By Blake Meacham–Since his freshman year at Morningside, Eric Salmonson has balanced playing baseball and football.
Big deal, you say. Two-sport athletes are rare, but they’re not unheard of.
However, Eric maintains a near 4.0 GPA while playing those sports.
Okay, that’s pretty tough.
Adding to that, Eric is the starting longsnapper for the football team and a starting catcher for the baseball team.
This guy must have a pretty busy schedule.
Yes, he does. And on top of all of those practices and late-night homework sessions, Salmonson found a way to travel to Omaha, Sioux Falls, and Des Moines this fall to interview for accounting positions at different firms. Salmonson had to skip football practices to drive to some of the largest cities in the Midwest to undergo nerve-wracking questioning and interviewing.
After plenty of thinking and long nights of weighing pros and cons, Eric finally decided on Des Moines as the place where he’d start his career.
“I grew up in Omaha, and a part of me wanted to branch out and try other things, so that eliminated Omaha,” explained Salmonson. “Sioux Falls was just fine, but Des Moines was almost perfect. I had to go with Des Moines.”
Eric said that the size of the city, as well as the living situations and the kind of work he’d be doing were the deciding factors. The capital of Iowa was just the right fit in his mind. He’ll be living in an apartment by himself, unless he manages to get a roommate.
He accepted this job in early September, months before most other seniors even start applying for jobs that won’t start until after graduation. Still, the question remains: How did Eric manage to land such a great job so early into his senior year?
“I was able to land some really great internships. The summer after my sophomore year, I interned at the accounting firm that my mom worked at. Then the next summer, I interned at separate firm in Omaha, where I did a lot more work,” described Salmonson.
This alone set Eric apart from a lot of other applicants. He had gained so much experience before those particular interviews, that each firm wanted to hire him almost immediately.
According to Salmonson, he can start his job whenever he wants. Eric gave himself two options: start either immediately after graduation, or wait until August, when tax season really starts getting busy. Despite the amount of time he has to choose, he already made his decision: take the summer to study for his CPA exam, then move to Des Moines in August and also start his job.
“I want to take the summer to hang out at home with the family before I dive into the real world for the rest of my life.”
Sounds like a pretty good idea.
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