Over this past summer I spent 10 weeks interning at Crowe LLP in Columbus which is an Accounting, Financial Technology firm working as an Information Technology Assurance position. I spent the summer building relationships with IT departments of our clients which were primarily banks throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. Earlier in July I was able to travel onsite to a healthcare payment processing client to conduct walkthroughs in-person firsthand.

   Throughout the past 10 weeks I felt that I grew exponentially into my professional career. Quickly I was thrown into a professional environment where I was collaborating with professionals that many times were twice my age. I came to the realization that the majority of the time I will not be the most experienced or knowledgeable person in a meeting. This is an intimidating idea, but it is valuable to sit back and open my ears to those senior staff and managers to absorb as much of their expertise as possible. Over time I also came to realize that I may not be as experienced as everybody else, but in the age of technology, I am a young mind that is up to date on new trends such as Machine learning or AI and I can provide valuable insight to new products or topics that can provide creative solutions to problems that impact the whole team. 

   My view of the world has also narrowed to that of an Information Technology professional. Even after my internship, the client assurance model has altered my viewpoint to notice the details of IT and Cybersecurity of any vendor or establishment I walk into to this day. Continuously working on SOC reports for over 2 months, I feel that I have a stronger understanding on vulnerabilities of computer systems. When choosing which companies, I choose to utilize their products, I have a greater tool box of certificates or standards I look for in order to protect my own personal data and cyber safety.

   Interactions: One interaction that was especially meaningful occurred at a quarterly outing for our business unit. Several senior managers had a conversation with me explaining how the IT Assurance practice used to operate and report on paper before the advancement of technology. They continued to detail the transformation and adoption of technology. We continued to talk about how prevalent data breaches and cyber-attacks have become as technology continued to grow and how they have impacted other accounting firms in our market. Large data breaches such as the Solar Winds or MOVEit attacks came up in conversation and influenced me to conduct research and grew my interest and expertise on cybersecurity.

   Relationships: Over the past 10-weeks I was able to gather some valuable mentorship that has positively impacted my view on the professional business world. My first week I was paired with a peer liaison who sat next to me and was able to assist any immediate questions that arose. Every other week I was able to have a sit-down with the acting partner of our business unit. The partner has spent the past 15 years at Crowe and has valuable insight on the transformation of the firm and how he was able to adapt his job responsibilities in order to work his way up to upper management and beyond.

   Activities: As a part of this internship, there was a week segment dedicated toward a country wide intern/new hire case study competition. I was paired up with several other interns and new hires within the same Columbus office as myself. We collaborated to research and understood the implications of artificial intelligence and how it can influence fraud within the world of accounting. I was intimidated to be paired up with several other interns & new hires with different backgrounds as myself, many who had a more extensive accounting background than myself. Although I felt uncomfortable in this group work setting, I felt that I still had a valuable skillset to bring forward to help the team.

   I believe as I graduate from college and enter the working force within the Information Technology space these experiences, mentors and activities provide great value and influence on which sector I want to enter. I also believe they provide me some insight into the world of information that I may not learn from a textbook or from an introductory college course. Overall, I feel that an openness to sit back and listen to mentors and an open mind to learning is as valuable as ever when entering a new job working with coworkers of different ages and backgrounds.