Internship Period With the Price

¶ … internship period with the Price Water House Coopers, PWC. The report is also a requirement for the partial fulfillment of institutions requirement in the school learning process. The report focuses primarily on the assignments handled, working environment, successes and short comings that the intern did encounter when handling various tasks assigned to him by the supervisor.

Because the various parts of the report reflect the intern's shortcomings, successes, observations and comments, it would be imperative that the recommendations are also given. Therefore the report gives a number of comments and recommendations on the internship programme. It is hoped that this report would serve as a cardinal vehicle to the improvement of the internship program.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

102.0 COMMENTS on ASSIGNMENT

123.0 INTERNSHIP as a LEARNING PROCESS

134.0 OBSERVATION and CONCLUSION

155.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Previously, I had an internship in Price Water House Coopers, PWC in Korea July.1.03 to July.31.03 (200hr). I hereby want to give a report of my experience at the company during my internship for a period covering only 35hr of the 200hr. The reason why I wanted to be a part of this internship was because I believed this internship could provide me with a real world experience that relates to my major and my goal of running my own business in the future.

Price Water House Coopers

Price water house Coopers generally refers to the network of members of organizations and firms of one body called the Price water house Coopers International Limited. However, each organization operates independently as it is a separate authorized unit. This means that the firms do not operate as agents of the main body. The firm does not at all offer any services to people requiring their services.

The body also is not responsible for any mess done by their member organs. In the same way no particular firm also is responsible for the shortcomings and failures of another firm. This is the environment in which I did my internship with. The PWC firm in Korea operated differently from all other related firms in the entire world as expected. It executed its roles and functions as an independent entity.

I knew that there are other internships available but I believed that this internship with PWC could provide me with the experience that can help reach my goal; to start my own business. I was looking for an internship that could allow me to get a firsthand experience of what it takes to be a business owner; an internship that could challenge my abilities of running a business and can help me find out what are my weaknesses so that I can keep improving myself.

1.1 Work Chart (Log Book)

Activity

Remarks

1

Finance and accounting department

This was the main area of my interest during the attachment. I helped with my little knowledge learnt in school by giving information necessary for the preparation of accounting and finance documents.

Other duties included auditing client's financial reports as to whether they were true according to the transactions available in the final details of their accounting period.

Helped in the preparation of reports of clients according to the analysis given by the department on work provided by clients.

It was also my duty during my internship to organize files and documents in cabinet as one of the key responsibilities of accounting and finance. Good organization was paramount as it would beat logic if well organized data was not well kept in respective places for easy access and retrieval. This promoted good business organization and work flow.

This was very helpful in my learning process as it formed a major part of my area of expertise.

2

Housekeeping

General organization of the work place to make it as attractive as possible. Efforts being put in following the principles of better work place which meant better workforce and consequently better profits by the firm.

Housekeeping was very important in ensuring that the employees worked in a conducive clean environment which was not only healthful but also would promote the benefits of working in a trouble free environment.

Arranging the work place and putting everything in its place. This was ensure by having a place for everything and at the same time making sure that each and every thing was at its place.

The activities of housekeeping also worked to ensure that all items and equipment were found at places where they were accessible and promoted swiftness in their retrieval. More to these involved giving recommendations on better housekeeping procedures as appropriate.

This helped me learn on the importance of promoting the safety of workers in the organization. I learnt that the healthy and function ability of the organization depended entirely on the health of the workers.

3

Training sessions

I also participated during training of employees in the company. The company offers training sessions which aims at improving the productivity of the employees. It was a requirement as interns to take part in the process of learning through these sessions of training.

In the sessions, we were not let to just sit and watch things as they unfolded; we were expected to bring in our views on certain topics. This would form part of our recommendation basing the judgment on how we well understood the subject under discussion and its application.

Above all, Sung Hoon Kim, my trainer would actively involve the interns in the training sessions. This was done by allowing the interns to present items on the floor of their own interest but relevant to the company's organization and procedures.

The experience was challenging though helpful for we were able to know and establish our weak and strong points. It was also possible for us to relate theory to practice.

4

Conferencing

As interns we use to organize and prepare places for conferences. We were in the forefront of organizing for all conferences in the firm. The activities done here were very helpful as I came to realize later.

It was a learning process, as the firm's organization and structure was well learnt when it came to such times. In the process of preparing for this, it was easy to know who sat where and who could address where and when. It was therefore our responsibility and duty to provide these services as required according to the guidelines given.

Conferencing involved looking closely at all structures and ensuring that order was followed to the latter.

This helped me learnt that organization was very important as I also learnt that finance needed organization for its success.

5

Problem solving

This was also part of the internship program as interns were expected to be resourceful members of the organization in offering solutions to PWC's clients.

One major activity was providing a sharing service centre for one of the clients in their organization. Our role was to come up with the best economically feasible project that would enhance the functions of the clients without making them invest a lot of funds which would otherwise make the client suffer financially.

The intern is expected to see themselves as useful members and take the problems as though it was presented to them solely. This therefore calls for a lot of thinking and commitment in delivering good feasible solutions to the firm.

Problem solving procedures were training grounds for bringing meaning to professionalism which aimed at seeing results but not just staying at the office.

1.2 Main Roles / Work on Internship

Our group was working on a week to week basis, where we participated in an informal meeting at the conclusion of the week where we hoped to discuss what areas we liked and disliked and where we would like to work in the coming week. However we were provided with a rough timeline which specified four different departments over the period of my internship together with the other interns. It was not all about finance and accounting but included various discipline in the business world.

During the review of each week with the general manager, this timeline could bring varying results. When working in the accounting and finance I hoped to be successful because this was the area of my expertise, filling in accounts and monitor the processing of monthly reports. In the other departments, I would entirely engage myself in and every step of the proceedings at the departments because I knew very little as was required in those fields. It was more of learning in these fields than just working.

Housekeeping was another duty I had to perform where I would involve myself in organizing the work place for employees very satisfactory and hopefully to PWC standard. Conferencing was also very instrumental in helping me to learn the ins and outs of organizing varied types of function and conferences to the ability of PWC requirements. From time to time I would work closely with the finance and accounting head and monitor his management styles and customer service ability, as being a very young man and so successful I believe that I could learn a lot from him over my time here.

1.3 Reflection

The skills that I took away from this experience were those of networking, and budgeting. But most importantly, the leadership skill was a valuable skill that I obtained from this internship. If I could only choose one skill learnt in this internship, it will be the leadership skill which seemed very paramount in the running of any business outlet. Without a strong foundation of leadership skill, one cannot lead the company to a high level; he cannot inspire the employees to do a better job, nor to lead the company out of harsh time.

Relating my studies to this internship, I was indeed qualified to participate in this internship because I am an open minded person. I do not get offended by people pointing out my weaknesses which I am always grateful for and willing to improve or change. I loved to hear either positive or negative feedbacks on my abilities and opinions on what I had done well on or what I need to focus more on to improve. I had held position that people looked to me as a leader.

The internship in PWC helped me to get involved in a job where I can use what I learnt there. The reason why I wanted to do that it's because I will be doing what I love to do and having a stable income at same time. This might sound simple but a lot of people dislike what they do at their job. Being able to practice what I love in a job will be very satisfying.

1.4 Experience Obtained During PWC Internship

My internship at PWC was motivated by my Aunt who worked as an accountant in the firm. She is actually the one who made it easy for me to get through to acquiring the internship as she helped in delivering my certificates and testimonials to the company's premises. Although she helped me this way, I must say however that my getting through was made easy by the fact that I had good credentials reflected in my transcripts as required by the PWC who have been very strict to get students for internship based on merit.

Since PWC firm has functions acting as a consulting company, its employees must deal with clients all the time. For my intern, one of PWC's client requested PWC to develop a shared services center that covers Finance, Human Resources, and Procurement processes to serve business units under the holding company. As for myself, I joined the finance team that dealt only with financial transactions. The team was headed by Sung Hoon Kim who was my trainer.

To begin the project, my project and I must design business process flow for all finance transactions. In this process, I did a lot of communication with the client. Also, I did not learn how to design or modify business process flow for financial activities from previous finance or accounting courses. So, this experience is definitely useful in making me familiar with business process flow for financial transactions.

If I am able to assimilate the theory I have learnt into practice, whilst observing and continually learning, would be one indicator of success for me in my internship. Gaining a number of industry contacts and working relationship would indicate success in a personal sense for me. I also enhanced my problem solving, communication, planning and dealing with conflict skills, by monitor the current problems of firms in finance and accounting and what their root causes could have been and measures that could be put in place to prevent that often to support fully the operations of any firm or organization.

Whilst in an informal meeting with Sung Hoon Kim, we discussed what he wanted from us as to be active in our time in PWC, that is to learn as much as possible what was relevant to our studies and to enjoy our time by seeing and doing as much as we can in our time. Over all the supervisor provided us with a safe and healthy learning environment that helped us in our current studies.

After we finished the business process flow for Finance, Human Resources, and Procurement department, my coworkers and I could start doing other processes in order to further develop the Shared Service Center. Developing a charging mechanism approach was definitely one of the important processes that should be done right after the business process flow. To develop charging mechanism, I must look closely at the income statement and statement of cash flow to determine the cost driver for each services provided by the shared service center. This process definitely required me to be able to read both income statement and statement of cash flow, which I learned from my course work. This was very advantageous to me because my major is accounting and finance.

Along with these two processes, I also dealt with the performance reporting tool. As what the name suggests, this tool was designed to allow the customers of the shared service center to report whether they were satisfied with the delivered services. For this process, I did not really deal with any finance or accounting equations, but it taught me how to create an effective performance reporting tool for all transactions. Being a student who majored in finance and accounting, I could only watch clearly the proceedings at this point and learnt more through my trainer, Sung Hoon Kim.

2.0 COMMENTS on ASSIGNMENT

My original career interests were entirely entangled in the applicability of finance and accounting in solving business problems that were not directly related other fields. Currently this has changed since my interests in other fields have taken several huge leaps since I started handling my assignments PWC. I realized that there is no particular area of business that works out alone as a separate entity. The procedures of business operations indeed depended upon the interrelationship between other disciplines.

Success was only realized if all measures were taken as equally important in attaining the desired goals. The business organization is not all about finance and accounting. During my internship, I learnt that there are other factors that needed to be considered to enhance excellence in the firm or organization of the business.

2.1 Completion of the Assignments

Most of the assignments that I did handle were long-term projects that had already started and they were at the most advanced stages of their completion. When I joined PWC, there had been previous work that had been done on the same. It therefore made sense to me to continue doing what the rest of the team was doing (editing of accounts and making necessary corrections). All the same, it was very instrumental as I could analyze the reports as required which meant that the ideas were grasped from the beginning.

2.2 Work Experiences

The internship gave me an opportunity to act fast in giving solutions to the firm. This was done in the efforts, of meeting deadlines. I was able to understand that work entails meeting deadlines. I was able to know that no work can be fruitful if time was not put into consideration. The experience I got from this was that work needed time limits. Time management was very crucial in delivering services to the customers.

With this information, time management helps in coming up with the best way possible of solving problems. The best methods in precision and accuracy should be applied in arriving at solutions. This is what experience taught me while on internship at PWC.

2.3 the Impact of My Work

My work had many results especially in the area of accounting and finance. This is where

I was very resourceful as it was in the area of my expertise. However, I was also able to work in other departments and my little contribution added up to something fruitful. All the same I could listen carefully to some areas I did not understand to get information about them.

2.4 Successes and Short Comings

2.4.1 Success

The successes that were realized through my internship were that I was able to be a very resourceful intern in the firm. I felt accepted an absorbed in the firm because of my skills and knowledge I had. I really enjoyed the work. I felt more of a part of PWC's solution than being part of the problem. My experience was greatly improved in my area of expertise and I regard this as success.

2.4.2 Short Comings

However, challenges are bound to be there in any process. As a learner, it was hard for me to meet deadlines. Some few elements of staff in other departments where I had not specialized in were somehow incorporative because in my opinion they saw me as a bother to them. This in a way affected my performance.

3.0 INTERNSHIP as a LEARNING PROCESS

The work I did at PWC was not only interesting and entertaining but also made me learn a lot of things. It was a time set apart for learning and applying what was learnt in class as a way of interacting and venturing into other areas of operation in the whole area of doing business all over the world.

3.1 Benefits of the Program

In demonstration, I can actually say I really benefited altogether from the offer of internship programme that I had at PWC than I first thought before joining the firm in several ways: Having an exceptional opportunity an chance to use and apply the skills and knowledge that I got from the college to offer very useful and critical finance and accounting information to business organizations who were clients to PWC so as for them advance and develop putting in place knowledgeable policies for running businesses with professionalism. In matters of developing my career, the programme of internship without any doubt enriched my resume.

Also, having acquired an opportunity to interact and socialize with most of PWC's staff, I have had an understanding on how best to shape and update my career skills towards a job in the field of accounting and finance in the near future. The programme of internship also offered me an opportunity to not only to entirely work with PWC but also an opportunity to learn from the best financial and accounting experts and professionals that the world could almost certainly provide. This would indeed reflect very much in my curriculum vitae as a lot of my professional experience. Working with citizens from varied culture and orientation in the entire world was an uncommon chance that somebody can't easily get from any other firm or organization. Therefore according to me this was really another opportunity to put together friends and share many more ideas. To conclude, I can state that my internship at the PWC was a rewarding experience and provided me with some new perspectives that I did not come across during my studies back at the college. I also have to stress that my colleagues at the PWC contributed greatly to making my stay there a very enjoyable one. Particularly, working together with Sung Hoon Kim was a true pleasure and his faith in my abilities was a real source of motivation to date.

4.0 OBSERVATION and CONCLUSION

4.1 Observations

During the period, I realized that it takes many steps (even in a smaller company) to achieve a vision. This was ascertained by a number of observations: I did observe that teamwork played quite a huge role in attaining most of the PWC mandates. It was as significant as the ability and motivation to work more independently. But the main aim of the work should be to find and establish a way to put together everything in the right way. Many of the PWC employees and more especially the employees in the department of finance and accounting (of course because I worked with them) are very much committed and dedicated to their area of operation and entire work.

Many of them would avail themselves at the work place very early in the morning to work, leave also sometimes late after work in the evening and as though that was not enough, some could avail themselves over the weekends all in the efforts of making sure that they meet the set deadlines in their work. This actually is something according to my opinion will be found in the minority group of employees in any given organization. Interns like me were given the much required supervisory help and motivation that goes beyond issues pertinent to work. This was very evident in the fact that Sung Hoon Kim would once more often than not spend a part of his personal time to talk and discuss with an intern concerning issues that have to do with life personally. This was indeed very heartening. Even with the aforementioned positive observations, honestly I think that PWC staff does need frequent common group activity/activities that would bring them together once in a while. This will eventually result in a stronger bond amongst them. I did observe that the lack of these activities affects stronger teamwork play.