Meet the Interns
The theme for the meeting on Wednesday September 3, 2003 was "Meet the Interns".
This meeting consisted of a "round table" discussion with former interns and
included topics such as the process of getting an internship, what they did during
the internship, and how they benefited from the internship. The interns at
the meeting were David Shinn who interned as an internal auditor at Southern Company,
Erica McRae who interned as an auditor at Deloitte and Touche, Oreana Stanley who
interned as an auditor at Deloitte and Touche, and Alex Saethang who interned as an
auditor for Ernst and Young.
To obtain their internships, the interns used three mediums. Two interns went
through fall recruiting, one applied through a minority student program, and the
third intern networked at an internal auditor meeting. The interns made several
suggestions for pursuing and obtaining an internship position. The first
suggestion was to have your resume critiqued by someone in Career and Job Search
Services. By doing so, you are provided with feedback on how to improve your
resume in a way that reflects what the firms are looking for. Their second
suggestion was to attend the career expo and meet the firms you are interested in.
In giving a short introduction of yourself the various firms are able to put
a name and face with your resume. The final suggestion was strategizing in
scheduling your interviews. Because the first couple of interviews are nerve
racking, it was recommended that you schedule the firm you are most interested in
as one of the last interviews you have. By the third or fourth interview you
have a good grasp of typical questions that the firms may ask, and can be more at ease
entering the interview. They also suggested practice interviews with people that
you do not necessarily know. For example, mock interviews could be set up with
other Beta Alpha Psi members or candidates waiting in line. The interns also
informed the group that situational questions were asked in almost every interview.
After obtaining an internship the next step is to start, and the interns gave
us a small taste of a day in the life of an intern.
During their internship, the interns performed tasks from testing capital and operational
leases to writing abstracts of contracts. A typical day would last about 10 hours
and would often times be in a different city than Atlanta. Alex told us a story
about an audit he was performing. It required that he fly out every Monday to
Houston, work 10 hours a day then fly home on Friday for approximately three weeks.
When asked which time is better to do an internship, the spring or the summer, the
interns had a mixed response. The spring allows you to truly experience the working
environment in the height of the season, but the summer affords you the opportunity to
"pick your manager’s brain". Although the internship was a grueling experience
at times, the interns felt as though they gained a lot.
For the most part the internship affirmed what the interns want to do. Erica stated
that just because you choose to do auditing does not mean you are "stuck" if you feel
as though this is not your cup of tea. She also stated the importance of telling
your recruiter you want to change areas of focus. Erica later told us that she
wants to switch to tax, as she believes this is a better fit for what she originally
came to school to do, law.
As you can see getting an internship is not easy and although the internship experience
itself is difficult, it is a great capstone to the education experience and can be a
great springboard into the public accounting field.