Wal-Mart's in Recruiting Mode

Wal-Mart visited the University of Delaware a few weeks ago, spreading the word about opportunities for summer interns and entry-level professionals at the mega-retailer's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. Recruiter Levey Williams and senior internal auditor Lashondra Jones spoke to about 140 students.

Using a slide presentation, Jones explained her responsibilities as an auditor for Wal-Mart, which includes reconciling inventory and managing the shrink, or loss, of the company. Wal-Mart offers positions in this field in 13 states, and new employees receive on-the-job training for 14-16 weeks. Employees are offered benefits and the opportunity to travel around the country and overseas, she said.

Jones said she had no desire to become an auditor when she was at the University of Alabama. "Before Wal-Mart came to my campus and talked about it, I had never thought of internal audit as a possible career," she said. "It's an interesting one."

Joyce Henderson, assistant director of UD's Bank of America Career Services Center, said she helped bring Wal-Mart to campus because of the quality of the available positions. "Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the world, and when I spoke with Levey Williams, he talked about some of the awesome opportunities for positions for undergraduate students, which included the auditing position that they alluded to in the program," Henderson said. "When he shared with me what the benefit package was, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for our students to investigate."

Wal-Mart's probably as much a leader in getting bad press as it is in making money. But over the years I've spoken to a few people who work in Wal-Mart's tax department and they seem to think it's a challenging, good place to work.

Wal-Mart recruits UD students for internships, careers [UDaily]