Experience with a Digital Internship

I first heard about Schneider Downs from a family friend. When I mentioned to him that I was going to apply for audit internships following my junior year, he immediately recommended that I apply to Schneider Downs. He said that it was an excellent firm full of excellent people. I am happy to report that he was definitely right. After doing some research on the firm, I was impressed by its impressive track record, variety of audit and tax clientele, as well as the impressive culture and values instilled throughout the firm. I had my initial interview with Tom Harvey, a second interview with Doug Morally, and then I was offered a position as an Audit Intern at the Pittsburgh office, which I gladly accepted.

Before beginning my internship, I was worried about how the internship experience would be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. I was worried about learning and working in a digital environment, and had reservations about the lack of face-face interaction that would come with a digital internship. However, I quickly realized that if I viewed the challenges of working in a digital environment as an opportunity for unique growth and learning, instead of as a series of barriers, I would have a much more meaningful experience.

Being an intern in this digital setting taught me a variety of things: how to be a better communicator, how to be a more organized and to be a more intentional worker, just to mention a few. I would consider myself a “people person” and being forced to do 90% of my work from my desk at home made me appreciate the days when I was on-site at a client with my team that much more. While learning and working in a digital environment was more difficult for me, I was thankful for the challenges and the unique learning opportunities it gave me. I was also thankful for the managers, seniors, shareholders, and other employees that I worked with throughout my internship: they were always happy to answer one of my many questions, and they often took valuable time out of their days to help me learn and understand the entire audit process and practice much better.

The team at Schneider Downs did a phenomenal job with the internship experience as a whole. From day one I felt valued and respected as an employee, even though I was just an intern. The people at Schneider Downs are truly great and working with and getting to know them better was undoubtedly the best part of my internship experience. Special thanks to Kevin Begley, Jon Grim, Greg McGuire, and Lindzee Nicholson (just to name a few), for all of the help and advice that you all gave me throughout the summer- I truly appreciate it.

Overall, my experience as an Audit Intern at Schneider Downs in Pittsburgh was a phenomenal experience: I got to work with truly great people every day, I learned so much about auditing, and I gained skills that will greatly benefit me in my future career. I am incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to work at Schneider Downs over the past summer, and I am incredibly thankful to everyone that I worked with at the firm as who made me feel valued and welcome from my very first day.