A day in the life of an accounting intern

For many accounting students, internships are the first step toward discovering where you fit in the profession — whether that’s tax, audit, or something else entirely. As part of our webinar series for aspiring CPAs, two student leaders, Hunter Richardson, a fifth-year accounting and computer science student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Katherine Suh, a fourth-year accounting student at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, recently shared what they’ve learned from their internship experiences — and what they wish they’d known starting out.

Hunter spent the summer interning with KPMG’s audit department in Richmond, Va.; Katherine interned at a large international bank doing internal audit, specifically Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering audit. Though their experiences differed, both agreed that internships provide a crucial window into how accounting really works beyond the classroom.

Getting noticed by recruiters

Katherine’s path to her internship began with an unexpected opportunity. “I had been at a business conference, and I was listening to this panel, and this one speaker was really resonating with me, and so I decided to introduce myself to him afterwards and talk more about his work at the bank,” she explained. “I’d never considered internal audit as an option until then.”

Her advice for others exploring accounting internships? “Recruiting looks different every time,” she said. “I’ve been recruiting for just under two years. It’s been a continuous flow of attending on-campus events, informational interviews, office hours — just the whole nine yards.”

Hunter agreed that early preparation pays off. “The Big Four hire a lot of interns,” he said. “They recruit very early, so my biggest advice is to start early, early, early if that’s the path that you’re interested in.”

When asked what helped her application stand out, Katherine credited her ability to connect her experiences to her goals. “This is such a cliché answer, but a lot of times it really does come down to extracurriculars,” she said. “It’s not just the fact that they’re on your résumé — it’s how you talk about them.”

She shared how she linked her nonprofit finance internship to her current role: “When you work for a nonprofit, you get to know the organization on a very in-depth level. And that’s sort of like what happens in internal audit.”

Hunter took a slightly different angle. “Anything that you can do with technology — I think that’s what helped me stand out most in my application,” he said. “I’ve accepted a full-time offer to return after I graduate, and I know that having a background in both technology and accounting certainly helped.”

Overcoming imposter syndrome

Every day in internal audit looked a little different for Katherine.

“My day was mostly composed of meetings, individual work, and just anything required by the internship program itself,” she said. “Accounting work is a very collaborative process... you’re going to be doing walkthroughs and process meetings, juxtaposed with individual work involving work papers, testing — what you’d consider the meat of an audit.”

She also pushed herself to grow beyond her assigned tasks by pursuing a data analytics certification and setting a weekly networking quota for herself so she could meet one person from every internal audit division.

Hunter added that attitude makes all the difference. “You may not always be the biggest fan of the task you’re given,” he said. “But more than anything, it’s your attitude about how you approach it. Go into things openly and be ready to be a team player.”

Both admitted that starting an internship can be intimidating. “I did actually have a little bit of imposter syndrome,” Katherine said. “Accounting and audit work is a very fish-out-of-water experience. But I realized they just want you to be engaged, curious, ask questions, and make the most out of the experience.”

Hunter related to that feeling. “Comparing yourself to your co-interns is not always the best metric,” he said. “Everybody gets evaluated differently at the end of the day.”

Learning from every experience

Not every internship is perfect, but both speakers stressed that every experience has value.

“Even if the firm might not have been that helpful, having just the experience listed on your résumé will open another door,” Hunter noted.

Katherine agreed, saying that even a negative experience can help you eliminate a career path you’re not interested in pursuing. “If you have a bad experience, then that actually makes it a great opportunity for you to figure out what you are passionate about,” she said. “You’ve just learned a lot about yourself through that experience.”

For students still deciding where to start, Katherine’s message was simple: “Talk to people in the accounting profession and keep an open mind — you never know what you might be interested in. Accounting degrees don’t close any doors.”

Hunter echoed that optimism. “Try to get some sort of internship, whether it’s in industry, public accounting, or any field,” he said. “Your first internship is a great way to get a real-world perspective of what happens in the accounting realm.”

Watch our Oct. 21 webinar on A Day in the Life of an Accounting Intern to hear Hunter and Katherine's full conversation. (Scroll down to the past events section).