Welcome back to this website! I never really brought a true identity to the site; at first, it was about putting my resume to more people. Then it became a way to promote myself on various search engines (I’m now in the first page of results!) Following that, it became a sort of journal where I would post my thoughts each day, both the good as well as the bad. Finally, it became a mixture of all three, while sitting dormant for a year….
A lot has happened in that period of time: 2018 was a crazy year, filled with moments on every end of the spectrum. The year started off with my first ever dive into the professional world of tax preparation: an internship with Sycamore Consulting. The internship was a fantastic experience! I got to prepare and process individual 1040 returns, while also meeting with a wide mix of clients!
During that internship, I also experienced my first dive into the dating world. I know what you’re thinking, “He’s 21 and just had his first ever date with a girl?” Yes, I’m definitely a late bloomer when it came to various social aspects of life. Anyway, my first date was with a girl named Megan. She was incredible attractive, smart, and funny! We matched on the Coffee meets Bagel dating app in December 2017 and started talking immediately. Unfortunately, I couldn’t meet her in person until after winter break due to her going back to her hometown in Atlanta for the holidays. We did Skype during the break which was really fun and interesting! After school started back up though, we stopped talking which was defiantly sad. But, on the bright side, I finally have that first date experience under my belt.
That experience would come in handy when I match with another girl on CmB named Frankie. I felt more of a deeper connection with Frankie more so than with Megan (And I went out on more than just one date, which was a good sign). The first date that Frankie and I went on was to a bowling alley. This was a bowling near her about 80 miles from where I live. I traveled a total of 160 miles to the most expensive bowling alley I ever went to: it cost $45 for unlimited bowling and extra for the shoes. We only actually played two games and just talked for an hour or so after. It was so much fun and she was amazing! Another date that her and I went on, was to go see Avengers: Infinity War. Now, I have already seen this movie once before I went with her, so I knew the twist at the end.
***Spoiler Alert for anyone living under a rock that hasn’t seen Infinity War***
When it came time at the end, when Thanos successfully gathered all of the infinity stones in the gauntlet and snapped half of the universe out of existence, I just looked over at Frankie and smiled. She had the face much similar to the Pikachu meme face that is circling the internet at the moment. She was so cute! I loved discussing that movie with her for an hour after before we both parted ways back to our respective school dorms. Unfortunately, when the summer came and we were both working as well as taking classes, we stopped talking with each other. It was sad, but honestly I don’t think it would have worked just due to the distance between us.
Going back to the spring semester of my junior year, I finished my tax internship in mid-April and started almost immediately at the second internship I had: an internal audit internship with Compassionate Care Hospice. In short, I loved my experience working for CCH! I especially loved the people that I worked with! Despite CCH being in the depressing hospice field, everyone who worked in the accounting department were always so happy. Even though I working 40 hours per week, I enjoyed every second of it. The two people that I shared an office with were awesome! Heather and Pat made the days go by fast. I would talk to them after getting my work done about random topics. Heather even started to teach me a little bit of Mandarin, which I still need to work on. Anyway, I loved that internship and it was just the experience I needed to make my resume more attractive to perspective employers during recruiting season in the fall.
When September came around, it was sad to leave CCH but exciting to get my last year of college underway. And boy did this semester start fast…
Being my last year at Rutgers, my senior year, I had to start applying for accounting jobs. For those readers that don’t know, public accounting firms recruit almost exclusively in the fall (mainly due to the fall being one of the slowest seasons in terms of the amount of work). I started out by going to the “Meet the firms” event that Rutgers holds every year. About seven or eight accounting firms are represented at tables, and groups of students rotate to each firm until they have met all seven or eight firms. This was my second time going to the event (I went my junior year as well) so I thought that I made another good impression. After the event was over, I started to apply to the firms that I liked through Rutgers RaptorLink service. Within a week or two, I had heard back from most of the firms and all but one wanted to interview me on-campus. I was super excited and nervous going into all of the interviews.
I’m going to cut to the chase though, I got rejected after that first round by all but one firm. I moved on to the second round with Novak Francella. I had an interview in their office in a week. I was extremely excited that at least one firm liked me enough to bring me into the office for an interview!
Another fast forward, I was rejected by them after that interview. Side note though, I had my interview with them at the end of October and they didn’t let me know I was rejected until the first week in December. My friend interviewed them at the same time as myself, he ended up accepting an offer from them in mid-November (Congrats Ben!!!). So, why did it take that long to send me that rejection email, I even tried emailing the recruiter and she never responded to those emails.
I digress though, so here I am. I have just been rejected by all of the firms that recruit heavily at Rutgers. What was I going to do? I actually became really depressed and I didn’t want to continue applying with the fear that I would get rejected. But I made myself apply to an opening at KPMG. I ended up securing an interview with them at their office in Philly!
I ended up driving to Philly and parking at a parking-garage (which was $35 for only an hour and half!). I got there early, so I just walked around Philly and ended up getting a bite to eat at Dunkin Donuts. I finished eating and decided to walk towards KMPG’s office as it was almost time for the interview. On my to the office, I get a call from a recruiter at Ernst & Young (EY).
A little back story, back in April, I had emailed this recruiter about a potential internship opening at EY. He said that the internship program was filled, but was intrigued by my resume and cover letter. I talked on the phone with him and he said that if I can land an accounting internship that summer, I should send him an email around August. So I obtained an internship with CCH like I mentioned and in August I emailed the recruiter at EY. I didn’t hear back, but I assume that it was because either he was busy or I wasn’t needed anymore.
Anyway, I get this call from the recruiter at EY as I am walking to an interview with their competitor: KMPG. To summarize the call, he basically said that he was wondering why I had not applied through the application process on EY’s website or through Rutgers. Then he said that I needed to apply that day by 5pm as it was EY’s last day to accept application during that recruiting season.
I was so shocked with that call and timing of it. But I still had to bring my A-game for this interview with KPMG. I walked in that interview feeling really great, but they didn’t think so: I was rejected yet again.
EY was my last shot.
Within a couple of days, I was asked to record myself answering some pre-interview questions. I did just that, submitting them, and within a week I was asked to do some web-based interviews; it was a Skype interview. I was so nervous because I have never performed a web interview before. However, Joe and Lisa, the two people who conducted the interviews, were so nice and made the whole experience less nerve-wrecking. About two weeks go by after those interview and I’m getting that feeling in my stomach of another rejection.
I then call the recruiter and leave a voicemail thanking him again for allowing me to interview with EY in the first place. The recruiter calls me back and says that he received great feedback from Joe and Lisa. He wanted me to do a phone interview with a Senior Manager at EY who happened to be a Rutgers graduate as well: David.
I was on that call with David for about a half hour and it felt like a normal conversation. The recruiter called me back a couple of days later on a Thursday morning. What he said to me changed my life forever, he said that he was extending an offer to me to work at EY in their assurance practice. I was in disbelief and could only get the words “thank you” out.
I finally landed my dream job working at a Big 4 public accounting firm! I was trying to be humble about it though, it took a day for me to actually tell someone else about it. I told my friends Trevon and Kylie. I was so happy that it was actually really hard to get the words out to them. I was also feeling like I don’t deserve this, that I was not good enough. My depression was creeping back up and then I re-watched Selena Gomez’s promotional song “Congratulations to Me.”
That made think that I am worth it. I worked extremely hard for this moment. I should be extremely happy that I accepted this dream job offer!
I am extremely happy! I’m excited for 2019, but I will always remember 2018 as the year of all years for Tom Palladino!
So much has happened this year and I didn’t even mention that I also turned 21. For readers outside of the United States, the legal drinking age is 21. I have many stories to tell regarding turning 21; be on the look out for future posts!
Thank you for reading this long post about the crazy awesome year I experienced! I hope you had just as great of a year and I will see you soon!