Road to the Future: Use Internships to Contribute to the Younger Generation and Get a Good Look at Potential Hires

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * INTERNSHIPS FOSTER SUCCESSFUL PROFESSIONAL development for students and firms. To get started, a firm's project manager should check local university or college's Web site for its requirements and name of faculty coordinator to contact. * THE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FIRMS PROVIDE vary with their capacity. Large-firm internship assignments may last about length of a college semester and offer varied work experience. Smaller firms may limit project and time period to a tax season. * CANDIDATES OFFER A RANGE OF SHILLS and experiences. The more complex internship tasks are, greater oversight responsibilities a firm will have. * FIRMS SHOULD GIVE INTERNS CHALLENGING projects that develop new skills. Clear instructions about firm's procedures and its mission help interns become autonomous. Word of a great experience (or a poor one) gets around campus pretty quickly. * INTERNS NEED A PRIMARY MENTOR who is fully committed to assignment. Most partners don't see their role educator, but mentoring is a proven way to transfer experience. Interns who get a lot of guidance are more successful than those who fend for themselves. * PARTICIPATING IN AN INTERNSHIP GIVES a firm an edge in hiring best and brightest at same time that it provides an extra employee at a modest salary. The accounting profession has a great deal going for--it good pay, challenging work and unlimited opportunities for advancement. So why does it have a hard time selling students on field and keeping them? Recognizing that new CPAs are vital to future, many firms commit a large part of their human resources budgets to internships to try to close gap between students' understanding of public accounting and workplace realities. Even so, once employed, many new hires last less than two years, sources say. Can we do more to attract and retain quality professionals? We'll have to. One way to strengthen students' commitment is to show them how to succeed. Here are guidelines CPAs can use for managing internships to help foster successful professional development for students and firms. BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING Liaison with academia is easier now that some colleges require accounting students to complete internships prior to graduation. Check your local college's Web site for its requirements. If Web site doesn't answer your questions, it likely will name faculty coordinator or chairperson you can contact. Then you should * Inventory your resources. Although it would be great if internships could offer a uniform educational experience, training will vary with firms' capacity to provide it. Determine what yours has to offer. Does it have staff and time to mentor an intern well money and space to put one to work? Each intern will require sufficient workspace and resources to perform his or her assigned tasks. At large firms internship assignments may last about 16 weeks, length of a college semester. Smaller firms may limit program period to length of a particular project. Larger firms generally pay interns about $15 to $18 per hour. That range is the national average, says Douglas Michel, CPA, principal of Clark, Schaefer, Hackett & Co., a 29-partner Ohio firm with offices in five cities. Smaller firms may pay between $10 and $12 per hour, sources say. Depth of training also may differ according to a firm's size. Large ones can offer wined assignments (preparation of depreciation schedules and tax returns, bank and accounts receivable reconciliation and even audit-test experience, for example). Small ones may focus on only one area of responsibility, such tax preparation. Michel's firm is able to train interns on all firm software to build their confidence. In contrast, small firms may provide computer-skills training on only all as needed basis. …