In this episode of Beyond the Beach, I talk with Melissa Cole. Melissa was a student in my 2018 Business Strategy class and graduated from COB with a degree in accounting. Melissa became a CPA in 2020 and worked as an auditor at Deloitte before taking a break to deal with a family emergency.

We talk about getting the CPA license, the culture of Big Four accounting, workplace harassment, advocating for yourself, work/life separation, broadening your thinking about accounting career paths, and adjusting to the curveballs that life throws.

In this episode of Beyond the Beach, I talk with Andrew Forcier. Andrew was a student in my Business Strategy class in Fall 2017 and my Organization Theory class in Spring 2018. Andrew graduated from the College of Business with a concentration in Supply Chain Management and now works as an Operations Manager at Amazon. Andrew started his career at Amazon as an Area Manager and has moved up steadily to his current position.

Our conversation covers topics like the value of a good LinkedIn page, how to stand out as a people manager, the challenges of managing human performance, easy ways to build work relationships that help you advance, and why it's important to have your own vision for what success looks like to you.

In this episode of Beyond the Beach, I talk with Racquel Davidson. Racquel was a student in my 2017 Business Strategy class and graduated from COB with a degree in finance. Racquel obtained her realtor license in 2016 while still an undergraduate and decided to pursue a career in residential real estate. She now works as a realtor with the Compass brokerage.

We talk about the hard work and challenges that go into building a residential real estate practice, the value of working with the right team, and the rewards, both personal and financial, of working in residential real estate.

Racquel can be found on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/sellwithracquel/?hl=en

In this episode of Beyond the Beach, I talk with Leo Lopez. Leo was a student in my Fall 2017 Business Strategy class and graduated from the College of Business with a dual major in Management and Supply Chain Management. He currently works as a media planner for the media agency UM.

Our conversation covers topics like what it was like to struggle finding work after graduating, why not doing an internship was a mistake, what you learn from jobs you can't stand, the value of building meaningful connections, and how he finally found a job and career that he loves.

In this episode of Beyond the Beach, I talk with Allison Quintanilla. Allison was a student in my 2015 Business Strategy class and graduated from COB in 2016 with a degree in accounting. She started her career as a junior accountant at a large manufacturer in the steel industry and now works as accounting integration lead at a growing midsize firm that supplies software to businesses in the home services space.

In this episode we talk about the plusses and minuses of taking on additional responsibility at your job, asking for what you are worth, knowing when to move on, finding a place you love, networking and being yourself, and how working well with people matters even in a field like accounting.

In this episode of Beyond the Beach, I talk with Elliot Huscher, a student in my 2018 Business Strategy class. Elliot majored in finance at the College of Business and began his career doing financial advising at a wealth management firm. Eventually his interest in the underlying assets drew him into asset management and fixed income securities. Then an opportunity to join a FinTech (financial technology) startup in the consumer loan origination space attracted him to his current role.

For the inaugural episode of Beyond the Beach, I'm joined by Wade Carlson, who was a student in my Business Strategy class in Spring of 2018. Wade studied International Business as a student at CSULB's College of Business and started his post-Beach career at a global logistics firm. From there he moved into digital marketing and now works as a specialist in search engine optimization.

We talk about the pluses and minuses of starting in a smaller firm, picking up skills you can leverage for better pay, getting recognized for the value you bring, and the need to balance ambition with the right amount of patience.

Wade also recently released his first song on Spotify--Irvine Grit: https://open.spotify.com/album/5fQIw3vBn7iNmxKnMVzA3l?si=egoCGx8iSUmaiWVy0l-deA

A brief intro to what the podcast is about