[foreseeableCPA]

I will be starting my internship this coming monday. I’m excited/nervous as this will be my first real experience in the accounting world. I know I’ll be working long hours and I’m ready to sacrifice weekends if I have to. What I want to know is what your experiences were like. Was it a lot of busy work or was there a lot of down time where you can study at the office (It would be nice to have some cpa study time)? My sister told me that the interns and first years made daily lunch runs as well as coffee runs at her big 4 office. Is this similar to your experiences? Thanks in advance.

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[mypetmeatball]

My internship was really stressful. I have stress-induced acid reflux disease now, and I never had any problem of the sort previously. I am in IT audit/advisory and we have to juggle a bunch of clients at once, and some things were going wrong at the time so everyone was in full-on panic mode. A staff member and I had a falling out because I struggled with an assignment right before she was about to go on vacation. Oh, and we were getting PCAOB'd at the time.

Ahhhh memories

[primgirl]

I interned for a small manufacturing plant. The married owners hated each other and fought daily. They referred to me as their secretary, which I hated.

They had an office that they called “The Dark & Scary Room”. The office had 3 long tables in it, each full of IRS notices. They had not paid their payroll or income taxes on 3 different businesses for many, many years. They would have me figure the various taxes they owed, including interest and penalties, but would never send in the forms.

They also had several illegal aliens working for them. While I was working there they got a new batch of illegals in. The new employees made up their own social security numbers while filling out their W-4's.

I worked for them exactly one semester and my adviser was fully aware of what was going on.

FAR 78
AUD 85
BEC 79
REG 83

[neika822]

I had a summer internship at a regional firm during the summer. My working hours were not long (maybe until 6 or so) and I was in the office a lot with other interns. We had a lot of fun events. I did a few afternoon coffee runs. I wish I had interned during busy season so I'd know more what to expect when I started full-time.

When I started full-time, the firm I interned with had been bought by a larger national firm (not big 4, but 5th largest), and many seniors left. We were very understaffed. I hated working in public, but many who started with me enjoyed it.

Had my full-time experience been like my intern experience, I would have stayed! But they made it easy for interns, typically. 🙂

R - *77*(02/'13)-Becker & NINJA
A - 71('11); *87*(04/'13)-Becker & NINJA
F - *76*(08/'13)-Becker & NINJA - "server upgrade" survivor
B - 60('11); *82*(10/'13) -Becker & NINA

DONE, DONE, AND DONE.

CPA in Massachusetts; issued 01/24/14

[foreseeableCPA]

Thanks for sharing your experiences! I cant wait to see how my internship will turn out. The people seemed nice at the social events and interviews. Hopefully I dont get eaten alive. lol!

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[UCFCPA]

@ForseeableCPA, good luck! I start my full time position on Monday, and I'm nervous as well!

REG (8/7/12) 77
FAR (10/4/12) 70 Retake 5/25/13 84!!!!!!!!!
AUD (11/2/12) 78
BEC (11/30/12) 82

[Anonymous]

@forseeable. That's great news! I start my job on the 16th. Let us know how your first day goes!

[foreseeableCPA]

@UCFCPA

Good luck to you too!

@AnnaMay84

Thanks. I'll definitely post an update. Will you be working at a big 4?

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[Da Bears]

I interned summer 2011 at industry company, they were implementing SAP at the time and I got to work at the off campus implementation site. At first I stuck near my boss, I mainly did flow charting of each process they were developing. We worked on the flowcharts together for 2-3 weeks….I mainly did the computer stuff since I could work a lot faster than him and he had other important stuff to do. Weeks 4-8 I worked on my own floating around the office working with various teams in the implementation. They were also implementing a Warehouse Mgmt System at the time to work in conjunction with SAP since SAP WMS wasn't “robust” enough. The day they were uploading all the new data for one warehouse I did physical inventory and counted “widgets” for like 15 hours. I start Monday at big4 too! I am FT hire though, what market? Good luck!!

FAR- 8/14/12 91
AUD- 10/16/12 88
BEC- 11/07/12 92
REG- 01/05/13 86
NIU CPA Review

[Anonymous]

@forseeable: I ended up choosing the smaller firm because I didn't get an offer from Deloitte and Moss. However, I am happy with the outcome because I would prefer having a work/life balance anyway rather than being overworked like a slave. I hope your first few days are working out well for you!

[someaccountant]

I had a great internship at a church.

For 6 weeks, I cataloged their assets into a software management database for budgeting and maintenance purposes. The entire project was under my control and direction and I could work flexible hours. Spent a week in planning, 4 weeks to complete the project, and the last week to tie up loose ends and train the staff on how to utilize and maintain the database for future needs.

It was great and I met the CPA that did their payroll which later resulted in a job.

FAR - 84!
REG - 76!
AUD - 80!
BEC - August 2013

[foreseeableCPA]

Update: I enjoyed my first week at the firm. Having to work the practice audit simulations and tax simulations during training were intense. Most of us interns were so confused but the staff said it is normal to feel completely lost. I hate asking questions but its something I'll have to get use to. I received my first audit client yesterday. I guess we will see how I end up doing on Monday. May God help us all during this busy season.

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[neika822]

@Forseeable – EVERYONE is so lost! Don't feel discouraged. It's much better to ask questions than to sit there stewing and wasting time. Trust me! I'm sure you'll do great, good luck!

R - *77*(02/'13)-Becker & NINJA
A - 71('11); *87*(04/'13)-Becker & NINJA
F - *76*(08/'13)-Becker & NINJA - "server upgrade" survivor
B - 60('11); *82*(10/'13) -Becker & NINA

DONE, DONE, AND DONE.

CPA in Massachusetts; issued 01/24/14

[foreseeableCPA]

@neika822

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I really appreciate it. There was so much info being given to us that I'm sure I forgot 75% of it already. lol.. I thought studying for the CPA exams were hard. Going to work and not knowing what the heck I'm doing is a whole new ball game.

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[Author]

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