Lead and Succeed
Already, Owen's one-year master's program graduates are demonstrating that they have the skills needed to make a difference in the workplace.
By Sandy Smith | Features
When students in Vanderbilt's one-year programs—the master of accountancy, master of finance, and master of accountancy valuation—graduate, they don't just enter the workforce with business skills and expertise in accounting, accounting valuation or finance—they also leave with powerful leadership skills.
To prepare for what awaits in a rapidly changing workforce, students participate in Owen's Leadership Development Program, which provides robust assessments of their strengths and weaknesses plus sessions with an independent, certified executive coach.
Kate Barraclough oversees the master of finance program
"We would like to differentiate our program by seeing it not just providing skills for your first job, but providing you with skills that will last over the course of your career," says Kate Barraclough, the MS Finance program director.
Part of that success requires being able to lead projects, people or both, regardless of job title. Already, master's program graduates are demonstrating that they have the skills needed to make a difference in the workplace.
Karl Hackenbrack, associate dean and director of accountancy, points to Amelia Emmert, MAcc'08, who was just promoted to manager at EY—the first MAcc graduate to do so. He believes she will quickly be joined by others. "Her class is the first one to have the tenure to earn the rank of manager," Hackenbrack says. "No one will ever question her technical, teaming or managerial skills. She's proven them to earn the position of manager. I see leadership potential in all students or they wouldn't be in the program."
In the international public accounting firms, recent hires have an opportunity to showcase skills at the earliest stages of their career.
"Someone has to do the blocking and tackling," Hackenbrack says of new public accounting hires. "The willingness to be a contributing member of a larger team and knowing your place within that larger team is extremely important."
"Who is going to do that the next year? That year's new hire. That's where the traditional definition of leadership kicks in with public accounting: You'll never do this task again. You'll train someone to do the task that you did last go-round. These teams are structured so that an important part of your job is training the person coming in behind you."
Owen students receive an individualized approach to leadership development.
It's apparent in the workplace that Vanderbilt MAcc graduates possess those abilities. Hackenbrack recounts a story told to him by a student whose father is a partner at a Big Four firm. She said that during her internship, she could recognize other Vanderbilt MAcc alums by the way they acted on the job.
Vanderbilt MAcc alumni, Hackenbrack notes, are characterized by their professionalism, strong client and team skills and maturity. "The career development program is recognizable in the workplace," Hackenbrack says. "I'm sure some of that is recruiting the right people in the first place, but a lot has to do with the professional development programming that occurs on campus."
Barraclough says that the leadership and career development work for Vanderbilt MS Finance students includes building skills that can be applied to jobs in different facets in the industry. "With MS Finance, we're helping them identify what they want to do and what makes it a good career choice," Barraclough says of the intensive nine-month program. "We help them understand who they are as professionals and how knowing their strengths helps them be more effective and successful as team members and as leaders in the workplace."
An individualized approach runs throughout Owen's Leadership Development Program, no matter the degree, says Amy Lambert, MBA'04, senior manager of the program. Lambert works with students in the young professional tracks directly.
"The way that we have approached leadership development at Owen in general has been to meet each student where they are as an individual, no matter where they are in their career path," Lambert says. "Regardless of where they are headed, we help them capture the building blocks to start working toward to that long-term future."
Vanderbilt MAcc students work on team projects
Right on Schedule
From her perspective, there's no such thing as a typical day for Amelia Nennstiel Emmert, MAcc'08. As an audit manager at EY Nashville, her schedule is dictated by the needs of clients, the teams she supervises, and by the tasks she plots out for herself in advance.
There's a certain irony in this daily uncertainty, given that Emmert's career trajectory is right on schedule.
Last October, Emmert became the first member of Vanderbilt's 2008 inaugural master of accountancy class to reach the level of audit manager. Unlike her varying daily duties, her steady rise—and those of her fellow MAcc alumni—represents exactly what the program's architects, drawing on input from top firms like EY that serve as partners, envisioned from the start.
"Our program is designed to lay a solid career foundation upon which entry-level professionals can grow," says Karl Hackenbrack, associate dean and director of accountancy. "Amelia's success at EY is affirmation that Vanderbilt's approach is paying off for our graduates and the firms that hire them."
Six months into the one-year program, Emmert was completing a paid internship at EY as part of her studies—a distinguishing feature of the Vanderbilt MAcc. She had a job offer before the start of Mod 4 in the spring.
Positioned for success
"The program did a great job of preparing me for the interview process," Emmert says. "We received many opportunities for interaction with professionals at every level within the firm, including partners, and we were able to develop relationships with those people even before offers were extended."
"As first-year staff, we have set job responsibilities to some degree as key members of the audit team," Emmert says. "You build on the internship and begin to understand more about the audit process. Second-year staff carry out similar responsibilities as a first-year employee, but with less guidance from the audit senior," she says.
"Seniors (in their third year with the firm) begin to take ownership of the entire engagement and become more involved in the day-to-day planning and execution of the audit. As a manager, I oversee the audit process for two of our clients and ensure the work is performed with quality and progressing as planned, even though I may not be at the client site every day. I also keep the senior manager and partner informed of our progress, and I am available to the client and the team for questions," she says.
The new audit manager also takes on additional mentoring responsibilities. "I now have three people in the first-year staff position which I was in five years ago to whom I provide performance management and career advice," she says.
Forget stereotypes
While her responsibilities have changed considerably in five years, Emmert has found that Vanderbilt prepared her well. That was especially true in the areas of leadership and communication that, to some, might seem peripheral skills for a public accountant.
"The MAcc program taught me to think critically and to be a well-rounded individual, someone who has technical expertise, but who also has good people skills and is known as a go-to for getting the job done," Emmert says.
"It also helped me polish my communication skills and learn to effectively articulate what I'm trying to say."
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