March 10, 2008

By Darla Martin Tucker

 La Sierra University business school student Roberto Anguiano handed out 10 resumes during the school’s Meet the Firms annual business mixer for students on Feb. 7.

He views the event as a valuable opportunity to network with corporations and a chance to polish his communication skills.

The School of Business held the Sam Croft 24th Annual Meet the Firms night at the university’s Alumni Center. More than 150 students met with representatives from 33 companies to ask questions, seek advice and present resumes.

It was Anguiano’s third time attending the event. During last year’s Meet the Firms, a representative of Albertson’s grocery store chain recognized Anguiano from the previous year and from his involvement in the business school’s Students In Free Enterprise projects.

“She said, ‘you’ve gotta look me up when you’re a senior,’” Anguiano said. “Networking in the end becomes a key factor. …The more often you’re there [at Meet the Firms], the more often they see you,” he said.

Meet the Firms allows students an opportunity to meet potential employers as
well as discover internship and training opportunities in the business world, said Ryan Blackerby, a business management senior and president of the university’s Students In
Free Enterprise program. 

Blackerby works full time for La Sierra as a gift records coordinator. He attended Meet the Firms to fulfill colloquium credit requirements and prepared resumes for marketing and other types of positions.

“Attending Meet the Firms would be good, even for someone not immediately looking for a job,” he said.

Advantage Sales & Marketing LLC in Irvine made its debut appearance at Meet the Firms on Feb. 7.

 “We thought it was really well organized. We had about 20-plus students stop by our booth,” said Carol vant’Vlie, senior human resources specialist for national recruitment.  “We walked away with five strong candidates to pursue for possible internships,” she said. The company’s internship program begins in June.

Advantage Sales posted an estimated $2.1 billion in sales during 2007, according to Hoovers Inc., a business information division of Dunn & Bradstreet Co. The Irvine company provides outsourced sales, merchandising and other services for leading grocery stores, convenience, big box and retail stores including Wal-Mart.

Advantage Sales has hired at least two La Sierra graduates. Warren Sturt, a 2007 Bachelor’s of Science finance graduate, works part-time for Advantage Sales as a staff accountant. Michael Mochache, a 2007 Master’s of Business Administration graduate, works for the company as a reporting business analyst.

 Advantage Sales looks for graduates who have “an understanding of the corporate environment” through internships and other business interaction and who enter the work force with realistic expectations about career growth and salaries, vant’Vlie said. “It takes a few years to get experience under your belt,” she said.

Riverside customer relationship management software developer Surado Solutions Inc. attended Meet the Firms. The company came away with three or four strong job candidates from among La Sierra’s students and is setting up an interview with one student for a sales position, Surado Executive Vice President Cheryl McCarthy said.

A representative from the Los Angeles offices of KPMG, one of the Big Four audit, tax and advisory firms, attended Meet the Firms night. The global company posted $16.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2006. KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Ernst & Young comprise the world’s four largest accountancy and professional services firms and are collectively known as the Big Four.

KPMG has participated in Meet the Firms the past four years or so, with the assistance of La Sierra alumnus, Duleep Rodrigo, who is director of advisory services with KPMG LLP, the company’s U.S. arm.

“We’re looking for students across audit, tax and advisory business lines who can join us for summer internships,” Rodrigo said. “We’re trying to attract some of the best college students from all Southern California schools.”

Rodrigo graduated in 1998 from La Sierra’s business school as a Finance and Risk Management major. He worked as a controller for Justice Technology Corp. after graduating from La Sierra and then joined KPMG.

Last year KPMG invited La Sierra student, Ryan Ashlock, to participate in an internship. The summer stint evolved into employment as an associate with KPMG’s Internal Audit Services Practice.

KPMG’s national internship program recruits approximately 2,500 students annually. Students are also selected to attend KPMG’s international internship programs during which they perform four-week, global rotations with KPMG’s clients in Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

“The program is very competitive and students need to be very well prepared in order to be selected for the internship. It’s also a very rewarding opportunity where you get to learn a lot and work with great Fortune 1000 companies,” Rodrigo said.

The late Sam Croft, an attorney and associate professor of law in La Sierra’s School of Business, originated Meet the Firms. He held the first annual events in the university cafeteria.

“It was his dream. … It was his brainchild,” said Vernell Kaufholtz, administrative assistant to business school Dean John Thomas.

Croft’s wife, Phyllis, prepared the food for those early gatherings. “It was wonderful stuff,” Kaufholtz said.

 Representatives from the following companies attended this year’s Meet the Firms night:
Adventist Development and Relief Agency; Advantage Sales & Marketing LLC; Adventist Health System; Adventist Risk Management Inc.; Altura Credit Union; Ameriprise Financial; California Society of Certified Public Accountants; city of Riverside Human Resources; Enterprise Rent-A-Car; Fair Housing Council of Riverside County; Family Service Association; Finesse Personnel; Glendale Adventist Medical Center; Global Education Systems Alliance; Helen’s Foods Inc.; IW Consulting; Jobing.com; Kaiser Permanente, IT Technical Staffing; KPMG; La Sierra University Human Resources; Loma Linda University Medical Center; Northwestern Mutual Financial Network; Prudential; Robert Half International; Southeastern California Conference - Human Resources; Surado Solutions Inc.; The Quiet Hour; TMAD Taylor Gaines; Turner Development; Vavrinek, Trine, Day & Co.; Walgreens; Washington Mutual; West America Reverse Mortgages.

PR Contact: Larry Becker
Executive Director of University Relations
La Sierra University
Riverside, California
951.785.2460 (voice)