Interning at a Major Accounting Firm

My name is Christine Tonnies and I am senior at Rockhurst working towards my degree in business administration with a major in accounting. This semester I am doing an internship at a major accounting firm in tax.  I have always felt that tax is what I wanted to focus on with my accounting background. My dad did taxes for years and loved it. Since we are very similar, I assumed I would too. My first day was January 20 and by the 21^st, I was in love with it.
 

Each day I arrive between 8 and 8:30 A.M. The first thing I do is check my email and see if I was assigned any returns to do. If I have been, I work on those, and if not, I pick a return from the prep pool and complete it. While to most people, the idea of sitting at a computer all day and looking at a bunch of numbers and doing tax returns sounds incredibly boring; to me it is so much fun.

 

Learning about taxes in class is one thing, but actually getting to do a real return that is filed and submitted to the IRS is such an amazing thing to be able to do. One of the first returns that I did has already been filed and I get the biggest sense of pride. To me, it is such an incredible feeling to know that I did something for the “real world.”

 If I could give any advice to other students looking for an internship, it would be to not give up and to be persistent. I was dead set on working for a different company and when I didn’t get an internship from them, I was crushed. However, if I had gotten that internship I would not be at the firm I am at now, which is the best thing that could have happened. I cannot imagine working anywhere else.