Tate & Tryon Careers in Public Accounting – An Intern’s Perspective

Addis Tades OAS intern Midpoint

It seems like only yesterday but I started my internship with Tate & Tryon in January 2009, almost 10 months now.  As many interns before me, my first day started out with  an office great and meet tour led by Kate Skidmore (person you should all be kissing up to by now).  Later on I was introduced to my work buddy and mentor and was treated to a beautiful lunch (on Tate & Tryon of course).  I am happy to say that everyday since then has been every bit as exciting.  

The greatest aspect of Tate & Tryon that I have learned to appreciate is the work atmosphere.  The friendliness and smiles that you see on your first day are not just a facade, you will see them everyday and feel the genuine care.  I am comfortable enough to walk into any office and ask a question, weather work related or personal.  There is no better feeling than knowing that your opinion matters, your work makes a difference, and that you are more than just an employee.  Tate & Tryon takes the initiative to stimulate this kind of atmosphere through meetings and group outings, one of which will be held at the ESPN Zone today.

It’s not all fun and play though.  There is no such thing as busy work, everything that you do at Tate & Tryon will have a reason, a purpose and will be making a difference.  You will learn various types of software and tools to aid you in your work with clients. You will be trained in every aspect of the work that you will later on be responsible for.  You will gain real world knowledge and the application of the accounting concepts that you learned in class.  I started out inputting 1099 tax information for clients.  I now work with a client, for which I enter A/P invoices, process bank transactions, and compile reports using the Great Plains software. There is always something new to learn and as long as you are willing, the staff at Tate & Tryon is always willing to educate you.

 

 

Addis Tadese

 

University of Maryland, College Park 

T&T: Last Day On the Job

In the words of a famous T&T intern, “I’m an auditor ladies and gentlemen.” That is what I now think about my professional skills. Going on my last audit with Stephanie and Archie has given me the confidence that I can actually make sense of all the numbers that nonprofits give us. Being at T&T for 10 weeks has made me see it as a diamond in the rough. The staff is great and the management is helpful. Even though I am not the official spokesperson of the interns, I can wholeheartedly say that every one of us had a great time here and learned a lot.

Tim Tishman

Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

Last day at T & T

Well well well... it seems like it's my last day at Tate and Tryon!  I can hardly believe it myself.  This has summer has turned out to be an incredible learning experience, thanks largely in part to the people at T & T.  I have gotten my first dose of the real world this summer and at first it knocked me on the floor.  But strangely enough I now look forward to entering the working world if my experiences here at T & T are any indication of what I can expect to come.  I have had the opportunity to work with some incredible people this summer.  I cannot thank all of the staff enough.  Even though I bombarded everyone with questions that only an intern could ask, they responded with patience and guidance.  I have also been pleased this summer to have the sterotype of the traditional nerdy accountant shattered.  I wouldn't even consider myself among the top ten coolest people at T & T which is really saying something.  I cannot praise my intership experience enough.  I learned more about auditing and taxes than I ever thought (or wanted) I could in one summer.  I will be very excited to head back to Virginia Tech in a little over a week, however I will honestly miss all of the people at T & T that have helped to make this a summer I will never forget.

Signing off,

Andrew Miller

Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

Final Day

Well, today is the last day of my internship here at T&T.  I can’t believe that the summer is already over.  I’ve had an amazing experience, learned tons, and met some great people.  I feel honored to have been given the opportunity of working here full time , and am greatly looking forward to returning next September. 

Thanks so much everyone.

 

Seth Pates

The College of William and Mary

Class of 2010

Final Day

The last day is upon us interns, and I cannot believe how fast the summer has passed us.   Two and a half months ago, I really didn't know what to expect.  Would I be the completely clueless intern?  Would this actually help me make some career choices?  So many questions filled my head the first week of orientation as I worried that I had no idea what I was doing.  At the end of this all, I can say – a lot of the times, I was the completely clueless intern.  But honestly, everyone at T&T was always so helpful and encouraging at all levels.   From answering small, frustrated questions about how to get my Prosystems to work to more complicated inquiries about how to find the right fit in a firm.  As my time at T&T this summer comes to a close, I feel extremely grateful for all the patience and instruction that I have received.  Though I’m still unsure what the future holds for me, I am thankful for the opportunity to return for another internship next summer if I so choose.

- Cherrie

College of William and Mary c/o 2010

Intern Blog #2

I am now in the second to last week of my internship here at T&T.  Since my last entry, I have had a great time working in the field on audits, and participating in a pro-bono assignment with Community of Hope.  

My first audit was fairly intimidating.  Even though it was a simple audit I was still able to help out and accomplish the tasks that were assigned to me.  The entire audit took only two days, and went smoothly.  Because it was my first experience in the field and I had limited time to learn, my auditing knowledge didn't grow tremendously, but I did become more comfortable with T&T's audit software.  The second audit was much larger.  Where the first one took two days, this one took about 3-4 weeks.  During the week I worked I was able to spend time with many different aspects of the audit.  I became comfortable with Cash, and continued to learn the processes of other accounts.  My favorite aspect of the audits has been the people.  I feel that I could learn "auditing" in many places, but T&T is staffed by a group of people that are kind, helpful, patient, and eager to explain the concepts - making my learning experience not only more effective, but also much more pleasant and rewarding.  

For the past two weeks, I changed roles once again and worked for Community of Hope.  COH is a non-profit which provides housing for homeless families in the D.C. area.  All the interns spend about two weeks with a non-profit doning whatever work is needed.  It was a great experience working with COH.  Although I wasn't always doing the most mind-boggling work, it was still very informative to see the inner-workings of a non profit from the clients perspective.  Having heard the auditors explain how they would like clients to prepare for audits, it was kinda cool to see how a potential client actually goes about the preparation. 

Well, that's all for now.

Seth Pates

The College of William and Mary

Class of 2010

The countdown begins -

Only two weeks of the T&T internship remain. (Alternatively, that also means only three weeks left of summer vacation!  Time is flying too quickly!)  Since my last post, I got the chance to go out to a couple of client sights and do some audit work.  I gained some experience assisting with a few workpapers here and there, and I learned a lot by just observing the interactions between the T&T audit teams and the clients.  Everyone has been extremely helpful thus far explaining what it is we do on these audits and how we go about doing it. 

As the start of the school year quickly approaches, I have been reflecting on how this internship will influence my schooling as I have yet to take an audit course prior to starting work at T&T.  Though I’m sure that my work here will not guarantee that oh-so-sought-after “A” in my audit class spring semester, I feel pretty secure in the notion that T&T has introduced me to many of the principles that will be addressed in the class.  This internship, as well as time outside of work exploring D.C., has been a semester of education in itself.  It has been an invaluable experience just to have some insight into the professional accounting world and have meaningful interaction with the individuals in it.  While I am dreading the early classes and late-night studying that comes with school, I’m looking forward to returning the school with this knowledge under by belt.

- Cherrie

Midway point

Wow.  It’s hard to believe that it’s the end of the 5^th week of my T&T internship.  My fellow interns and I are halfway through the summer, and I feel like it’s gone by so fast!  This past weekend was a blur of Independence Day activities - barbecue, fireworks, and friends - my first experience of the fourth (my favorite summer holiday) in our nation's capital.  Although I was sad that the weekend was over, I'm glad that I have such an enjoyable job to go back to.  Since my last post, I have been doing a three week rotation at N Street Village, a non-profit that “provides services for homeless women including a day center, night shelter, wellness center, addiction recovery programs and community living.”  It's a great organization with a strong mission and dedicated staff.  Officially, I’ve been filling the role of “accounting intern,” but really, I’ve been having an insider’s look into the operations department of a non-profit organization.  I know that when I hear about charitable non-profits, I mostly hear about their missions, purpose, who they help, etc.  Seeing a non-profit from the operations side, however, has enlightened me to the business side of things. After all, non-profits still have to operate as a business, and achieving the most favorable efficiencies behind the scenes allows such organizations as N Street Village to pass on the best service it can to those who really need it.  My day-to-day work for the past couple of weeks has consisted of working with Quickbooks, entering invoices and the like, organizing hard copy employee time sheets and inputting their electronic versions into a spreadsheet to calculate pay allocation (a concept that I'm a bit familiar with after my Strategic Cost Accounting class), sitting in on various meetings, and the occasional filing or copying.  I've learned about what sort of controls N Street has and how it can illustrate them to it's auditor's.  And I've the learned the importance of what financial statements show and don't show, especially when it comes to non-profits' fundraising.  Furthermore, I've learned about all the great programs and services that N Street offers which make it imperative that the operations department run smoothly.  All-in-all it's a typical intern's life, but it has been a great experience thus far.

Next week, I start a new assignment - I'll be going out on my first audit trip.  A new location and new tasks at hand.  So, more on that later...

~ Cherrie

T&T interning- second entry

     As an intern at Tate and Tryon, I have learned that the work never seems to get repetitive. Since I wrote my last blog, I have been in the office only a couple of days. My first day out of the office was for the Tate and Tryon Audit Fun Day. The Fun Day was held at ESPN Zone, where there was an open bar and lots of appetizers. Being a month and a half away from being 21, I still had a good time cleaning up the appetizers and sipping on my sprite. Each employee then got a game card to play any of the ESPN Zone games. The games of choice seemed to be basketball, football, and hockey. Hockey wasn't the game for me because I'm a lefty, and they didn't have a left-handed stick. So I ventured over to the basketball game and placed a solid 4 th out of 4 players. Later on I got a little better at that game as I found my shot, but the game for me was the football game. Growing up with backyard football and playing football in high school, I’ve picked up on how to throw the old pig skin pretty well. After a cut throat competition with one of the other interns, I ended up on top by one point. ESPN Zone was a great time.

     After getting more training in the office for a few days, I headed over to 14 th Street for my Pro Bono work with Central Union Mission. The first day we had a monthly lunch for the third Tuesday in June. After I was introduced to everyone, I got familiarized with the accounting system that Central Union used. James, one of the members of accounting department was in charge of me for the first week. James was in charge of filing the invoice expenses and entering them into the system. The software they used was QuickBooks which I was slightly familiar with. I helped James enter those invoices in the system, and then filed them for the upcoming audit. Every Friday they would cut the checks, and, because it was a nonprofit organization, they would have to choose what time the amounts should be paid because of their gift income. Then I rolled forward the filing system they use for their invoices and created new folders for the next fiscal year. The next week I worked with John who was in charge of the deposits that are made in donor's names. I would scan the checks with the SunTrust check scanner and it would make an automatic deposit. I would then reconcile this total with a manual total I made to see if it matched. I began to get very good at this as the week went on, and it was interesting to see how the deposit slips were filled out and they kept track of the batches. You don't really learn the more practical side of this type of accounting in your accounting class so real life experience is definitely helpful to see. I also helped Len Conner, Senior Manager, take a look at a capital expenditures report. I debited and credited out the buildings with the liabilities payable to see if the badges made sense. I was glad to have taken intermediate accounting as I used those recent skills to balance the accounts. I arrived back at T & T on the 2 nd of July where it was a half day, and Friday was a holiday. Now being back in the T & T office, I feel fresh and ready to help out the audit department again.

-Tim Tishman

Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

The life of a Tate & Tryon intern: Part Deuce

Greetings from the bullpen.  Us interns are just wrapping up our 4th week at T & T.  I think I speak for us all when I say that it has been a tremendous experience thusfar.  Personally, I am throughly enjoying getting to know the staff here.  A coule of weeks ago was Audit Fun Day.  Half the day consisted of meetings and office clean up, then we went to The ESPN Zone.  We were provided with free drinks, food, and games.  It was really fun day.  I never imagined accountants could be so fun.  Other than that, I've really enjoyed getting some practical experience in the field of accounting.  I've worked on tax returns and helped with audit planning.  Next week I get to actually go out to a client for an audit.  I'm very excited about the prospects of interacting with clients and getting a better understanding of auditing fieldwork.  Other than that, I'm just really enjoying my time living in the city.  I'm really starting to like D.C. and the surrounding areas.  The Tate & Tryon softball team starts up next week so that should be a ton of fun.  But now, I have to get back to work.  I hope to write another one of these in the near future.

Sincerely,

Andrew Miller

Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University