My Summer 2018 Internship Experience

Starting a new job is an experience unlike any other. It makes a person feel simultaneously nervous, excited, hopeful, and anxious, whether it be a cashier at a supermarket or a server at a diner.  Starting a new career makes these feelings even stronger. All of us here started from humble beginnings from working in gas station restaurants to basic data entry at a tiny accounting firm from home. This new experience at Schneider Downs was nothing short of a perfect transitional position into a real, professional work environment. We went from handling transactions of under $20 at our old jobs to working on full-scope audits of multi-million dollar companies we encounter daily. Every day has been a new experience that has helped myself and the other interns develop on a professional and educational level, helping us learn critical thinking from a new perspective.

Schneider Downs is an environment unlike any of us have seen before, and it is created by the people of the company. When the interns, including myself, started here, with all of the nervous and excited feelings, we quickly discovered that the employees here were just as eager to help us as we were to learn the materials and environment this firm has to offer. There is a perfect balance of high work ethic and a close community without any aspect being too overbearing or underwhelming. To start our professional careers in this environment does nothing short of setting us up for a successful career, whether we start at Schneider Downs or go back to our local small accounting firm from back home. I can speak for the other interns when I say we were proud and grateful to share this experience together and to grow as professionals on both an individual and team level.