Behrend Beacon
September 25, 2009
www.thebehrendbeacon.com
School of Business:
Upcoming Events
Monday, Sept. 28
12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
Event: Meet the Faculty Lunch for
students in first year seminars
Location: McGarvey Commons
Thursday, Oct. 1
12:20 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Christopher T. Olivia:
CEO, Penn Allegheny Health System
Topic: “Western Pennsylvania
Healthcare: An Era of Reform,
Challenges, and Opportunity”
Location: REDC 180
Tuesday, Oct. 6
12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Event: Behrend Fall Career and Job
Fair
Location: Junker Center
Tuesday, Oct. 20
7:30 p.m.
Speaker: John Moore
Event: Former Stabrucks Marketer
Offers Expresso Shot of Branding
Wisdom
Location: REDC 180
World & National
Business News I business careers
Google to make “one small
acquisition a month ”
PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - Google
Inc expects to buy one small company
a month as it rekindles its acquisition
engine and moves beyond the worst
phase of the global recession, Chief
Executive Eric Schmidt said in an in
terview on Wednesday.
The Web search giant has histori
cally maintained a steady pace of ac
quiring small, privately held
companies, but its deal machine took
a breather earlier this year when
Schmidt said that prices were too high
for his liking.
- www.reuters.com
U.S. Dollar steadies after
bounce
(Reuters)'- The U.S. dollar j
steadied above recent lows in Asia on
Thursday after a sharp bounce left
speculative sellers chastened for the
moment, though sentiment remains
bearish on the currency overall.
The euro was hovering at $1.4727,
having been knocked back from a
high around $1.4844 late in the New
York session when equities .SPX took
a sudden slide.
Dealers were unsure what tipped
shares lower, but it served as an ex
cuse to take profits on short positions
and lifted the dollar index .DXY to
76.456, from a 13-month trough of
75.827.
Beacon Business Staff
Business Co-Editors:
Harmilee Cousin 111; Garrett Carson
FACULTY AND STAFF
Dr. Pelin Bicen joins School of Business, Marketi
Dr. Pelin Bicen is the newest addi
tion to Behrend’s Marketing Depart
ment having previously taught at and
attended Texas Tech. Dr. Pelin, as she
likes to be called, is one of two new
Business Week recently released
their “Best Places to Launch a Career”
list and the top four companies on the
list, were as usual, the big four ac
counting firms: Deloitte, Ernst &
Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and
KPMG.
These companies have dominated
the top rankings since this list was
first created in 2006 according to Busi
ness Week. It’s easy to see why these
companies top the list with starting
salaries ranging from $50,000 to
$60,000 and most hires receiving a
signing bonus, in addition to their rich
benefits and extensive training pro
grams.
Deloitte finished #1 in the rankings
coming in with the highest average
starting salary, $55,000-$60,000 and
18% of new hires making more than
$65,000. They also had the highest
signing bonus of $5,102 with 90% of
new hires receiving one. Probably the
www.reuters.com
GARRETT CARSON
business editor
Dr. Pelin Bicen
Deloitte tops "Best Places to Launch a Career"
GARRETT CARSON
business editor
Here’s a little bit more about each
firm:
1 Deloitte
Business Internships available:
Nestle Purina Pet Care Co. Del Monte Fresh Produce Logistics plue
Accounting Corporate Finance Intern
Management Trainee Procurement Intern
More on tatenufeips and full time positions can be found online at
http://www.poeite.psu.edWMudtnt/<*te/ooc»topusr«cn»itiiig.htn
faculty members who are originally
from Turkey. Five years ago, she de
parted from Istanbul en route to Texas
to pursue her passion for marketing.
Originally, Dr. Pelin attended univer
sity aspiring to be a mathematician.
Her love for statistics and numbers
landed her a position with BBDO, an
international advertising agency,
where she would be a statistical ana
lyst. With her foot in the door, she be
came more familiar with the dynamic
and exciting world of marketing and
decided the innovative and interper
sonal atmosphere was a better match
for who she is. She then concluded
that, while she enjoyed her numbers,
her real passion is marketing.
Dr. Pelin decided to leave her posi
tion and pursue her newly found inter
est by returning to graduate school to
obtain her MBA. Following the com
pletion of her master’s degree she
knew that to further her value as a
business professional she would have
to attend university in the United
States. She states that “the United
States created business and market
ing” and have developed it into what it
is today.
She found that Texas Tech was the
best match for what she wanted to do
and thus moved to Texas in 2004. She
found it to be an easy transition to US
Contributed Photo
most important factor Deloitte has
going for it is that their entry level hir
ing is only 1.1% from last year, which
as we all know in this economy is very
good. Deloitte also has a mentoring
program that all new hires participate
in. In case you want to know about the
work Deloitte actually does they are
involved in accounting, assurance and
advisory, risk, tax, management, fi
nancial, technology and human capital
consulting. If you would like to learn
more about Deloitte please visit
www.deloitte.com.
2 Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young finished #2 in the
rankings coming in with average start
ing salary of, $50,000-$55,000. They
also had a signing bonus of $3,155
with 75% of new hires receiving one.
Unfortunately Ernst & Young saw a
drop in their new hires from 2008 by
19.7%. They also have a mentoring
program that all new hires participate
in. One factor Ernst & Young has
going for it is that it is the most diverse
with 36% being a minority; so if diver
sity is something that is important to
you that place might suit you very
well. Ernst & Young are involved four
culture and customs because Texans
were accustomed to non-native speak
ers and people of several back
grounds.
Upon completion of her PhD in mar
keting, Dr. Pelin decided she wanted
to continue in the education system
and not return to her previous profes
sional life of three years. She feels that
being a professor allows her to effec
tively pursue her passion for innova
tive research projects, and have the
privilege to be a teacher who hopes to
foster critical thinking and facilitate
the acquisition of life-long learning
skills.
Her areas of expertise include inno
vation and new product development.
She found exactly what she was look
ing for here at Behrend. She says there
are three main values that she found
at Behrend that matched what she
wanted: research possibilities, quality
of students, and Penn State. She
thinks the business and engineering
interdisciplinary program is one of a
kind and matches what she would like
to focus on in her research. Behrend,
as a Penn State campus is known for
its quality of students and outstanding
academics.
After arriving in Erie, she has come
to really enjoy the town that Behrend
calls home. She loves the plentiful
main areas: assurance, tax, transac
tions, and advisory. If you would like
to learn more about Ernst & Young
please visit www.ey.com.
Price-
Q Waterhouse-
Coopers
PriceWaterhouseCoopers finished
#3 in the rankings coming in with av
erage starting salary of, $50,000-
$55,000. They also had a signing
bonus of $3,867 with 91% of new hires
receiving one. PwC only saw a drop in
their new hires from 2008 by 5.8% and
when comparing that to other places
it’s very good. They also have a men
toring program that all new hires par
ticipate in. An interesting fact about
PwC is that 41% of the partners in the
company have been with them for
more than 20 years, which is the high
est retention out of the big four and it
means there is a lot of room to grow in
within the firm; historically the big
four has very low retention rates. PwC
is involved in advisory services, audit
and assurance, government services,
HR services, and tax services. If you
would like to learn more about Price-
Business
ng Department
Quick hits:
Dr. Pelin Bicen
Full name:
Teaching:
MKTG3OI
Principles of Marketing
Industry experience:
database administrator and
statistical consultant in BBDO
Advertising Agency, Turkey.
Education:
Ph. D, Texas Tech University
green scenery that contrasts Texas’s
more desert like climate. “Erie is very
family oriented and the people are
very self conscious of themselves,” she
states. Even though she enjoys the cli
mate now, she has fortunately been
able to avoid snow during her life
time, so her future opinions could be
drastic.
Waterhouse Coopers please visit
www.pwc.com.
4 KPMG
KPMG finished #4in the rankings
coming in with average starting salary
of, $50,000-$55,000. They also had a
signing bonus of $2,350 with 72% of
new hires receiving one. KPMG saw a
dramatic drop in their new hires from
2008 by 35.6%, but 91% of their new
hires came from interns so if this com
pany interests you a great way to get
in is through the internship program
they have. They also have a mentoring
program that all new hires participate
in. KPMG is involved in audit, tax, and
advisory services. If you would like to
learn more about KPMG please visit
www.kpmg.com.
A couple of interesting notes about
these companies is that they all offer
great internship experiences, even for
sophomores they have opportunities
so it’s never too early to start looking
for chances to add work experiences
to your resume. Also, they hire more
than just Accounting majors; for ex
ample there is a big push now to get
MIS majors in the door too.
Probably the most important thing
to know right now about these compa
nies is that they are hiring right now
for internships and full time positions
for next summer. All of these firms
have positions that can be found on
the Nittany Lion Career Network. The
NLCN can be found at
http://www.pserie.psu.edu/student/cdc/
oncampusrecruiting.htm.
Pelin Bicen