It’s been about a month now since I completed my MPA internship in Dallas, and I’ve got to say, I still haven’t gotten used to the fact that I have to be a student again. I really enjoyed being able to go home and not have any homework to worry about. I even had time to watch American Idol for the first time ever (I’m a little behind on the craze). Getting paid to work hard rather than paying to work hard was nice, too.

However, waking up at 6:30 a.m. Monday through Friday is something I could do without, and one thing I’ve thoroughly enjoyed since I’ve been back at school is not setting my alarm. Having class two days per week from noon to 6 p.m. certainly has its perks. Five days off and two days of work…completely opposite from my work schedule.

I’m really grateful for the unique internship opportunity that the MPA program incorporates into our degree. To be able to spend three months doing an internship that reflects exactly what we’ll be doing in our full-time job is a fantastic chance to see what’s ahead, but still be able to come back and learn about our profession from a different perspective. To sit through an Introduction to Auditing class when you’ve never seen a real audit is kind of like reading assembly instructions without any visuals. You understand what you’re reading, but it’s tough to see the big picture since you have no idea what the final product is supposed to look like. Now, having worked on a few audits during my internship, I have a completely different perception of an audit for my Studies in Auditing capstone class. So far, the class has been much more rewarding and interactive than my Intro to Audit class. It has nothing to do with the quality of my professors for the two classes (both are excellent); rather, I think it is because I have seen what an audit actually looks like so I am able to better appreciate what I am learning.

What a typical day looked like

I worked on three different audits: one manufacturing company and two asset management companies. For the manufacturing company, our audit team was completely new (no one had previously worked on this particular company), so we had to ask a lot of questions of the company management. Often I would be going to the finance and accounting managers asking for clarification on a certain number or documentation for a specific transaction. I also had to make several phone calls to the finance managers of individual plants all over the country. I definitely got a lot of “face time” with the client at this company since I was the only intern, and I was also the acting “Staff 1” since there was not an actual Staff 1 assigned. Although we were stuck in a cold, windowless audit room next to a receptionist whose name may as well have been Cruella Deville, my audit team was fun and relaxed which made for enjoyable 10 hour days.

Working on the asset management clients was a very different experience than working on the manufacturing client. For one, we were welcomed with open arms at these companies. They put us in nice rooms with windows and they even let us order off the catering menu each day. (I probably gained five pounds over the course of the five weeks I worked on these companies.) Secondly, the audit teams were much more serious. Perhaps this is because the information being audited is complex and therefore takes more intense concentration. Last, the type of information we dealt with was a lot more finance-based. I really enjoyed this. I actually felt like I was able to bring in some of what I learned in Intermediate Accounting and in finance classes. Since I am interested in finance, I really enjoyed trying to learn how these funds operated. I honestly feel like I learned more on the job in a single day than I did in a week at school. Being in a situation that requires you to quickly learn and understand is a great motivator. I feel like I thrived in the fast-paced environment.

On each of my audits, I had great seniors. Seniors are the people responsible for teaching the intern what to do on a day-to-day basis. My seniors were great because they took the time to explain why we had to do a specific workstep, not just how to do it. I really appreciated that extra effort because it allowed me to understand where my small piece fit in to the big picture.

What I loved most about the internship

What made my internship experience so great were the people with whom I was working. I know that sounds cliché, but I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true. The single most important piece of advice I would give someone going through recruiting would be to make sure you get along with the people who work for the firm. If you don’t enjoy being around them, then you probably won’t enjoy sitting in a small (sometimes windowless) audit room with these people for 10+ hours a day.

I didn’t go into my internship really knowing any of the other interns, but after the first two weeks of orientation and training I knew them pretty well. I also got to know others who already worked for the firm through all the intern events and “intern families.” Among our intern events, we went to a Dallas Stars game, we played WhirlyBall (basically, lacrosse in bumper cars), went to Dave and Buster’s, and went to Campisi’s. “Intern families” are a group of about 10 people: four interns, a partner, a senior manager, a manager, as well as a few seniors and staff. We would meet for dinner and drinks in a very informal, fun setting. It was nice to see that–as hard as all of these people work during the day–they can relax and be real people, too.

Although my audit teams were too small to organize anything formal like this, many of my intern friends got to participate in audit team happy hours, where one of the seniors or managers would plan an evening during busy season to get off work early and go get drinks as a team. This speaks to two points I liked most about the firm: (1) that the employees aren’t robots and (2) that your peers are pleasant to be around, even if you’ve been stuck in a room with them for the last two weeks for 55+ hours per week.

Interning in Dallas, it was fun to go out with fellow interns from SMU since Dallas is their college town. I really haven’t spent much time in Dallas since I was 18, so it was fun to see the city from a “grown up” perspective…the perspective I’ll have once I graduate and move back. My intern class was great at getting together on our own time on Thursdays or Fridays and having drinks. Since these are the same people with whom I’ll be working in a year and a half, it was fun to start building those friendships now.

I am so excited to start working full time in October 2011, but in the meantime, I’m going to savor every minute of still being a student with spring, summer and winter breaks, four-day weeks, and weekdays starting at 10 a.m. Because once I graduate, those days are gone forever!