Summer Internships: My experience, tips and the big four
A big part of the culture at Fisher is to land an internship during the Summer of your junior/senior year, and this Summer, I was lucky enough to spend it with KPMG back home in Cleveland, Ohio. Looking back on my couple of months with the firm, I am grateful for the experiences and opportunities I was afforded.
During my internship, I was able to travel down to Orlando, Florida, for a five-day trip in the KPMG Lakehouse, a brand new five-hundred million dollar facility built to help train and develop KPMG's people. The Lakehouse has everything, workout facilities, bike trails, restaurants, and fantastic hotel-styled bedrooms to ensure everyone that stays there is accommodated to their liking. I met so many new people from across the country and enjoyed learning from seasoned professionals in KPMG's audit practice! In addition, I really enjoyed my time with the firm back in Cleveland and the people I had the chance to work with.
Landing an internship can be something that is stressful and uncertain in a business student's life, but Fisher does a great job of equipping students to handle the job market. Fisher offers career fairs during the Fall and Spring of every academic year, and there are always dozens of companies that are eager to recruit students! All you have to do is register online and bring a few copies of your resume to hand out to employers that you talk to. Having attended these during my sophomore and junior years, I was able to get an offer from someone I talked to!
Another service that the Office of Career Management offers is to become QUIC certified. Through this process, students prepare for an interview like it is the real deal; they choose a company and position, dress in business professional, and answer questions about the "position" they are applying for. Doing this during my freshmen year prepared me to interview better and more comprehensively.
Some final advice I have for students who might be looking for careers in accounting or businesses in general; start as early as you can. Most big four accounting firms (PwC, EY, KPMG, Deloitte) post their internships a year or so in advance, giving students plenty of time to prepare and apply. It always helps to get ahead of the pack and apply as soon as you can so that you can accept your offer and be able to solely focus on your academics. I also took initiative early on in my college career and found the companies I would consider working for down the line and made sure to attend a few networking events with those companies just to have my name be known. Building connections is a massive distinguisher between applicants, and all it takes is a bit of effort and planning.
