Winds of Opportunity blow for FIU business students.

Consistently ranked by Hispanic Business as one of top 10 business schools for Hispanics, it’s no surprise that the College of Business Administration at Florida International University (FIU) would have a strong presence at the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) Annual Conference & Career Expo. The 2010 event, held in Chicago—the “Windy City”—and titled “Winds of Opportunity” turned out to be aptly named for the 40 graduate students from FIU who were among the more than 7,000 attendees.

GroupResized — Kelly Gomes, Lenys Camacho, Paola Meignen, Miguelangel Faria and James Boykin

“Our students secured more interviews than in past years,” said Elsie Florido (MSHRM ’09) associate director, career management services in the College of Business Administration. “They interviewed or attended receptions at Abbott, Bank of America, Cintas, Dell, Deloitte, Diageo, Disney, Ford, Humana, IBM, Johnson Controls, Microsoft, Medtronic, OSI Restaurants Republic Services, Sarah Lee, United Health and United Technologies among others.”

According to Barry Shiflett, director, career management services, “There is no question that many of the employers attending now know who FIU’s College of Business Administration is versus seven years ago. That recognition comes through our participation on the NSHMBA Corporate Advisory Board and in the number of students attending each year. The team from the business school also continues to meet and develop relationships with company representatives.”

BarryResized — Barry Shiflett, director, career management services, with two of the 40 FIU students who took advantage of the recruiting opportunities afforded by the conference.

Students gain recognition, knowledge.

The event included a career expo at which nearly 300 corporate, academic, non-profit and government sponsors had booths, and a scholarship luncheon, at which the recipients of this year’s NSHMBA Scholarship Program were recognized, including Veronica Vainrub, a student in the International MBA (IMBA) program.

VeronicaResized — IMBA student Veronica Vainrub was recognized as the recipient of a NSHMBA scholarship.

IMBA student Rafael Enrique Ramon De Los Rios ran out of the 30 résumés he brought, landed an interview and learned valuable lessons.

“The most interesting opportunities I found are with companies I didn’t know and therefore overlooked,” he said. “Also, I learned that no day is too early to start looking.”

In addition, Oscar de Lima (IMBA ’10), was featured in an article titled “International students with MBAs struggle to land jobs in U.S.,” which appeared in the Chicago Tribune.

The 2012 NSHMBA Conference & Career Expo will take place in Orlando, Florida and FIU’s College of Business Administration will be the lead academic host.