Alumni Spotlight

Wayne Jia, '07

Fund Accountant
PFPC

What year did you graduate? 2007

What did you study at Clark? Majored in Management and was among the first graduating class to complete the track in Innovation & Entrepreneurship

What is your hometown? I was born in Beijing, China, but lived in New York City since I was four. I'm currently living in Worcester.

What is your current position? I currently work as a fund accountant at PFPC. PFPC is a company part of PNC Financial Services Group. PFPC provides fund accounting, administration, subaccounting, transfer agency and shareholder services to the investment management community, operating out of the United States. 

How long have you been at this job? Since June 2007

How did you find your current job? I found my current job at the job fair sponsored by Career Services.

Describe in a few sentences the work that you do: I calculate the daily NAV (Net Asset Value) for mutual funds which are published in the Wall Street Journal. I spend most of my day working with spreadsheets and updating our holdings for funds on PFPC software.

What do you like most about your job and the work that you do?The part of my job I like most is figuring out the different contracts we hold in our funds and resolving conflicts in our cash. It's pretty rewarding at times especially when you resolve a large amount of cash. A quick story about that, which happened about 5 months into working at PFPC when we had a company wide meeting with the CEO and CFO. They highlighted recent achievements of the company and mentioned a call from a client, mutual fund XYZ. The client was going to open new mutual funds with PFPC based on the work we were already doing, citing all the cash exceptions that was resolved in XYZ. It just so happens that XYZ was the group I was working in. So that was a good pat on the back coming from top management.

What do you feel are necessary skills to do your job?
Being comfortable working with spreadsheets is definitely a necessary skill. Being a quick learner, and having a basic accounting and financial background helps. It’s also helpful to enjoy working with lots of numbers.

How did your time at Clark prepare you for this position/work?
There is no class that you can take to become a fund accountant, but many of the courses required for the management major definitely help. Being very comfortable with excel and understanding bonds, loans, and equities are pretty important. So classes like Corporate Finance, Intro to Accounting, MIS and Calculus are good foundations to have.

Where do you hope to see yourself in 5 years?
 I plan on moving back to NYC within a few years and hopefully I will be able to stay in the same field. But it’s really hard to say where anyone will be in 5 years. I could easily see myself becoming a supervisor at PFPC within 5 years time.

What recommendations would you provide to current students interested in pursuing a similar job?  Before I started to work for PFPC, I had no idea what a fund accountant did. I learned a lot on the job and I'm still learning today. I can't say I did any internship that was directly related to fund accounting but I definitely got involved with as much as I can. I think that’s the best thing you can do as a student. The best advice I can give anyone interested in this field would be to pay attention in Corporate Finance. A lot of what I do now involves what I learned with Prof. Tamarkin.

February 6 Career Fair on Campus:
Many Options for Management Students

On Wednesday, February 6, Career Services will host 30 great organizations who are seeking Clark applicants for career or summer internship positions. The Career Fair will be held from noon to three o'clock in Tilton Hall. Whether you are in a full-fledged search, or just starting to think about jobs/internships, you should attend this event. It is a great "springboard" to help students get started. Many connections that start at the Career Fair end up with Clarkies getting hired. The following is a sample of companies who will specifically include Management students amongst the majors they will seek:

*Ameriprise
*EMC Corporation
*Enterprise Rent-A-Car
*McKinsey & Company
*Meditech
*State Street Corporation
*UpToDate

There will be others happy to consider Management students! You can get full information on these companies and more, including what positions they will be recruiting for, by going to the Career Services website and clicking on the Career Fair logo. See you there!

---

Check out our new GSOM
Fishman Career Library!

Thanks to a generous gift from Mark Fishman, '82, the new Fishman Career Library has been established in GSOM. The Career Library is located on the 2nd floor of Carlson Hall in the Stevenish Career Management Center (at the very end of the hall). This library is open to all GSOM students, undergraduates and graduates, for use in their career exploration and search process. Freshmen and sophomores can browse through the books about finding careers that fit your interests and personality. Juniors and seniors can use resources on resume writing, interviewing and networking to help them with their internship and job searches. And if the library doesn't have a book or information in a specific area you are looking for, just let us know and we'll order it.

The Fishman Career Library is open Monday to Friday from 9 am - 5 pm. So stop by, grab a seat in a leather chair, prop your feet up on the ottoman, and start thumbing through some of these great books.

40 Best Fields for Your Career
Career Opportunities in Banking, Finance and Insurance
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Discovering your Perfect Career
The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers
The Princeton Review Internship Bible
Do What You Are
Opportunities in Marketing Careers
The Complete Q&A Job Interview Book
Gallery of Best Cover Letters
The Networking Survival Guide

---

Worried about the job/internship search?

Here's some advice from Clark's Career Services just for you

Are you worried about the job/internship search? Do you see opportunities on company websites and are unsure about the application process? Career Services has been conducting research, specifically for management majors, about how to apply to large Fortune 500 companies. Here are some steps to help get you started:

1. Career Services has a Career Blog located under the “Tools and Resources” section of the website. Once in the blog, click on the link to “Corporate Management/Leadership Training Programs,” and there will be a list of companies who specifically hire management majors for jobs and internships

2. Log onto Clark Recruiter, and under the “Search Employers” section you can search for companies in your field of interest, many of whom Clark has been in contact with, to check for job and internship opportunities or general contact information. To conduct a targeted search, highlight an industry that interests you to get a narrower list of companies.

3. Check the “Alumni/Mentor” section of Clark Recruiter to see a full listing of alums from various companies (such as JPMorgan Chase and TJX) who are willing to conduct informational interviews with students. This is a tremendous networking opportunity as these people have the inside connection to opportunities. Networking is the best way to find a job at a company, as 70% of jobs are not posted anywhere; they come from current employees that want you to work with their company!

4. If you have not gotten the results you desire, come into Career Services for more advice or help with your resume and cover letter to see how you can maximize effectiveness.

If you need additional help or information please call Career Services to set up an appointment a counselor, 508-793-7258. Or come to drop-in hours every weekday between 1-3pm for help from a Graduate Assistant. All resources are also available on the website, http://www.clarku.edu/offices/career.

---

What's the Big Idea?

Clark University's 1st Annual Big Idea Contest

Do you have a plan for making Clark a greener campus? Is there enough musical talent on campus to create a Clark compilation album? Or do you feel there is a need for a club dedicated to making the art of break dancing more appreciated on campus?

The Innovation & Entrepreneurship program is holding the first Big Idea contest to encourage students to help make improvements to the Clark campus community. This contest is open to all undergraduate students who see a problem on campus they want to fix or an idea for something that would make the Clark community even better.

Here’s how it works: Students must fill out and submit this 3 question Big Idea application by Friday, February 1, 2008. We want to know what your idea is, how you can make it happen and turn it into reality, and why you think this is such a good idea (what will it add to the Clark community). All applications will be reviewed and 4 finalists will be selected. All finalists will then present their idea during the week of Feb. 25 (National Entrepreneurship Week) to an audience of student peers who will vote on the winner.

We don’t want to just reward a good idea. We want to see your idea happen, so the winner will receive $5,000 to help turn their idea into reality. We’ll provide you with both financial support and guidance throughout the process to help you bring your idea to life.

Do you have lots of ideas? Students can submit more than one idea/application. However, only one idea per student can move on to the final round.

So enough talking. Let’s get started. And remember, in the early stages, there are no bad ideas.

To submit your big idea, go to www.clarku.edu/bigidea

---

Listen and Learn

Most of you have heard of the New England based apparel brand Life is Good, and probably have at least one of their products in your closet. Recently, Life is Good co-founder Bert Jacobs sat down for an interview with NECN (New England Cable News) as part of their CEO spotlight series. Check out the video and learn more about how Life is Good got started and how the Jacobs brothers have built up this successful brand.

---

Management Tip of the Month

Although the calendar says January, the temperature outside is below 30 degrees, and you are still getting used to your spring classes and schedule, many of you are or should be looking ahead to the summer and thinking about internship and job searches. There are many things you can do now to help you prepare (get your resume reviewed, do a mock interview, buy a suit...), but one thing that often gets overlooked is your internet presence.

"There is a growing trend in the number of employers who are Googling candidates to research for additional information," said Brian Krueger, President of CollegeGrad.com. "This trend has now spilled over to the use of Internet social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, for screening potential candidates."

What does this mean for you? There is a chance that before or after that interview someone at the company is checking you out online to learn more about you. Like it or not, MySpace and Facebook are public sites and open to future employers to check out. And what employers have found online about potential employees has prevented them from calling them in for an interview or hiring them. So here are a few things you can do now to clean up your online image:

* Set your MySpace and Facebook pages to private so only those you grant permission to can see your page. Keep in mind that people will still be able to see your picture and quote, and that on Facebook a recent Clark grad might still be able to access your page, and if a recent Clark grad works at the company, he/she might be asked to check it out.

*Get rid of any party photos and images for, at the very least, the time you are doing your job/internship search.

*Look over all the information you posted about yourself for things that could cause a potential employer to second guess you. You don't need to come across as a "super serious-business is my life" type of 20 something, but you may want to delete the information about the questionably legal poker parties you organize.

*Same thing goes for any personal blogs or websites you have that can be found by googling your name. And once you do land that job or internship, refrain from posting about it. Companies have fired employees who make inappropriate comments about their job and share confidential information, even if they saw it as a positive comment.

And if you still need an official source to take this seriously, check out this New York Times article about it.

---