Success Stories: Duke Sun

Name: Duke Sun

From: Shanghai, China

Studying: MBA Professional Accountancy

Position: Incoming audit associate at BDO

The experience of getting help from GBCS was excellent! What I tend to share with everyone is my story of how I built myself up from zero. Three years ago, as an international student, there was not any relevant work experience regarding my accounting major, which felt like a terrible start to my experience here. The only hope I had stemmed from when I walked into the career center to ask for help. After meeting up with the career coaches, I listened to their professional advice and communicated with them about how to perform well during interviews and how to present myself professionally through various social networking events. Learning all of that valuable information definitely aided me in landing three internships and a full-time offer from BDO. My first two accounting internships were with On Force Solar and the Food Bank of New York City.

During my three years at Hofstra, I was aware of the importance of social networking. I knew I had to meet different people in order to help establish myself to seize an excellent opportunity. For instance, before getting my third internship from Henry Schein, I always kept a professional relationship with an alumnus who was working at Henry Schein. I was also collaborating with a professor at Hofstra to participate in a scholarship contest regarding my target career. As a result, during an interview with management at Henry Schein, I mentioned wanting to join Henry Schein due to the social networking with the alumni and how I committed myself fully to the auditing field due to that particular scholarship contest.

There is no doubt that I couldn't get an offer from BDO without all of the help from GBCS.