Are you an incoming freshman planning on majoring in accounting or a college student looking for an accounting internship? If so, you may find this blog a bit helpful and encouraging.
At some point over the next couple of years, when you decide to start looking for an internship (or if you already started looking), you are bound to come across a lot of audit internship opportunities. The reasoning for this is twofold. First, audit internships are usually the main internship opportunity that public accounting firms offer during the summer due to their year-round need. Secondly, because early in the school year (September/August and around the time of the Career Fair), is when the Big Four accounting firms (EY, Deloitte, PwC and KPMG) start hiring, this is also when regional firms begin looking. With this abundance of opportunities and the encouragement of your colleagues and friends, you will then (if you have not already started) go out and apply at these firms. In applying, your goal is to get an interview. In doing so, you will go through your first, second, and, yes, even third round of interviews at these various firms. Then, if you are one of the lucky ones, get an offer.
So, now that you have this offer (or offers), you will more likely than not find yourself in the place I once was a short six months ago. You have an internship at a public accounting firm in audit, but if you were asked to tell someone what an audit was you would not even know where to start. Even with your lack of knowledge of the field you accepted the offer anyway and act confident and cool, when deep inside you are having a mini-heart attack because you are not sure what auditing even is and everyone you talk to who has had an internship in audit before just tells you that, “Audit is different. Class can’t really prepare you for what you will be doing on a daily basis as an auditor,” which, if I’m being honest, is true to some extent but this is where I come in…
