Written by Cadet Austin Rash ’19

As a kid, I always loved working with numbers. These numbers could be baseball statistics, how much my new cleats were going to be after my mom’s 20% coupon was applied, or how much tip to leave at a restaurant. That said, I excelled in my math courses growing up. Being around a numbers guy like my dad had a major impact on my desired field of study at VMI. I knew I wanted to do something in business but didn’t know exactly what. After taking financial and managerial accounting, I realized that I was pretty good at this whole accounting thing. I began to look at career fields in accounting since my freshman year and haven’t looked back since.

My neighbor, Paul Thompson, is the Managing Partner at Dixon Hughes Goodman in Richmond, VA. I spoke with Paul after I completed my rat year at VMI about my aspirations of becoming a CPA upon graduation. He recommended that I apply for DHG’s Leadership Conference after my Sophomore year and then apply for their internship for the summer after my Junior year. I didn’t get accepted into their Leadership Conference, but did get an offer for their internship, which I did accept. At the conclusion of my internship they offered me a full-time position.

If someone is interested in a career related to accounting, I would highly recommend creating a LinkedIn profile. The majority of businesses I applied to this past summer came from LinkedIn and I got a lot of opportunities from it. I would also recommend talking to Bruce MacDonald in the ECBU department about opportunities because he knows a lot of people in the business world.

I would recommend finding alumni on LinkedIn that are in the accounting field. I reached out to multiple of them and spoke with them on the phone about the path they took to become a CPA from VMI since we don’t offer an accounting degree. I would also talk to Bruce MacDonald like I mentioned above. Being able to utilize the VMI alumni network to your advantage will set you up for success in the future.