ACCOUNTANTS SET TO PLAY IT STRAIGHT.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

Unshaken by the recent string of accounting scandals, a group of aspiring accountants attending a recruiting fair at California State University, Northridge, vowed Thursday to bring reform and respectability to the profession.

Wearing dark suits and looking polished with resumes in hand, a steady stream of CSUN students and recent graduates met in the campus' Grand Salon to talk with recruiters from 37 firms, including ``Big Four'' members Deloitt & Touche, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG.

``I think we're better than the old guys,'' said Stelian Damu, 28, of Sherman Oaks. ``We can make it better.''

Restoring respect to a profession battered by accounting irregularities and executive wrongdoing at Arthur Andersen, WorldCom Inc. and others was on the minds of many at Thursday's event.

``If you're going to be an accountant, you're supposed to be an ethical person,'' added Phungravee Pongpun, 28, of Sun Valley. ``Accounting is based on reputation,'' so unethical tactics won't pay off in the long run, she said.

That kind of enthusiasm and idealism is what Steve Goldfarb, a spokesman for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in New York, expects to see in newcomers to the field.

Ironically, the Enron and WorldCom scandals ``showed a lot of people how central accounting is to capital markets,'' Goldfarb said. ``It's got to be done, and it's got to be done very well.''

Brian Crane, 25, of Santa Clarita worked eight months for the Los Angeles office of Arthur Andersen before he was laid off. Now he works for Lucas Horsfall Murphy and Pindroh in Pasadena, and was at CSUN with Mike Amerio, a recruiting partner, to talk to students.

Mentioning his former employer ``always brings a smirk, but I know it's not directed toward me, but toward the situation,'' he said, adding that he still thinks accounting is a ``great profession.''

``A professor once told me that accounting is the backbone of business,'' said the fresh-scrubbed Brigham Young University graduate.

CSUN students agreed.

``I'm good at numbers and I think it's a dynamic profession,'' Damu said. `There's a lot more to it than people know. It gives you a good sense of business.''

Goldfarb said that despite the weak economy and bad press, small to medium-sized firms are hiring many new graduates ``and finding willing and very able candidates among students.''

New college graduates can earn $35,000 to $40,000 at mid-size firms, said Andrew Kiefer, a certified public accountant with Mayer Hoffman McCann in Oxnard.

Accountants provide a valuable public service -whether filing a simple tax return or doing more complex estate planning - and find creative solutions to problems, said Vartan Yaralian, a business development consultant with Friedman, Minsk, Cole & Fastovsky in Century Park.

``A lot of people think it's a numbers game, but the only math you do is adding and subtracting; it's concepts and planning,'' Yaralian said.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

CSUN accounting students and recent graduates circulate at a recruiting fair on campus.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer