Intern: Matthew Rickers
Major: Accounting
Company: RSM US LLP
Location of Internship: Minneapolis Minnesota
Internship Title: Assurance Intern
- Why did you choose the company that you work for?
- I chose RSM because they are focused on middle market clients. Our slogan is “The First Choice Advisor to the Middle Market, Globally.” The middle market excites me because as you are working through an audit of financial statements on middle market clients. You get to see many different accounts that you wouldn’t ordinarily get to see at a firm who caters to bigger clients. They also have a big reach as the slogan says: we have clients globally and are the 5th biggest public accounting firm in the world.
- What were some of the requirements for your internship?
- To have this internship opportunity, I had to have at least a 3.0 GPA and be on the CPA track (i.e. striving to achieve the 150 college credit hours mark.) For this internship, I am tasked with many different “projects” – some small and some big. These include doing working papers in order to achieve reasonable assurance that our clients financial statements are fairly stated in a material aspects.
- What is your favorite part about your internship experience?
- My favorite experience about this internship is that for an audit internship in public accounting, you get to travel around the state and even the country to go to the client’s office. Career-wise, I think getting to look at all sorts of different sized companies’ financial statements and seeing many different situations and learning on how to handle those, make a decision, and move forward with the audit.
- What is the most challenging part of your internship? How have you overcome these obstacles?
- The most challenging part about this internship is when you get introduced to a new account that you are going to audit. You know an obstacle is coming up when your supervisor on any engagement says “why don’t you take a stab at this workpaper?” I work through these obstacles by thinking high-level by looking at what we are trying to achieve, and then working down to what the workpaper is asking for.
- How did you find your internship?
- NDSU Accounting Club Meeting
- Why was it beneficial for you to register your internship for credit through the Internship Program?
- So you get credits for your internship that is required to get your degree.
- What advice would you give a student who is in the process of applying to an internship?
- Think about where you want to be and what you want to do long run in your career, and find an organization out of college that will open doors for you down the road and give you the opportunity to end up where you want to.
