How does one find the right person to hire for his or her company? This is a question many professionals ask themselves when it comes time to fill a position within their business. I have found the answer: I look for Chapman University graduates. After graduating from Chapman, I realized that the education I received prepared me to start my own company and grow it to the million-dollar corporation it is today. After my own success and experience at the university, I realized that other graduates would be similarly prepared to take on the real world and prosper. I not only wanted to create a strong company structure, but also a work family. What better way to do this than by hiring my fellow Chapman alumni?

My company,
Absolute Exhibits
, is a family-owned corporation I started with my parents after I graduated from Chapman’s Argyros School of Business and Economics in 2000. Since its inception, we have tried to hire people with whom we have close relationships because we knew that keeping it in the family, so to speak, would create employee loyalty along with a sound structure. Since the start of Absolute Exhibits, we have grown from a 10-person operation to an 80-person business and along the way we have generated many jobs that require college educations. We manufacture moderate-sized aluminum system exhibits using a European extrusion system and fabricate custom exhibit environments for domestic and international clients across the United States, and recently, around the world. With that being said, we have job opportunities that align with many career paths. Our departments include accounting, IT, project management, design, engineering, sales and even a marketing department. When we’re looking to find the right people for all of these departments, we look to Chapman University.

koren-team-2


A few of the Chapman Family members of Absolute Exhibits (from left to right): Christina Corbin ’13, Todd Koren ’00 and Duy Nguyen ’14.



Chapman University has been a great help in finding many of our long-term employees who not only came to us with a great depth of knowledge, but are also well versed in many fields.
Duy Nguyen
, B.S. computer information systems with a minor in business administration ’14, works with both our IT and marketing departments to produce the latest apps and help with our web development.  This year, while working full time, he will receive a master of science degree in computational and data sciences from Chapman University.
Nicholas Teramura
, M.A. organizational leadership ’12, has been able to effectively lead our project management team, as well as other members of our team, on the show floor.
McKenzi Taylor
 was also part of the organizational leadership program at Chapman and is our resident photographer.
Christina Corbin
, B.A. public relations and advertising ’13, is the assistant marketing director and has created a new social media marketing campaign for our company and has also helped in the development of our corporate videos.

The knowledge and expertise of these Chapman alumni has allowed our company to grow exponentially while advancing our skill levels. We have been able to expand our offerings to clients in corporate media production, event planning, professional photography, graphic design and other media solutions that other exhibit companies do not offer. That gives us the edge that we need in this competitive marketplace. We have created partnerships abroad and opened offices overseas so that we can take our clients internationally as well as nationally. All of this was possible based on the fact that I have been able to gather a strong team that is both well educated and prepared to work hard to make a difference.

What is my secret to success?  Hiring Chapman University graduates.