My name is Frinneth Rueda, and I recently graduated from Chapman University with a BS in Business Administration and an emphasis in Accounting and a BA in French. I will begin a full-time position as an Audit Associate with Eide Bailly in March of 2022.

It wasn’t until my last semester at Chapman that I decided to fully commit to accounting, and if you’re aware of how the accounting timeline works, you may have already realized that I was pretty late to the game. You want to begin connecting and working in accounting pretty early on in your college career. Definitely not wait until your last semester to start reaching out. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I did. Of course, this wasn’t the end of the world, but it did mean I had to begin working harder on a much shorter timeline.

I began by reaching out to a couple of people at Chapman, mainly old professors, and the Argyros Career Services office. I first heard about Eide Bailly’s open positions through my Accounting professor, Bennet Tchaikovsky. Through him, I connected to a great recruiter at Eide Bailly and began my interview process from there. I gained advice and a lot of valuable help from Tuanni Vasconcelos in Argyros Career Services. I was able to prep for the interview process, edit my LinkedIn and resume with her, and I always felt more than ready to face my newest tasks after talking to her.

If I could give any advice to anyone currently considering a career in accounting, it would definitely be to start making connections now. Go to Meet the Firms, begin talking to your professors, reach out on LinkedIn. The Argyros Careers office is a great place to start as well. Everyone is more than happy to help you as long as you put in the work. Even if you do begin the process a little later like me, know that it’s okay. The first couple of months might be a little hard, but Chapman gives you a lot of resources, so don’t be discouraged!