Accounting Experts Advise Students
Accounting students gained valuable information from potential employers in three events prior to the Fall Job and Internship Fair.
10/09/2014 10:41 AM
By Brandon Wallace ‘17
Accounting students gained valuable information from potential employers in three events prior to the Fall Job and Internship Fair.
Over 120 students, from freshmen finding their first professional experiences to seniors and graduate students searching for jobs, packed Baker Hall to learn about opportunities in accounting.
The first event was a public accounting career panel. Representatives from three public accounting firms, Deloitte, PwC, and Porte Browne, came to campus to discuss the work they do and answer students’ questions.
The second event was a corporate accounting career panel. This also followed the panel discussion format. Representatives from four companies, Caterpillar, IDEX, Nestle Purina and United Airlines were in attendance
“In accounting, there are two very broad career tracks. Students enter either into corporate accounting or public accounting,” said accounting department Chair Dr. Simon Petravick. “Therefore, the type of career choices students must make lead to two of the panels that we held.”
The final program provided the students with several tips that they should follow while attending the career fair and conducting their searches for internships and full-time employment. This program was managed by the Illinois CPA Society’s Young Professionals and included representatives from Caterpillar, McGladrey, Heinold Banwart, and Versa Press.
“We are very fortunate to have many great organizations recruiting our students,” said Petravick. “With only three weeks between the start of school and the career fair, the panel discussions proved to be a great way to get information out to the students in a very short time.”
Beta Alpha Psi, the national honorary organization for accounting majors, sponsored the events. Bradley’s Zeta Lambda chapter of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) recently won its fifth gold chapter award at the 2014 BAP Annual Meeting, an honor awarded to only 15 chapters out of approximately 300 chapters worldwide.