Meet the Firms Connects Stan State Students with Employers

A year ago, Mae Torres' night at Meet the Firms, an event sponsored by accounting students in Stanislaus State's chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, the International Honors Society and the Accounting and Finance Society, was "nerve-wracking."

Alumna Mae Torres (right) attended Meet the Firms as a recruiter.

As vice president Beta Alpha Psi, she had been a key organizer, along with Assistant Professor of Accounting Liancheng (Nathan) Fu, of the job fair that had been sidelined for four years by the COVID pandemic.

This year, Torres could relax and enjoy Meet the Firms night, held on Sept. 19. She was on the other side of the table, representing Moss Adams, her employer that provides accounting, consulting and wealth management services nationally and internationally.

"I felt really nostalgic, seeing students, their freshness," said Torres, who completed her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an accounting concentration in December 2023. "A lot of them looked like they were trying their best. They were dressed up. They were nervous, but they were trying to push through it."

Torres was one of four Stan State alumni who joined a Moss Adams partner and recruiter from its Stockton office at the job fair, which drew nearly 20 local businesses and federal and state agencies.

"Half of the recruiters were recruiting accounting and finance majors, and the other half were looking for business majors," Fu said.

The enthusiasm was evident on both sides of the table, he said. Participants stayed until the group's time in the Event Center ended, talking amiably until the end.

As a Beta Alpha Psi member while an undergraduate student at the University of Utah, Fu had organized a similar event. When he was hired at Stan State in 2022, Dean of the College of Business Administration Terence Pitre asked him to re-establish Meet the Firms.

Fu spent a year planning and building relationships with local businesses, then turned to Torres to help execute the 2023 event.

About 15 agencies and businesses showed up, along with approximately 100 students, alleviating Torres' fears that no one would attend. A similar number of students visited prospective employers this year. Moss Adams accepted resumes and handed out applications for internships and positions.

Torres hopes students apply for her company's internships, the number of which grew from three when she had a 2022 summer internship to seven in 2024.

"I almost didn't apply for an internship because I didn't think I would be good enough to make it to the second round of interviews," Torres said. "Imagine if I didn't push through! Some students at Meet the Firms also hesitated to apply for our internships since they had no accounting experience. My experience may help alleviate their concerns."

"Stan State is home, so it was a good place to do my first recruiting event. I was familiar with the professors, the students and the environment. I felt at home."

- Mae Torres, '23, B.S. in Business Administration

As she discovered, anything is possible.

A 2016 graduate of Lathrop High School, Torres attended several community colleges and tried many majors before settling on accounting while at San Joaquin Delta College.

"My dad always said if you find something you're really good at, you should probably keep rolling with it, so I took an Intro to Accounting class, and I was like, 'This makes sense to me. I'll go with it,'" Torres said.

She started at Stan State in January 2022 and by that summer had an internship in the tax division of Moss Adams' Stockton office.

"You don't have to have accounting experience, but if you can show your experiences are transferable to accounting, you're solid," Torres said. "A lot of my jobs were in customer service or health care. I played on my client communication, customer service and ability to handle confidential information and data entry."

By the time Torres landed a second internship with Moss Adams in winter 2023, she had more accounting skills and worked in auditing.

"I wanted to see if I would like it more than tax accounting, and I think I did," Torres said.

A couple weeks after that second internship ended and nine months before she completed her degree, Torres received a job offer and began working at Moss Adams in Stockton in January.

"My favorite part is when we had our interns come in," Torres said. "It's similar to Meet the Firms, where I'm on the other side, being able to share my knowledge with interns, talking about their concerns for the future.

"I'm still learning accounting. I always tell students that when it comes to auditing, you can probably teach anyone to audit, but what you can't necessarily teach are social skills and networking."

That was the shocking lesson of her own internships.

"I'm introverted and shy, and I don't really like talking to people," Torres said. "As long as I knew accounting, I thought I'd be good. That's not true at all. When I started my internship, there was a huge emphasis on networking and enhancing your social skills, which really surprised me. It was such a challenge. I'm still trying to work on it. I'm not where I want to be yet."

That she's grown in her ability to interact with others was evident in her eagerness to join colleagues in meeting students at Meet the Firms.

Torres said she had fun and would happily do more student outreach, although she wouldn't expect future events to be as enjoyable as Meet the Firms.

"Stan State is home, so it was a good place to do my first recruiting event," Torres said. "I was familiar with the professors, the students and the environment. I felt at home."

One that holds happy memories, she said.

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