Hungerford Nichols creating synergy for students and alumni

Heather Halligan, who began working at Hungerford Nichols nearly five years ago as a Marketing Specialist, said that is why she loves her position. “Hungerford believes in helping people. We have a family-like culture where people enjoy going to work.”

Many of her colleagues — thirteen to be exact — feel Davenport prepared them to be savvy-solution seekers to fit in the highly collaborative culture at Hungerford.

“Hungerford Nichols has uncovered a fruitful pipeline of resources in Davenport University students and alumni,” claimed Human Resources Specialist and current MBA student Hillary Mullennix, ’18. “Davenport’s business-focused instruction fits our culture.”

Mullennix applied to Davenport because of her experience working with professors and staff. “Both the professors and career services staff are extremely invested in the success of the student. They are passionate about helping students find jobs and building their networks. I wanted to go to a place where people cared about the students.”

Davenport has become a path to recruit successful employees for all three Hungerford businesses spanning accounting, IT and financial services. Between the three divisions, nine alumni and students work for Hungerford Nichols CPAs + Advisors, three graduates work for Hungerford Technology and one finance instructor works at Hungerford Financial.

“Hungerford has an innovative strategy to recruit Davenport students,” exclaimed Mullennix. “We build relationships with students before they graduate. We meet with them over coffee, in a comfortable environment, and share all of Hungerford’s opportunities, including interning, job shadowing or completing office visits. Then we give them information about the types of accounting options including tax, corporate and auditing.”

Additionally, Mullennix noted that Davenport makes it easy to hire students by offering flexible course options. She said this aligns with Hungerford’s mission of work-life balance. “We allow our employees to set a schedule that works best to meet our client’s needs, allowing our employees to take classes when it is most convenient.” She said the relationship they’ve built with DU is mutually beneficial—it provides meaningful work to great employees.