[TobyU]

I’m looking to get an internship between senior and my masters year. However, the masters starts in July, so it might conflict with the internship. So if I choose to do a spring internship, will they be flexible with my schedule? I am willing to put up the hours but I would like to know if it will be as intensive as a full time position.

[Mr. Dim]

From my experiences, flexibility varies from firm to firm. I've worked winter/spring tax internships at both a Big 4 and a regional firm, with the Big 4 being much busier/less flexible.

Big 4: 40-45 hour weeks through February, once March hit it was more like 50-60 hour weeks. Some of the audit interns were working 80 hour weeks though. The office I was at (large city) expected full availability, and those interns who had not yet graduated were taking the semester off. Overall, the workload/experience seemed on par with that of first-year full time staff. (Some of the work I was assigned was completed by first-year staff in the prior year.)

Regional Firm: I only worked 3 days a week (25 hours), which was scheduled around my classes. They were very flexible, and I only worked one Saturday.

This certainly isn't the “rule”, but if you are looking at Big 4, I'd anticipate blocking your schedule for the winter. I hope that helps!

FAR - 95
AUD - 98
REG - 92
BEC - 10/4/14

[Mr. Dim]

And in regard to the title of your post – In general, winter/spring internships could be perceived as more “difficult”, simply because there is more work to be done. To me, being a summer intern was more about the “intern experience”, and spring was more about cranking through the work. With that said, I think the spring internship painted a more realistic portrait of what to expect in public accounting.

FAR - 95
AUD - 98
REG - 92
BEC - 10/4/14

[Author]

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