My PWC Adventure

It was a short week. The office was closed on Friday as part of a 4th of July four day weekend.

Earlier I mentioned that I was assigned to PCS (Private Company Services), which I now know offers tax services to private companies and certain high-net-worth-individuals. So although I won't be working on any big name clients, I will be working on certain engagements from beginning to end... but I'm really jumping the gun here. I spent most of this week in training.

Tax intern training was composed of two days worth of general corporate-tax instruction and another two days worth of PwC administrative housekeeping. We went over form 1120, 1120s and 1065 and the various working papers that are associated with corporate tax. (Mainly exciting things like K-1's and 1099's.) Additionally we engaged in self-study modules to learn about general PwC tasks with such highlights as office etiquette and properly accounting for time and expenses. All of the training was very standardized but tinged with a corny/campy PwC flair. I definitely give them credit for trying though.

On Wednesday I participated in a PAID after-work dinner and social event for the tax folks. Of the list of sports/games that I expected to play in the office atmosphere, I can honestly say that bocce ball was probably last. It was a "don't knock it till you've tried it" moment as I enjoyed myself and my intern team took the associate team to school.

After bocce ball some of the interns who hadn't had enough fun (myself included) went back downtown to have a few drinks. It turned out to be karaoke night and I decided to wow everyone with my rendition of "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. I'm hoping my prestige among the interns (which wasn't too high) got kicked up a notch... well maybe half a notch.

Free lunches: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thurs
Free dinners: Wed

Today was the first official day of my summer internship. The majority of the day was spent on administrative housekeeping, such as going over the PwC ethos (which was basically a day-long version of the PwC mission statement), imprinting laptops and identifying resources for both help and professional development.

PwC has a rather extensive digital knowledge base that I hope will end up being useful in practice and not just in theory. A SNAFU with the network they set up at the hotel conference room forced us to trek to the actual PwC office in order to complete the laptop imprinting process. I also found out that parking is going to cost me an arm and a leg.

I met up with several interesting people from all over the country and beyond. Some people were from as close as the local college and some were from as far away as Ghana (the country in Africa in case you failed geography). One of the ice-breaker exercises was to meet people that fit a list of criteria. For example, we were supposed to look for someone who had caught a foul ball at a baseball game or had been bungee jumping or sky diving. One of the tasks was to meet someone in the armed forces... Out of the 80 interns that were there, it seemed that I was the only veteran among them. The end result was my meeting EVERYONE. There were obviously some pretty bright folks but... there were also some folks that can only described as low watt bulbs. However, it's only the first day and far be it for me to judge a book by its cover.

Part of today's agenda included the breakdown of coaching groups and teams. Some of the teams have interesting names such as Gold Rush and Mavericks. My team is named PCS, which I can only assume means Private Company Services. I also happen to be the only intern assigned to that team (every other team has 3-6 interns). I have no idea what this means for me and can only hope it's an honor rather than a disgrace.

I've enjoyed the socializing I've done with the people I've met thus far and hope to create some long lasting professional relationships across the many disciplines of accounting.

Let me talk about how I managed to convince PwC to give me a summer internship in the first place. It all started with an fraternity-like organization called Beta Alpha Psi (BAP, more info about them here: http://www.bap.org). It hooks up scholastically overachieving accounting, finance and information systems students with true blue professionals to teach them some of the tricks of the trade. BAP requires a minimum GPA (3.0 last I checked) and participation requirements for membership. But it was at a BAP sponsored semi-annual event called "Meet the Professionals" that I first met G.R., who would eventually be my first round interviewer for the summer internship I was going for.

Networking with G.R. didn't happen with just one meeting. I introduced myself to him in the Fall semester of 2009, just getting a feel for what kind of person he was. When the Spring semester of 2010 rolled around I was ready to engage him semi-intelligently. Thanks to a particularly evil accounting instructor, I had researched some of the current issues that the accounting industry is facing and had a few ideas (not good ideas, just ideas) about what to do with them. I don't know whether or not he was impressed, but we discussed the nuances of the situation until the conclusion of the event and I had inadvertently boxed out all the other students who had wanted to talk with him (sorry, but it's a dog eat dog world out there).

What can I really say about networking with professionals? I don't "work rooms" or have lists of names in my address book, but I've enjoyed some success at creating professional relationships. It requires a certain modicum of social grace that I believe everyone can achieve. The key for me was to act like myself and keep the conversation rolling. My older sister (who is a lawyer) informed me that 80% of her job success stemmed from communication and stated that the same would be true of me as well, no matter which profession I found myself in. I have to agree with her as I have seen firsthand, brilliant people perceived as lackluster because they could not articulate their thoughts properly. It isn't just about expanding vocabulary and learning "big words"... it is about adjusting the communication style and message to who you are trying to reach.

Anyways, back to the story... During the beginning of the Spring semester I submitted my resume for consideration for PwC's summer internship program. My GPA was slightly above a 3.5 but I had a lot of other items to flesh out my resume, the main highlights being a foreign language, military experience and leadership roles. My resume got me past the first hurdle and secured a first-round, on-campus interview with PWC.

As I noted before, G.R. was my first round interviewer. Since I was already acquainted with G.R., I didn't feel nervous about sitting across that desk from him. In a 30 minute interview, we spent 20 minutes talking about his family, house and daily commute. The remaining 10 minutes were softball questions about items I had put down on my resume, specifically, he wanted a couple of "war stories." The HR guru, M.C. knocked on the door and informed us that we had run over time and I thanked G.R. and left.

Two days later M.C. called to tell me that I had impressed PwC enough to be invited to a second round interview at their office.

Why bother with an internship at PWC? Why not just worry about getting hired after graduation?

Well, idealistic reasons aside (workplace fit, experience, learning, etc) , according to a 2008 PWC profile by Businessweek (yes, them again) 90% of their summer interns were given full-time jobs offers. Also, in 2008, 69% of their entry level hires were undergrad interns.

http://www.businessweek.com/careers/first_jobs/2008/3.htm

Does this mean that you absolutely must have an internship with PWC in order to be hired? Of course not! You may be part of the remaining 31% that gets hired without internship experience. On the other hand, being chosen for a summer internship can save you a lot of sleepless nights when you get closer to the end of your senior year. In a sense, the internship process can be the real Superbowl of employment.

I've decided to try and chronicle my PWC adventure. Hopefully this blog will help future generations decide whether or not public accounting with PWC is for them. This is going to be painfully candid and I'm praying that this blog isn't going to get me fired... assuming I get hired.