Jessica Vadala, a graduate student in accounting, faced the choice many experienced professionals only dream of: Which one of the five job offers she received in one day should she take? The list included offers from the Big Four accounting firms.
Vadala went with her top choice, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and now has a full-time position lined up before she even graduates.
Vadala credits Adelphi with the resources she’s needed to launch her career in accounting.
In May 2018, she earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting after just three years at Adelphi, having transferred credits from her high school business program. Now she’s set to earn her M.B.A. in accounting in May 2019, completing Adelphi’s five-year B.B.A./M.B.A. program in just four years.
“Accounting recruitment is really big on campus,” Vadala said. “Adelphi hosts networking socials where over 70 professionals come, and these events really get you the connections you need when you’re going on interviews and applying for jobs.”
In fact, Vadala conducted all of her first-round job and internship interviews on campus at recruitment events. She also got valuable experience in summer internships at Gittleson & Associates in 2017 and Marcum LLP in 2018.
“These internships really helped me land a full-time job because they allowed me to apply classroom knowledge,” Vadala said. “Then, in interviews, I was able to say, ‘Oh, this is something I’ve been introduced to already that I know I could provide in your firm.'”
Vadala is currently a graduate assistant for Neil Halloran, director of internships for Adelphi’s Robert B. Willumstad School of Business.
“My experience with Jessica has been nothing short of remarkable,” Halloran said. “Her accomplishments handling very complex statistical data using the latest Excel applications, her knowledge of working under pressure, and her excellent communication and presentation skills—especially to higher management—have made her an accomplished accounting professional.”
For example, Vadala presented Rajib N. Sanyal, Ph.D., dean of the Robert B. Willumstad School of Business, with a trend analysis of the last three academic years of the internship program, which included information from more than 1,100 students across different majors. The analysis showed that students with higher GPAs have been more likely to obtain internships, and that many of these students came from the accounting program.
“I think this is because accounting is one of the most rigorous and demanding majors, and it’s going to have some of the best students, ones who want to achieve their goals,” Vadala said. “They’re really the big go-getters of the business school.”
Vadala has found success outside the classroom as well—specifically, on the pitcher’s mound. She is a star softball pitcher at Adelphi, having helped lead her team to win the NE-10 Championship in 2017 and 2018.
“Being a student-athlete definitely contributes to my success at Adelphi,” she said. “It really teaches you time management and it makes you a leader on campus, so when you get that team project you can step up and take a leadership role.”
Though she’s been playing softball since she was four years old, she plans to hang up her cleats after she graduates and fully focus on her career in accounting.
Vadala is looking forward to earning her Certified Public Accountant license next year and beginning her position as a tax associate at PwC, where she’ll learn from some of the most knowledgable accountants in the industry.
“I always thought accounting is a challenging major and that I could see myself succeeding,” Vadala said. “I knew when I graduated that I would be able to find a job in that field and that accounting would always provide that challenge of learning something new.”
