We had quite the weekend and first day of interviewing this week. Saturday we spent traveling to Snailwell outside Cambridge to visit friends of Professor Miller. They were kind enough to take us to dinner, put us up for the night, and show us around town. We had quite a bit of fun playing in their yard and with their 5 dogs. Saturday was also my birthday so we did a little celebrating and hit a few sites up that I was looking forward to on Sunday. We toured the grounds of the upcoming Olympic games which was very cool. We were able to check out the surrounding area as well as see the exterior of the venues, the athletes’ village, and the new largest mall in Europe that was built. Hearing what will be done with the venues after the games was especially interesting. Afterwards we went to the Hard Rock Café London for dinner. I think I enjoyed this a bit more than everyone else considering I love the music, the memorabilia, and the food at all the other locations.

Today was packed with three interviews and a fair amount of traveling in between. Our first interview was by far one of the coolest because it was with the Director of Education Initiatives at the IASB (International Accounting Standards Board). It was obvious where his support was but hearing the other information he had was incredibly interesting. From here we went to another EY office in London and interviewed a partner with experience in the transition. Much of the information she provided supplemented what we have learned from our other interviews.  Next we caught a train and headed out to our first interview at a company other than an accounting firm, E2V. We met with the director of finance who also had experience with KPMG. It was interesting to get his perspective on the transition from both the public and private fields of accounting.

We have now completed the last of our London interviews (and thankfully the last of wearing suits for a while). The rest of this week we will be patronizing the British Rail System traveling to places such as Nottingham, Northampton, Southampton, and Leicester. All of these will be university interviews which will hopefully go as well as the first. Saturday morning we leave London for northern England and Scotland so time to enjoy our last few days!

Michael Wells, IASB

Justine Belton, EY

Nick Wright, E2V