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Jared McDevitt Kearney & Company Intern Journal

Becoming a Pro: My Internship at Kearney & Company by Jared McDevitt

 

Moving on Up – 7/10/18

Going into my internship at Kearney & Company, I knew that I was taking on a big challenge. A major reason why employers provide internships is to test run potential full-time employees. Certainly, the stakes are high. Kearney takes their internship program seriously in that they treat their interns as entry level accountants, giving them real, meaningful work to complete rather than sending them on coffee runs or scanning documents. Working at Kearney gives us interns an excellent opportunity to grow into business professionals, but as with any growth, there are challenges that we must overcome.

I think that the biggest challenge so far is the transition from the classroom to the real world. Although school develops your mind and skills such as critical thinking, it is easy to fall into the mindset that you will always have the information and directions you need before beginning work on assignments. In the professional environment, however, this is not the case. The key in the work world is to first take a shot at things before seeking more guidance than what was initially given when the task was assigned. The point is to be able to figure things out on your own, so that you will grow into a competent professional who can handle the various situations that arise. Things will not always be perfect and there will not always be someone there to guide you.

Kearney teaches their interns this valuable lesson right from the start. By putting us on client engagements at the start of the second week, we have the remainder of the internship to learn what it means to be a professional. With the support of our client teammates, interns are not alone as they strive to become professional individuals. Though the road can be bumpy, it is essential that my fellow interns and I receive the feedback given to us individually and work on the areas that need improvement. As long as we do that, we will be well on the way towards becoming professionals. In this next month and a half, I look forward to improving my abilities and acquiring skills that will serve me well in the future.

Growing into My Own – 7/20/18

In my last article, I talked about how interns at Kearney & Company are given an excellent opportunity to grow as business professionals. As my internship has progressed, I can definitely say that my experience has been rewarding and that I am on the way to becoming a pro. More and more I find just how dedicated Kearney is to its interns. Since I began work on my client engagement in June, I have become more proficient in utilizing Microsoft Excel in addition to becoming familiar with auditing software. More importantly, I have also noticed a development in my analytical abilities after having read the work of others so that I could gain an understanding of the work being performed. Nevertheless, this growth did not come easily.

Working at my client site really has been a good challenge. I think that the greatest challenge was learning how to work on my own before seeking further guidance, particularly with Excel. In utilizing Excel, I came across massive amounts of data and functions with which I had not had much practice. Undaunted, I moved forward and put forth my best effort to figure out what it is that the test work was trying to accomplish. Though it did take a long time and though I did get things wrong, it was a valuable learning experience. The work that I completed incorrectly serves as a lesson on which areas I need to focus on more closely. Additionally, the work that I completed correctly shows that I have learned how to be more independent. For instance, when I knew that I was going to use the VLOOKUP function in Excel for upcoming test work, I had to go home and teach myself to do it. Sure enough, I was able to learn it so that I came in the next day and completed my work properly.

From these past seven weeks I think the biggest thing that I have learned is to just keep plugging away at the work that is assigned. Sure, the work can be challenging and may take time, but you just have to hang in there, persevere, and show some initiative. Sooner or later you will start to get a grasp on what it is that you are doing and things will start to go right. Kearney has clearly made an impact upon my professional development and is making me more skilled, versatile, and knowledgeable. Working here at Kearney has been great, and I am excited to see how much more I can grow during these last few weeks.

A Look Back – 8/6/18

Wow, this summer has flown by! It’s hard to believe that my internship is almost over. During the two months that I have been at Kearney, I can honestly say that it has been time well spent. Though I am an intern, Kearney has treated me as an entry-level accountant. Having been sent out to the client site, I had the opportunity to perform numerous substantive and analytical tests. Such test work was definitely meaningful, as I tested for conflicting roles within financial systems, looked for errors in the client’s calculation of depreciation expense, and ensured that asset transfers were recorded properly and in a timely manner. All of this has given me valuable insight into what auditors do and developed my technical skills as well as my critical thinking and analytical abilities. In addition to the test work, I have gotten to see how auditing documents are formatted and presented for final review. Taken altogether, I have gotten a very good picture of what the auditing process looks like.

As my internship draws to a close, I would like to finish off with a word of thanks. I definitely could not have gotten to where I am today without the support and cooperation of everyone I’ve interacted with at Kearney, all of whom have worked with me, pushed me, and helped accelerate me towards becoming a professional. Kearney truly is dedicated to its interns and has given me a launchpad from which to start a career. Thanks again and I am excited to see what the future will hold!

This article was originally published on Jared McDevitt’s (Summer 2018 Intern) LinkedIn page.

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