Spring 2017 Intern Updates

Adam Pundmann - Ong & Company CPAs Intern

My internship at Ong & COmpany CPAs is unique because I am part of a small accoutning firm that values their clients on a personal level much greater than large firms. As an intern, I am trusted to greet their clients and talk to them on their phones. I am also responsible for assembling their tax forms, recording purchases, and reconciling their accounts. 

Luke Meyer - The Winans Group CPA Intern

Most days in the office I am at a computer or laptop processing returns. Here you can see me with the box of tax returns ready to be processed. You can almost always find me with a cup of coffee to keep me focused.

Emmanuel Mangar - Hovee CPA Intern

My internship at a small firm has blessed me with a great one-on one mentor-ship in tax and has sharpened my attention to detail.

Ulziisaikhan Mcgregor - State Street Intern

This is me (Ulzii) as an intern confirming a significant transaction with a long-time customer at State Street Financial Services company. This internship allows me to participate in a global financial network and gives me the experience to launch a successful career after graduation from Rockhurst University.

 

Lukasz Chmielewski - Creative Planning Tax Intern

        This semester I was given an opportunity to get an outside of class experience in regards to my major, which is accounting. Last Monday, I started my training as a tax intern at Creative Planning. To give some background about the company, Creative Planning started in early 2000s as a wealth management firm, which operating and managed the assets of a total worth of 30 million dollars. Last year the company broke the amount of 20 billion and is currently the only firm in the industry, which provides the holistic wealth management. Besides the financial planning, customers can use lawyers knowledge and the experience of CPAs in regard to taxes. 

         When it comes to my responsibilities, I and the group of eight other interns are assigned to prepare nearly four thousand, 1040 and 1041 tax returns. We have flexible hours but as tax season is getting busier we are required to work full-time and some weeks een up to fifty-five hours. So far I really like my position and I have learned that the main thing is to be self-confident to be successful in this working environment.

 

Chris Booker - Gateway Packaging Intern

The time I have spent at Gateway Packaging has proven to be a truly rewarding experience. I went into my first day with a lot of mixed emotions about starting at this company. I was leaving the accounting firm where I had spent the last year learning from wonderful CPA’s how to pursue a career in public accounting. The people at that firm had given me my first internship and I was sad to leave them. The environment here at gateway was a completely different experience that I was accustomed too, not only is a gateway a privately-owned company, It also has 12x the amount of employees that my last firm had in the office. But wit that being said, I really enjoyed stepping into a bigger office, and into a bigger role once I got to gateway. Working at gateway has taught me how to work with a vast array of different personalities from controllers, CFOs, plant accountants, to even factory workers. At some point or another I had to work hand in hand with these different people, which showed me that every person has a different way of working, as well as, different things that motivate them to work.

The most valuable piece of advice that I learned while being at gateway came when the CFO of the company came and asked me my name, and what I was doing in the office. I told him my name, where I went to school, my major, and that I was the new intern that was hired to help in the accounting department. He looked at me and said that “I gave him the wrong answer.” I remember beginning to sweat because I was so confused on how I possibly gave him the wrong answer, I in fact gave him more than he originally asked for. He then goes “you should have said that you’re here to sit in my office and take my job,” and then walked out of the room. The advice that I took out of that was not to go into every job aiming at the CFO’s head but to work hard at whatever task that is set in front of you so that you can one day take over for the top spot.