Derek Venhuizen
- Managing Director
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
School Information
School: Northern Illinois University
College Major: Business
Years at College Works: 2009 to 2010
Career Information
Working For: PricewaterhouseCoopers
Title: Managing Director
Industry: Accounting
Brief Description of Duties / Responsibilities:
Due diligence for mergers and acquisitions
What Has Been Your Proudest Accomplishment Post-CWP?To be frank, CWP is a very proud accomplishment for me because you own it – it’s your business. Post CWP would be obtaining my CPA and working in the M&A group at Pwc! The CPA has made a world of difference in my career and Pwc has given me flexibility to do whatever I want – for example: I can live wherever I want – currently enjoying manly beach in Sydney, I can choose interesting projects – like a deal I did last year in South Korea, working with Sony Music Entertainment, or Walgreen’s purchase of drugstore.com, or Billabongs sale – the list goes on!!!!
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
A life changing experience that taught me more in a few months that anything I have ever been a part of!
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
College Works Painting was amazing…it had impacted my life by showing how important it was to have the right mentors, guidance, and belief in yourself and anything is possible. After graduation I had a ton more cash as a result of College Works Painting than anything anyone else was doing! Now- I look back on the experience and am proud of what I accomplished. The network is so strong and you share a special bond with other College Works Painting alums – so many great memories with all the events, my clients, and my painters. So many incredible stories – if you want to hear some good ones shoot me a direct email.
What do you want to tell your clients about what it meant to work with them and how it has helped you get to where you are today?
So many amazing clients. My favorite clients were a nice Polish couple that owned a beautiful English Tudor house. It was a 5 day job estimated at $5,500. Every night that week they cooked dinner for myself and my painters and made it such a pleasant experience. Their approach to life and their hospitality was at the top of the heap and I still look back today and remember that great experience to paint their house.
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
Integrity was important – do what you say you are going to do. But I already knew that – I learned to execute – my motto that summer was just do it – don’t over think – just act and do. Be confident and smile in everything you do.
If you had to come up with a one line slogan for CW, what would it be?
At CWP, your job is our experience. Wow that is really bad and took close to 5 minutes!
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
I remember starting out and Matt Looney (my district manager) would give me calls and I didn’t realize it at the time but he was a bit of a motivational speaker for me. When he told me this is my business and I own it – I was like you’re right this is my business and it’s more than a summer internship – I then immediately treated everything I did as if I was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company – I told myself I was the best painting contractor in the world and anyone would be crazy to have any work done from somebody else. And that’s the way I thought about things. I realized my internal thought process was extremely important and I never saw results from that in school but when I first got to my territory – I remember looking around saying this is my town and I am going to walk up to every door and make sure they had the opportunity for me to give them an estimate. I literally walked up to every door in Burr Ridge and the surrounding neighborhoods and would tick each house off on a map! I did not want to miss an opportunity – and I wanted everyone in Burr Ridge to have the opportunity!
What’s your best advice for someone interested in entering your career field?
Do College Works Painting as a Sophomore in college! At that point there are limited internships in your target industry and you still have a couple more years to do an internship on your target industry.
What’s your favorite memory from CW?
Receiving three thousand one dollar bills packaged in a Disney themed child’s suitcase in front of all of CWP Illinois for winning the sales competition!! All of the Friday outings were so special to be able to connect with the teams! Like any smart finance student I then invested that cash in my business (paying my painters for leads and to walk door to door)!
Last words of wisdom?
No words of wisdom – I just want to encourage College Works Painting to continue on their path and the strategic goals. What they are doing with the alumni network is fantastic and I hope to continue to see it grow.