Prepared and Proactive

UND Department of Accountancy student lands an internship and full-ride to graduate school with a Big Four accounting firm. When fourth year accounting student, Dan Mykleseth graduates from the University of North Dakota College of Business & Public Administration in August of 2017, he will pursue a Master of Accounting with Data and Analytics at Ohio State—on a full ride from KPMG. Mykleseth, a Crookston, Minn. native, is what Pancratz Career Development Center Director, Kathy Lund, considers a proactive student. “Dan has come into the Center several times and has been extremely focused on everything that he does. He’s a very hard worker and wants to be well-prepared so he does all of the work ahead of time to make sure that he is prepared for every scenario,” said Lund. Currently, three of the Big Four accounting firms recruit students here on campus. Typically, students network and discuss internship opportunities with these firms during the accounting career fair in September. But Mykleseth didn’t want to wait until then to pursue an internship—instead, in May, he reached out to KPMG himself. “I sent an e-mail out to them saying, ‘hey, I’m interested in getting to know your firm,’” said Mykleseth. “A couple of weeks later, they responded asking if I would like to get together and discuss potential internship opportunities.” Mykleseth was eventually offered a semester-long internship with the firm. “I was really excited that he did that,” said Lund. “I think sometimes it’s a difficult thing for students to go that extra step and do that because we do have the companies that come here. So, for him to say, I’m going to go with KPMG, I’m going to put myself out there and approach them directly, takes a lot of initiative.” Once Mykleseth accepted the internship, he said a national e-mail was sent out to all of the firm’s interns informing them of a Master of Accounting with Data and Analytics Program opportunity through KPMG at Villanova and Ohio State. “The e-mail said it would be the inaugural year for the program,” said Mykleseth. “At first I was like, wow that sound like a lot of work,” he said with a laugh, “but after just a day or two of thinking about it, I thought, even if I don’t get even an interview, it was worth a shot to just apply.” The unique program addresses the needs of an era of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The University’s curriculum integrates accounting, auditing, technology, data and analytics computer system courses with the market needs of the data age. Mykleseth is one of fifty-two from a nation-wide applicant pool to earn himself this opportunity. “My initial reaction? Holy cow,” said Mykleseth. Mykleseth is involved with the UND Accounting Club and honor society, Beta Alpha Psi. He says his best piece of advice to other students is to, “constantly be proactive.” It certainly worked for him