Meet the Firms: Kickstarting Your Accounting Career

Students connect with top employers at exclusive UC Davis career fair

Blog
September 27, 2023

Hear from students, recruiters and alumni at this year’s Meet the Firms event, featuring nearly 30 companies and agencies seeking UC Davis talent.

At the 11^th annual Meet the Firms event, Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc) students connected with recruiters and alumni with Big 4 firms, national companies and government agencies.

With the strong market demand for CPAs, the Meet the Firms event continues to attract top firms looking to hire UC Davis students at this premiere networking event.

Alumni Return as Recruiters

Many of the company representatives were MPAc alumni and shared why it was important for them to return to the Graduate School of Management to recruit for their firms.

Chris Riggin MPAc 19, Deloitte Tax Consultant

"Right now, accounting is one of the biggest professions in the world. With Deloitte, we're really looking for everybody that has strong team abilities, leadership abilities, and most importantly, someone that's willing to learn."

Jaspreet Bola MPAc 21, CA Department of Finance Evaluator

"I understood where these students are coming from as I was once in their shoes. Overall, the Department of Finance enjoyed being a part of this event and meeting ambitious individuals eager to join the accounting field."

Kevin Tam MBA 91, PG&E Finance Representative

"The type of students that we are looking for is not necessarily what is on the resume or what their experience is. At PG&E Finance, we want to have a labor force that represents the people we serve."

Brian A Favetti MPAc 23, Tax Staff at Campbell Taylor Washburn

"Professor Will's tax classes have been especially helpful as I work on tax returns and need to reference the often complicated tax rules that apply in different client situations."

Student Experience at Meet the Firms

"I was really excited to have the opportunity to network with firms in face-to-face interaction that is obviously very valuable and a great way to connect."
- Samantha Tzong MPAc 24

As students ramp up to attend Meet the Firms, they work with faculty and staff to sharpen their interview techniques, fine-tune their professional pitch, learn networking best-practices and gain professional development support.

This professional development support continues throughout the academic year, as MPAc students continue to hone their skills and develop connections amongst fellow students, faculty, alumni, recruiters and executives.

Video Transcript

Janie Chang, MPAc Academic Executive Director

We’re really happy to have Meet the Firms event today. We have CPA firms and other organizations join us. We provide this platform for our students to meet professionals, explore their career trajectories and we are very happy that our students are CPA eligibility ready, and we hope to continue this for the coming years.

Ally Amaral, Sensiba LLP Talent Acquisition Specialist

This event is for students who are interested in getting connected with different accounting firms and companies in the local area and across the United States. It's a great opportunity for students to get plugged in and to talk with different firms to see where their fit would be best.

Chris Riggin MPAc 19, Deloitte Tax Consultant

Accounting is one of the biggest professions in the world. And coming out here to Meet the Firms really gives you a chance to get information, find out what opportunities you have available and what you can get into.

Cheyenne Mullins, KPMG University Talent Acquisition

I'm here today with my audit and tax professionals talking to MPAc students about a career in audit or tax. And then how to fill out the application as well as how to get a job at KPMG.

Ashley Havens, Ernst & Young Campus Recruiter

At Ernst & Young we offer opportunities for you to work in either assurance, tax, strategy and transactions and consulting.

Reilly Grellas PwC Tax Partner

PwC is a public accounting firm, we do audit work, tax work, consulting work. This Meet the Firms event gives us a chance to speak with the next generation of talent in accounting and teach them about PwC and other accounting firms and what a career in auditing looks like versus a career in tax.

Different locations that are available to people, different tax and audit practices and how those might look for a student. And we really look forward to coming to these each year.

Kevin Tam MBA 91, PG&E Finance Representative

PG&E is here for the first time this year and we are super excited. I am a GSM alum from. And it brings me special meaning to be back here talking to these great students. At PG&E we want to have a labor force that represents the people that we serve.

Ally Amaral, Sensiba LLP Talent Acquisition Specialist

What we generally look for here are students that are kind. We can teach you the technical skills, but we can't teach you how to be a kind person and that's truly what we look for when we come to these Meet the Firms events is students who are generally interested in a career in accounting and being a part of a team.

Jaspreet Bola MPAc 21, CA Department of Finance Evaluator

In terms of what we’re looking for students, is students that have a willingness to learn and that are always adaptable. We're open with any kind of background that you have. As long as you have the interest and willingness to learn. You'll be a great fit for this position.

Kelsey Thomas MPAc 21, BDO Representative

This year, we’re really looking for students who are open to asking questions and just learning as much as they possibly can in a really collaborative environment. Super similar to what they're going to be experiencing during the MPAc program. So, very excited to be here.

Samantha Tzong, MPAc Student

I had a great experience here at Meet the Firms to be able to talk one on one with the recruiters and people with hands on experience as well as MPAc graduates.

Aditya Prasad, MPAc Student

This experience has been nothing short of amazing. I got an opportunity to network with so many different people. And I would say that anybody who makes use of this program, you will greatly benefit from it. Kudos to the Graduate School of Management for having this for us, and I'm super excited to see where this takes me.

Meet the Firms: Kickstarting Your Accounting Career