests and experience in social media, I really enjoy getting involved with and/or leading community building and collaborative initiatives. Recruiting is all about relationships, and I'm constantly aiming to find new ways to connect great people with each other.

On a personal level, I'm a third-generation Washingtonian (I always introduce myself like that, it's actually pretty rare, DC being such a transient town). I have a wonderful family including my wife of 12 years and our two boys. I'm also an avid reader (mostly blogs and non-fiction), big local sports fan (Go Terps, Skins, Nationals, Wizards, Caps, United!!!), and am very quickly becoming addicted to our new Wii.

So, that's a little bit about me. I look forward to sharing more with you again soon.

What does Public Accounting look like? An intern video

Earlier this summer, the interns in our Phoenix office were extended a challenge, to explain using any media available the concept of 'What does Public Accounting look like' to the outside world. The 'actors' in the video include the Phoenix office Managing Partner, Dan Williams, along with 3 full-time staff members (Tait, Ross and David), and 4 interns (Jordan, Chris, Theresa and Ian). 3 other interns in the office (Tracy, Melissa and Jill) also took part.

What they came up with was creative, funny, maybe even Oscar-worthy??? Check it out and see for yourself!

Welcome to Success starts here.

Welcome to Success starts here, your view into what it’s like to work at RSM McGladrey and McGladrey & Pullen.

What’s Success starts here all about? It’s an opportunity for us to pull back the 'top layer' and provide you a deep view into our company’s work environment. You will meet our people, visit our locations, see how we get involved in the community, experience our culture, and learn more about our career opportunities. We will promote company news and event information here, and provide you with job search tips and advice.

Success starts here is also an interactive forum where you’ll be able to send us your questions and post comments regarding content on this site. We’ll constantly be posting new content here, so we hope you will visit again, and visit often. So, until your next visit to Success starts here, we look forward to seeing you here again.

Rochester Office Wins Prestigious Workforce Flexibility Award

In the coming weeks and months, we will share with you some of the things that make McGladrey a truly unique place to work. Although we cannot guarantee flexibility in every situation, at McGladrey we feel that we can deliver on work-life flexibility as well as anyone in our industry.

Nothing backs up that assertion better than when we receive awards for practicing what we preach. As we win these awards, we will be celebrating them here at Success starts here. Recently, our Rochester, MN office was awarded the prestigious 2008 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. The Rochester office was particularly recognized for it's participation in the Parent Education Program, a parenting program for the workplace.

Although this recognizes just one of 100+ offices at McGladrey, it reflects well the efforts made to provide our employees across the firm the flexibility they need to be successful at work and in their personal life.

If you would like to explore opportunities at this award-winning location, explore the current job openings at that office below:

Audit Manager - Manufacturing Wholesale Distribution
Sr. Tax Associate - Manufacturing Wholesale Distribution

Who's Behind Your Success?

Many of us have an inspirational or influential individual in their life that helped us to be successful at school and/or in our career. For me, it's been my Mother, a two-time cancer survivor, who made me much of what I am today. Who has been behind your success? If you are can tell that story in 200 words or less, you will be eligible to spend a day with LPGA star Natalie Gulbis in Las Vegas!

All you have to do is tell McGladrey “Who’s Behind Your Success?” in an essay, 200 words or less. One grand prize winner and a guest will win a day with Natalie in her hometown of Las Vegas, including a morning workout, nine holes of golf and dinner. Visit www.rsmmcgladrey.com/nataliecontest to submit your essay and to see Natalie’s own personal essay about her father John, which helped inspire the contest.

In future posts, we will explore more here about McGladrey's relationship with the PGA. If you play golf or are a golf fan, and have a great story to tell about that influential person behind your success, be sure to submit your essay today!

Lemonade Anyone? An Intern Community Service Activity

In the spirit of community service and charity, two teams of six summer interns in our Philadelphia Economic Unit (EU) recently raised over $5000 for the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. Both teams submitted business plans, sought sponsors, executed on the plan and competed to see who could bring in the most donation dollars (BTW, congratulations to the 'McLemons' who won the competition over the 'When Life Gives You Lemons' team).

Meet A Recruiter - Nancy McCreery, Southern New England

From time to time, you will have an opportunity to meet some of the Recruiters here at McGladrey. The recruiting process should be a personal one, and this is an opportunity to put a name and a face behind the job opportunities you are exploring with us.

Today, we would like to introduce you Nancy McCreery. Nancy joined the firm in December of 2007 and is currently the Experienced Hire Recruiting Manager based out of the Stamford, CT office. She also spends time in the New Haven office.

When asked why she was attracted to RSM McGladrey, she said it was most definitely the people! When she received the call, she did not hesitate one bit to come for the interview. The folks in her EU are wonderful people to work for and to work with. There is truly the spirit of team work and camaraderie. She feels so fortunate to be in a role where she can expand her skills, interests and capabilities. The exposure she has been given in her new position has been exhilarating. Nancy is centralizing Community Building Program to ensure continuity and provide a greater impact for their EU – they recently went on a team commuting outing to the Stamford Museum and Nature Center, where they volunteered their time to paint picnic tables, park trellises and even to dig holes for new signs that were being put in there. It was unbelievable to her to see how everybody from interns to partners came together as a team that day and many other times.

Nancy truly does have a passion for volunteer and community service work. She is an active annual participant in Swim Across America, a non-for-profit organization that raises money for cancer awareness. Nancy has been doing these swims for the past 13 years in memory and honor of her step-father.

Nancy is from Westchester County town of Larchmont, NY which is between Connecticut and New York City. She is one of 11 siblings and she was the 9th born in her family. Nancy grew up playing tennis and sailing competitively. She even taught sailing lessons for 6 years during high school and college. Nancy still competes in sailing events through the sailing and yacht club to which she belongs. In her spare time, Nancy plays tennis once a week and in the winter she plays paddle tennis. For those not familiar with paddle tennis, it is similar to the regular game of tennis, however, it is played on a smaller, caged in court and it is best played when the temperatures are between 32 and 0 degrees!

Nancy is recruiting approach is strategic and Line Of Business driven. Currently she is seeking Auditors at the Senior Associate, Supervisor and Manager levels, as well as State and Local Tax (SALT) Supervisors and Managers. To learn more about these opportunities and to submit your resume for consideration, please click on the links below:

Audit Senior Associate
Audit Supervisor
Audit Manager
Experienced Tax Supervisor-Manager: SALT
Tax Manager: SALT

Helping Those in Need in the Midwest

Iowa is home for McGladrey. The firm's first office was opened in Cedar Rapids, IA in 1926. The recent devastating floods in the Midwest, has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and businesses, including our employees and our Cedar Rapids office.

McGladrey has donated $10,000 to the American Red Cross and has set up a flood relief fund for our employees to make donations as well. Approximately $8 million has been pledged to date to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. To make a donation yourself, please visit http://www.redcross.org/, or call 1-800-HELP-NOW.

Two Company Names? What Does It All Mean?

Describing our company can be a challenge at times. As you have probably noticed already, we use two names, RSM McGladrey and McGladrey & Pullen. RSM McGladrey is a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of HR Block that provides accounting, tax and business consulting services. McGladrey & Pullen is a partner-owned CPA firm that provides audit and attest services. So why the two different (yet similar) names?

Federal and state regulations and laws exist to ensure that licensed CPA firms are separate legal entities and are fully able to act independently in service to their clients. The rules and regulations state that a public company cannot own any share of, control any aspect of, or share in the profits of a licensed CPA firm. The Alternative Practice Structure (APS) that we operate under enables us to fully comply with the spirit, rules and regulations that govern our business. So, although we operate as separate and independent legal entities, we work together to serve our clients needs.

A bit confusing? Yes, but necessary nonetheless. For the sake of being simple and direct, we will just be using the name McGladrey when we refer to our company on this site. I hope this helps to clears up the multiple company names issue for you however. To learn more, please visit the About Us section on our website.