Friday, July 29, 2016

Challenges In My Internship

By Paul Dean, Junior, Accounting Major

During the course of my internship, I have faced many good challenges. As I am progressing through my experiences and work projects, I have found that I have been given more responsibility. Every week I have been assigned to do the planning work for a retirement plan audit. I have a certain amount of time that I have to get each plan done by. At the beginning of my internship I had people at CBIZ helping me and teaching me how to do the planning work. At this point in my internship, I have been able to master almost all of the planning by myself.

Each plan comes with its challenges though. Locating where certain documents are has been one of my biggest challenges. However, I like being challenged throughout my internship because of the satisfaction I get from solving problems on my own. When I do reach out for help from my supervisors, I have found it challenging to constantly try and learn new ways of doing the planning. This is necessary though in order to master the planning of the audits.

Another challenge that I have faced is finding time to ask other professionals questions that could be helpful to my career. Learning from other professionals is equally important as doing quality work for the accounting firm. I believe that these challenges that I have been facing will help me down the road in any academic or professional setting.    

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Try Everything

By Michael Dodds, Senior, Accounting Major

Since joining the accounting program two and a half years ago, I have been repeatedly asked, “tax or audit?”  To be honest, I was not sure until last semester, when I took both Corporate Tax and Audit at the same time.  That experience really helped me narrow it down to audit and I was very excited to finally be able to answer that question.  That was before I worked as an Assurance Intern for RubinBrown, though.
             
Working at RubinBrown this summer has given me the chance to learn that choosing audit is only half the battle of making a career choice.  I had no idea that you could specialize in an industry group as an auditor.  For example, this summer I have helped audit several 401(k) benefit plans, a financial institution, a low income housing developer and a not-for-profit. I get to finish my summer working on a casino, and those are less than half of the industries that you could choose to specialize in as an auditor.

Working as an Assurance Intern this summer has given me such a great opportunity to find the things that I enjoy.  Now that I am aware of what is available after you answer the “tax or audit” question, the next couple of years will give me the opportunity to try a little more of everything before I specialize in my interests.  For anyone who may not have started their internship yet, I want to encourage you to try a little bit of everything before you make a decision.  I can tell you from firsthand experience that your passions may lie in an industry that you would have never considered before.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

A Day in the Life of an Intern at the Department of Homeland Security

By Miranda Curry, Senior, Mathematics Major

Almost nine months ago I started my internship at the Department of Homeland Security in the Program Management Office. Ever since then my life has completely changed. If you had asked me what I wanted to do with my math degree a year ago, I couldn’t give a straight answer. All I knew was that I needed an internship to get my degree and thanks to Career Services, I received an email with a link to apply. After an intense 3+ month background check and interview process, I was given a start date. My days here start early and end late (if you get here before 6 am, you are usually lucky enough to get a parking spot underground).

 When I first started I was thrilled about the idea of working in a cave, but nine months later I am really missing the sun. Twelve-hour days don’t allow for a lot of time outside. Working in the Program Management Office, I have a wide range of duties. Recently, I helped prepare and balance the $50 million budget for the entire facility here for the upcoming fiscal year. Additionally, I have helped work on projects from file size analysis to creating shelving and storage plans for another cave location. The work never becomes boring because it’s different every day. Additionally, working in such a high performing office means you create significant impact to the organization. The projects that I have worked on have given me such a feeling of purpose because I know my work will make a positive difference in other’s efficiency.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Summer 2016 Interns - From Kansas City to St. Louis

Hallie Cooley - Junior – Double Major in Applied Mathematics & Economics
My actuarial internship in the insurance industry is allowing me to see the various models and reports used to predict data about our clients. Here I am evaluating a couple of analyses in order to express their meaning to clients in simplified terms. 
 
Decho Valev – Senior – Corporate Finance & Accounting Major
With H&R Block and the Expat Tax Services Team, I have been able to help US citizens living abroad in Australia, Europe and Canada get tax preparation service. It has been a great learning experience.


  
Janine Koleta – Junior – International Business Major
My internship allows me not only to intern for the Human Resource department, but also to shadow and interview employees from other departments. I am always challenged to do new things on a daily basis and get out of my comfort zone. I really like my coworkers and the team environment is great.
 
 
Joseph Lipoff – Junior – Applied Mathematics Major, Physics Minor
I am a data engineering intern at the Digital Ally Open, which is a tournament office on the Web.com-PGA Tour. I have set up Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Etix, Google Analytics, and website analytics with the google task manager. I am excited to see what is next for me.
 
 
Brendan Bostwick – Senior – Accounting Major
Interning at a local law firm has given me the opportunity to work behind the scenes of the court trials. Here is me looking through  documents and getting them in order for the attorneys to use.
 
 
Kyle Barnes – Junior – Accounting Major
My internship in the federal tax department has allowed me to apply what I have learned in my accounting classes to a real world situation. Here I am analyzing last year's financial statements to help with the 2015 Federal Tax Return for the company.