Hello, my name is Conor Bowe and I’m from Carlow. I’m currently in my third year of an undergraduate degree in Management Science and Information Systems Studies at Trinity College Dublin. I wanted to gain some work experience this summer, handling real responsibility in whatever role I was offered.
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When I initially received the offer for an audit and business advisory internship from PKF Brenson Lawlor, I checked with a couple of people I knew that worked in accounting and finance – and every single person I talked to had heard of them and had positive things to say. So, I felt happy to choose them for gaining some hands-on work experience.
The work itself was pure audit accounting, where I’d talk with my mentor about my client and any problems I encountered, draft up T-accounts in excel, and use our database to record transactions. I had a decent grasp of the concepts prior to the internship, but I do feel like my basic understanding of financial statements, accounting and finance in general, has grown a lot in the last two months.
Essentially, my daily job involves a briefing by one or more senior staff members (managers, directors, or partners) followed by working on client information. I would email or call clients and consult my mentor with questions on the tasks. Partner calls are probably the most energetic part, since I’d jot down ideas about the client and think of questions to clarify their points.
Beyond the everyday work, we share our office with the Corporate Finance team, who are constantly discussing questions of valuations relating to the different deals they are working on. Through osmosis and directly talking to some of them, I was able to glean information on their work which seemed interesting as well. The same held true for the taxation department and working in their proximity. It was not a rotational internship, but I have a much better idea of what is involved in the vast field of accounting now.
In short, it was almost exactly as I expected: I gained a solid grounding in accountancy while working with real-world clients. And from the size of the deals being done in Corporate Finance, and the number of clients we are in contact with in Audit, I can see why the people I talked to knew about the firm.
