On my way up to the 17th floor on my first day of my summer internship, I was feeling an equal mix of nervousness and excitement – excited to begin my experience with a great accounting firm, and nervous about the unknown adventures that were ahead of me. From the interviewing process, I knew that Schneider Downs would be a great place to learn what public accounting looks like outside of the classroom, but I was still nervous about my first work experience that was not in a factory. For the past three summers, I have worked at a local factory that produced cheese, of all things. As one may expect, I was not too confident that my time working on a factory line would prepare me for working in an auditing department. Unsurprisingly, at the factory I never had to perform a walkthrough with a client or ever needed to wear a suit to work. But here I was on my first day, in a suit and tie, feeling a bit out of my element, heading in to start my auditing internship.
After I made it through the first week of training and started heading out to clients, I realized that most of my nerves were put to rest. I learned that the people at Schneider Downs truly were here to help; and trust me, I took advantage of it. While at clients, I had plenty of questions and my colleagues always took the time to answer them fully and help me in any way I needed. That is what makes an internship so valuable; I get to learn from the people who are actually doing it. With the summer winding down, I still get a little nervous walking into the office of a new client, but I know that the people I am there with are more than willing to help. I have learned so much this summer, from how working in a corporate setting actually looks, to how to apply different testing methods to different processes. However, one thing I was not expecting to learn was that there is one similarity to working in a factory: no matter where my career takes me, nothing can make up for working hard.
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