Paper Example: Internship Experience as an Accountant

Introduction

The internship provides an opportunity to apply the theories learned in class in real work situations, identify one’s true interests as a basis for deciding on their area of expertise, and identify transferable skills, hard and soft, as well as their importance to stand out in the job market (Lansdell et al., 2019). The internship is the first contact with the job market. During this period, new professionals can learn various skills and discover what the day-to-day in the profession they have chosen is like (Dunbar et al., 2016).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The following fundamental lessons are learned during the internship:

The need to improve - The internship is a great opportunity to learn to fulfill tasks relevant to the desired career. Also, interns have the opportunity to improve the skills they already have.

Valuing the curriculum - Obviously, a professional experience enriches anyone's curriculum. The trainee must use this to their advantage and include in the document what were the responsibilities and contributions given to the company.

Get recommendations - A good intern can get referrals from their bosses, either for future hire at the company or for other related vacancies. Also, some companies have letters of recommendation that can be included in their CVs.

New connections - The internship phase allows contact with several people, such as colleagues, bosses, and customers, for example. The creation of networking, that is, a network of professional contacts, begins at the beginning of your career.

A greater sense of professionalism - The internship is the chance to apply, in practice, the knowledge of a course or college. In this day-to-day, young people start to learn more about the professional posture they should adopt and how they need to behave in the workplace.

More confidence in career paths - The internship is the right time to find out what type of work matches or does not match the personality of the young professional. From this lesson, it is possible to invest in other vacancies in the same area of interest or change focus on the next professional chances.

Learning from feedback - The best way to learn and improve performance is to ask for feedback from colleagues. Therefore, opinions and criticisms must be heard with the same attention and used constructively to become an even better professional in the future.

Internship Experience

For our accounting majors, we usually focus on theoretical study and lack practical exercise, so an internship is particularly important. The purpose of an accounting practice internship is mainly to improve our practical application level by writing accounting entries, filling in various vouchers to bookkeeping, and preparing financial statements and other practical training, so that we can truly and systematically practice financial accounting (Tan & Laswad, 2018). The process improves our practical potential and the level of basic accounting skills.

I worked as an accounting intern in a machinery factory. The nearly three-month internship not only allowed me to master manual accounting, but also learned accounting knowledge that the school could not provide, and also understood the hardships of work. The tasks included reviewing invoices, filling in vouchers, making summary tables, keeping accounts, reconciling accounts, and filling out reports. During the internship, I was not only exposed to the entire accounting business process of the company but also learned various communication skills with people, while applying professional theoretical knowledge to practice. I systematically mastered the accounting skills and methods of filling and reviewing original vouchers, registering account books, and preparing statements, and the theoretical knowledge was consolidated.

Through the internship, I combined accounting theory with accounting practice and have the following profound experience:

The combination of theory and practice is essential- The internship experience demonstrated that the mastery of theoretical knowledge alone was not adequate for professional practice. As accounting students, we have been learning accounting theory since we first entered university, and can thus say that we are very familiar with the basic professional knowledge, basic theories, and basics of accounting. We have mastered the method and structure system. However, in the process of practice, I found it very difficult. I felt that I had never learned accounting knowledge which made me deeply realize the importance of practice to work. Only by practicing more based on theory and accumulating experience can one be flexible and comfortable in their work.

Patience and caution- Accounting work is inherently cumbersome due to the many calculations and the possibility of making errors and I have a deep understanding during the internship. When I started my internship, I had a headache all day with boring accounts and large figures which made me have errors in statistical entries. After I arrived, my supervisor instructed and taught me carefully, and with my efforts, I was finally able to complete the task independently and patiently. Therefore, I realized that in the accounting industry, we must not be careless and impetuous. Caution and patience are thus essential qualities and conditions for accounting.

The importance of continuous IT training- The widespread use of computerization in companies has given me a newer understanding of accounting software. Computerized accounting is the product of the combination of accounting technology and computer technology. The continuous development of computerized accounting requires regular and continuous training to highlight practical characteristics and enable computerized accounting personnel to quickly understand, adapt, and enter accounting practice in the current digital environment. Many companies and large enterprises have massive amounts of data that are too large to handle manual accounting. Even with the help of computers, such huge amounts of data, boring operations, and calculations are likely to have a little wrong data, one less decimal point, more zeros, etc. and the loss may be unimaginable. We must be proficient in manual accounting operations and operating financial software and have the potential to learn and progress from practice.

References

Dunbar, K., Laing, G., & Wynder, M. (2016). A Content Analysis of Accounting Job Advertisements: Skill Requirements for Graduates. e-Journal of Business Education and Scholarship of Teaching, 10(1), 58-72.

Lansdell, P., Marx, B., & Mohammadali-Haji, A. (2019). Professional skills development during a period of practical experience: Perceptions of accounting trainees. South African Journal of Accounting Research, 1-25.

Tan, L. M., & Laswad, F. (2018). Professional skills required of accountants: what do job advertisements tell us?. Accounting Education, 27(4), 403-432.