Robert Wagner: Hard and Soft Skills That Helped Me During My Internship
This summer, I had the pleasure of having an internship at one of the Big Four Accounting Firms in their Audit and Assurance practice. Before going into this internship, I took an Audit class during the Spring Quarter thinking that it was very important for me to have a background in Audit and Assurance before I began work. To my surprise, however, the first few weeks of the internship were dedicated to training us on the basics of Audit and Assurance, giving us advice about how to have a positive experience during the internship, and telling us what was expected of us as interns. Although still useful, my background in Audit from my class wasn’t as necessary as I thought it would be.
Key points of advice that the professionals had for us were to not be hesitant to ask questions, network frequently, have a positive attitude, and be a team player. The professionals stressed that doing these things were more important than efficiently doing the work that we were to be assigned. Though that work was still important, a large part of our evaluation was about the soft skills we had and if we fit into the company culture. During the training that we went through in the preparatory weeks, the professionals told us countless times that we shouldn’t worry about if we didn’t immediately know how to do a task and that we shouldn’t hesitate to ask questions related to assignments. This showed me that my soft skills and how I fit within my teams were going to be very important.
Some soft skills that helped me the most during my internship were communication, teamwork, organization, listening, and networking. These skills were all important to have because they helped me make connections with my fellow interns and other colleagues, work within my teams, and ask questions effectively in order to help me complete my work. Communication and teamwork were key because Audit and Assurance is a field that is team-based. Organization helped me to balance my daily tasks and create a new routine. Listening was a soft skill that I used frequently because my main goal during the internship was to learn. The skill of listening was also crucial when meeting with my senior manager to discuss new tasks and during meetings with my coach to discuss my performance reviews. Networking was also important because it helped me make lasting connections in the firm.
Although soft skills seemed to be more important when considering evaluations, hard skills helped me the most when working on assignments. The hard skills that were the most useful during my internship were using Excel, data analytics, and data visualization. These are skills that can be relevant to many internships, not just Audit. I used all of these hard skills frequently to fulfill my tasks. Having a strong background in Excel was the most valuable for me because almost every task that I was assigned consisted of working in an Excel workbook. Coupling this skill with data analytics made my internship experience more meaningful because analyzing data helped me to deepen my understanding of the tasks that I was doing rather than merely carrying out the tasks that I was assigned.
My advice for people going into internships would be to understand the importance of soft skills and that their internship isn’t only for the company, it is also a useful learning experience for them. Hard skills can be developed over time, and it’s often not expected for interns to have them mastered. Soft skills are often what companies are evaluating in interns in order to see if they can be effective in the workplace and if they are a good fit for the company. All of the soft skills that I mentioned are very useful during internships, no matter the industry.