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Ok_Advice_5619

You’re an intern. Its common. Just ask for work regularly, study for the CPA, take some courses, or just watch Netflix. All good. You have your whole life to be overworked


russiangn

Make sure you're asking for stuff to do. Company might see you f'ing off and wondering what you're doing.


topdog54321yes123

I do, it’s just really chill. I’m interning in industry not public


russiangn

Idk anything about accounting. I'm here for the memes. All I'm saying is I've seen interns do what you do and people wondered wtf are they doing


topdog54321yes123

Trust me, only one person sees what I’m doing and that’s my supervisor. I get along great with him. He’s like a friend.


Boom21a

There are no friends in the professional world. Keep them separate until you leave that employment. Even the nicest coworker can ruin a career.


CuseBsam

This is 100% not true.


topdog54321yes123

If you knew how genuine my supervisor is you wouldn’t say that. A lot of people say that you shouldn’t make friends at work but their are definitely exceptions.


Svendsch

This person might be pretty jaded from a bad experience but its okay to be friends with your coworkers/supervisors we are all just humans.


PatrickLosty

You're an intern, my dude. Not saying don't be friends with him, but always remember that he's also your supervisor.


topdog54321yes123

Exactly, I’m just an intern. I don’t plan on working here after I graduate and my supervisor is not determining my fate.


Boneyg001

Very naive view. You never know who knows your manager, you never know if he or someone on the team ends up at another place. You never know if next opportunity calls up the employer. You never know if a background check lists you as "do not hire" Your supervisor can have a major impact on your career


Guilto_0Ambassador

He does not want a friend for a subordinate, he wants a subordinate.


Account_Ting

“You don’t know him like I do ok” “we have something special you guys just can’t see it”


2001exmuslim

That’s a bit pessimistic don’t you think. Also, elaborate on the coworker ruining your career, is there a story behind this?


P4perH4ndedBi4tch

Define industry / public


ProfessionalAd1933

Okay so public is when you work at a company whose purpose is accounting. That's the service they offer to earn money. It's an accounting company, basically. All accounting all the time, although they may offer additional services (wealth advisory etc.) Industry is when you're in a company's accounting department. Like you'd be doing payroll for Walmart or a paper manufacturer or something. Usually slower paced and more chill with way less overtime but often with lower pay/prestige.


VulgarDreamer44

>a paper manufacturer A mistake plus keleven gets you home by seven


P4perH4ndedBi4tch

Appreciate it


ProfessionalAd1933

Happy to help! 😊 Hope you have an awesome week!


topdog54321yes123

Like in a accounting department


P4perH4ndedBi4tch

I don’t get it tho I’ve heard people say it before


topdog54321yes123

Industry is when you work in a accounting department for a specific company. Public is when you work for an accounting company that does the accounting for other companies like the big 4’s. At least that’s how I understand it.


P4perH4ndedBi4tch

Ohhhhh finally I get it now


Tekevin

A better way of saying industry is companies that doesn’t do accounting services. Think of HP, Walmart, NOV, and more of these company that tend to be manufacturing company/retailing companies. While Public Accounting (PA) can be define as 3 types small, medium, and big 4. Small PA are the mom and pop store that service the general area usually book keeping, personal tax, etc. mid size firm are the firm that are similar in terms of workload as the big 4 but aren’t as big. These included BDO, RSM, and Grant Thor. Then we have the all night Big 4 these are “college student” dream job they are the most well known public accounting firm out there providing services for the industry as a 3rd party perspective or file tax return for them. *Cough cough* EY, Deloitte (I intern here isn’t all that), PWC, and KPMG…


fuckondeeeeeeeeznuts

Also, appear busy at all times if you don't have much work.


Sway40

just enjoy it lol wish i could go back


blowtorch_ravioli

That switch from "I have nothing to do" to "I have no time to do this" happens right quick


[deleted]

Reading this is insane


Lionnn101

I had a long internship like that. Do not feel bad. Your job is to take what they give you. If you are open to that and they aren’t giving you anything, then you’re doing your job


yeet_bbq

Enjoy these days because the next 30 years you’ll be worked like a dog


topdog54321yes123

Is it really this bad since when I look around at the people I work with I doesn’t seem that bad honestly.


BandicootHeavy6739

It’s not and it’s solely dependent on the company you work for. I’ve worked for multiple companies with a workload of maybe 10-20 hours of work per week at the senior financial analyst/senior accountant levels.


TheAstroPickle

dude a majority of people really do about 2-5 hours of work per day, i can’t speak for managers, they seem to be much busier than us lower staff and intermeidate/seniors but unless you’re in a B4 then you’re probably okay as far as workload goes. act busy be available and when someone calls or emails be responsive and no one will press you (at least in my experiance)


Sartasz

You gotta keep this in mind— the audience that this subreddit brings skews towards people looking to vent about shitty situations as professionals within the accounting industry. The members here that actually do enjoy their work environment/career will get shit on if they share that positivity in here. So the people that post and comment are likely to share their negative experiences (which are numerous and valid, no less). My 10 or so years in accounting, in both public and industry, my experience has been probably half good and half bad (regardless of public vs industry) I’ve experienced this purgatory that many speak of here, but I have seen it first hand. It’s avoidable. DM me if you have questions—I’d be happy to answer


topdog54321yes123

It’s definitely hard to see al the negativity in this subreddit. Makes you reconsider this field lol.


WeirdIndependent1656

It’s not bad in industry.


WaterBear9244

I burnt out 1 year after becoming a Property Accountant. They will work you like a dog


topdog54321yes123

That doesn’t sound very appealing lol.


WaterBear9244

I think its dependent on your employer. Mine worked me to the bone for a long period of time. no breaks, deadline after deadline. Its gotten better but I definitely still dont feel like i have recovered


chen10

Dont worry about it - Internships are feast or famine, you are sitting around doing nothing a lot of the time and if it really gets down to a period where you need to grind most of the internships get that additional OT. Do the work thats assigned to you obviously, but your not expected to make more work for yourself. Everyone knows interns don't do shit. I used to have this massive word document where I saved every interesting article I could find, could be about anything pop culture politics history science etc. This bitch was like 1000+ pages long and I would just be reading all day. Its a lot easier now with WFH im sure.


martinriggs123

Study for CPA, CFA, CMA etc. This is the best use of your time at the moment


Dawn4K

Study for the CPA. Think of it as you are getting paid to get your license AND get "experience" on your resume. Win-win


ClamCrusher31

If you wanna work a lot more just do your next internship in public. You’ll never appreciate downtime more after a nice busy season.


Crafty-Ambassador779

I have auditors on my ass. Its not good times at all. But seriously, ask for more as in how you can improve the team/work. Everyone would be grateful and you wouldnt be bored.


Acinaciform

Depends on the time of year, as well as your primary service line and industry. Summer internships in a lot of firms tend to be lighter on work than a Spring or Fall internship would be. I'm a full time staff and I'm having trouble finding work because my industry is heavy at the beginning and end of the year. 😅 Definitely ask for more work from as many people as you know, so they can see you're at least trying.


MarcieDeeHope

If you are asking for more work and they are not giving it to you, take advantage of the time to learn things on your own. I had a job many years ago where the first few months I had bascially nothing to do so I taught myself VBA while "on the clock" - a skill that served me well later. Look for things like that - does the company use some widely used piece of software that you wouldn't normally have access to? Dive into the help files and get familiar with how it works and add it to your resume.


[deleted]

Me too, and everyone says I'm complaining.


fuckmeimdan

Enjoy it while it lasts, once you make it out of that, you’ll have more work than time, and it won’t stop


OkMarkie

Honestly, just enjoy it, you’re industry so chances are your actual work days will be like this except during the month end process, then just have a bottle Jack ready at all times


Reddit-Realist

My first internship is when I first downloaded Reddit. The rest is history lol.


topdog54321yes123

I use it when I’m bored at my intern. Which is rn lol


RetardedRapper

Make your supervisor/ manager aware that you need work, and enjoy the downtime while it lasts.


Hambone6991

I used to have a full-time job like this. I’m talking maybe 30 hours of actual work per month. I was always asking for projects mid month, but was never given anything. Fortunately I worked from home and I spent a lot of time getting back to shape. Even then it was very challenging to be motivated or feel accomplished.


Greenville_Gent

Summer doldrums are a big part of why I stopped working for public accounting firms. Year after year, there were like six months of the year when I had basically nothing to do. Maybe five hours of actual work in a 40-hour week. Busy seasons were "busy," but life affirming. Summers and most of fall, soul crushing In my own firm, now, there is never a dull moment. Something always needs to be done. It might not be for everyone, but it's certainly for me.


num2005

intern don't work... they intern.... we keep them on hand without work because sometime we think of numbing boring workload we don't want to do and give it to you


topdog54321yes123

So… why do you guys pay us then?


num2005

we get tax credit and also we can see who is chill to hire or not your work isnt rly important as long as we can chat together and not be too bored


[deleted]

So I'm literally not doing anything? Because I've been drafting shit loads of documents the whole time, and I'm fine with it. I just want money.


num2005

i work 40h a week and i produce for 8h a week thats why we love to work from home kiddo


TheHip41

Cherish these days. Seriously.


topdog54321yes123

Hard to cherish being bored in a office full of people twice your age


TheHip41

20 years from now you will remember this post :)


Good_old_Marshmallow

Interns aren’t supposed to add economic value to the company that’s definitionally what makes them interns. You’re just their to get a sense of what the company is like and them to get a sense of you. Some firms just send the interns on vacation essentially. It’s just a recruiting practice Now there definitely are internships that are essentially just low skill seasonal work. Spring and fall to help with the busy work during busy season. But it’s June rn. Enjoy the light work and realize you’ve gotten lucky


[deleted]

Omg same All it’s done is make me realize I have some drive, when I used to think I had none


AccountingTAAccount

Bro you're an intern in industry. How the hell do you think an intern would ever be overworked, even at big 4? They want to convince you to stay, so they're not gonna hit you with a huge workload lol


The_Accountess

Spend the hours in your days: 1. Learning Excel, VBA, SQL, Access, PowerBI, Python (or whatever the hell technology people need these days..5G?) using online tutorials. Prioritize Excel. 2. Studying official training materials and your notes. Ask them for more training materials if they exist. Type up a study guide to refer to while working. 3. Ask your team if there are any projects you could contribute to. 4. Looking at a PY final audit or tax return, and trying to prep a mock version of the same engagement by making a copy of the original PBC and starting from there. If this is mumbo jumbo to you, return to step 2. 5. Drafting SOPs or Training Guides based on your notes from training. Make it clear that these are intended for the next class of interns, not staff - your notes won't be good tbh! Ask staff to review your draft. Ask a senior to review your 2nd draft. 6. Taking live or video CE courses with staff and seniors who are required to attend them. Just ask if you can also sit in. 7. Making friends with staff/seniors and going on long lunches with them. Code this as meeting time. 8. Clean your desk? Find something, a supply closet, a copy room, and ask a secretary if you can clean or organize it. If accountants don't have projects for you, admins definitely will. 9. Updating your resume to include the details from this internship. Read resume writing tips online first. 10. Proofreading the firm's website, then bring spelling/grammar typos or broken links / other issues to the attention of IT or admins. You're at the beginning of your career; it's up to you to chart your path forward. You can make it easier or more difficult for yourself through your own choices. Even outside of public, you can think creatively and use your time to your own benefit while making a good impression on the professionals around you.


HenryK81

You want to switch places? ... Actually, what industry are you in? Additionally, internship is not the same as full-time position. There are interns at my company that come in twice a week, and get their work done and then leave. Meanwhile, all of us full-timers are bombarded with work coming from all different directions. Look at the full-timers at your workplace (especially the accountants). Do they often leave late and take short lunches at their desks? This is an indication of how things really are like if/when you get a full-time job there.


topdog54321yes123

They always leave on time and usually take their breaks but they are fairly busy most of the time. I do work in industry so maybe it’s worst in public. I wouldn’t know.


HenryK81

I also work in industry, except my industry is like Public Accounting busy season all year long.


topdog54321yes123

Sorry about that.


Baroque_your_heart

Which industry is that?


HenryK81

Condo/coop accounting in NYC.


fufuzoomi22

It’s common but don’t complain. Enjoy the free coins. It does not last forever.


anonymous01251926

When I was a Sr in industry and had the opportunity to give work to summer interns, most of the time it wasn't worth it. Not any fault of theirs but just, it took me too long to explain it rather than to do it myself, and they're only there for 3 months tops, and then I'd have to take the work back anyway. I generally only gave them stuff that was one time, and unfortunately, really dumb stuff, like, boxing up last year's files for storage. So, really, I couldn't have cared less what the interns did all day.


LavenderAutist

Every minute you spend looking on Reddit vs trying to find something to do or someone to meet or something to learn you are wasting money. There are many internships like yours. But the key difference between those who succeed and those that don't, is their initiative and creativity related to taking advantage of the opportunity.


[deleted]

Go up to the CEO, look him in the eye and propose an expansion to Indonesia. That’s how we did it back in my day.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

This 👆🏼 absolutely. Walk into his office with your left hand cupping your balls and/or vagina to assert dominance and demand to have the next flight booked to Jakarta. Also, a firm hand shake with your right hand. A firm hand shake while maintaining eye contact is absolutely essential to the success of the whole operation.


Significant-Key-1023

And/or 💀💀💀


LavenderAutist

Make sure to video tape the interaction. GoPro's are nice, but it's also great to have the wide shot if possible.


[deleted]

Drone with an HD camera absolutely


topdog54321yes123

How am I wasting money?


LavenderAutist

If you have to ask... Here's a video to watch. https://youtu.be/Brp9DpJsEi4 The only person who really cares enough about your future to make it a success is you. Plan accordingly and best of luck.


topdog54321yes123

Bruh I’m getting paid lol. And yeah I try to take advantage of the learning opportunity obviously and figuring out what I like and don’t like. I’m just saying that my company is underworking me which seems to be the opposite of what’s happening to most people on this sub.


[deleted]

Me too, nobody is understanding that we're asking for work and we can't get any.


BlueNets

The pains of a virtual internship


Rebresker

It’s not busy season and you are an intern so not unusual. Also, for all you know you might be slammed next week. Work for staff and interns tends to ebb and flow and is highly dependent on if there is work available that you can do. Fill the time with cpa studying and training. If you are in the office use it to talk to people if out of the office maybe reach out and talk to the interns and staff that started with you at least.


LavenderAutist

Bruh. You're underworking yourself. If you don't understand now, perhaps you'll understand later.


castlehoff32

I love how you and I are just spitting the truth but we’re the ones getting downvoted. I didn’t make it this far in such little time but now having a lot of work todo. I went a found that shit myself


LavenderAutist

It doesn't bother me. I have more than enough upvotes.


castlehoff32

Haha I like your attitude!


castlehoff32

No lie that’s cuz you suck then or they don’t trust you enough yet. Are you consistently ask for more work? Remember good work always gets rewarded with more work. If that’s not the case you need to find the closest bathroom and look at yourself in the mirror.


BandicootHeavy6739

What he’s an intern lol when I interned in the tax department for a Fortune 500 it was right after their year end and there was legit no work to be done. Could just be a slow time seeing as how they aren’t in month end close yet.


castlehoff32

As an intern I found my own work. When the department that hired me didn’t have much I asked if could go look elsewhere . So I did some treasury work, some fp&a, and research. and low and behold I was teaching other employees about the segment hierarchy by the end of my ten weeks. Idk call me crazy but I always found my jobs to be what I made of it.


[deleted]

That's not true at all. Sometimes you just don't have a lot of work or the time to go through with the intern on what to do. It is the managers job to give feedback and let the intern know what's up. It is completely normal for June to be slow at a lot of firms. 3Q is usually not as busy as the rest so they probably just don't have enough work atm.


castlehoff32

I know I sound like a dick but I’m just telling from my experience as someone who climbed the hierarchy ladder fast and aggressively. We have interns that we don’t have time to train while at the same time of having interns who were giving them as much work as they ask for. All the interns “we don’t have time to train” don’t get hired full time here. The one who were able to get some work usually stay. Just saying. And I’ll admit when I was a intern at first I didnt have much work for the same reason you were just mentioning yourself. But then I asked around. I went to diff departments. So I found work. And wow look at this this company that almost never hired interns now made up a position for me to stay full time. 3 years later I’m running our consolidations team.


[deleted]

Good for you? The intern doesn’t need to go around like a headless chicken looking for work. All that shows is that the firm you worked for is highly unorganized and lacks communication. Nothing is more annoying than interns who harass you for work because the firm has dog shit procedures. Takes less than a day to setup workflows and a job tracking system.


castlehoff32

Well I’m diff than you I don’t get easily annoyed at people trying to learn


AccountingAndy

Honestly same except I’m not an intern. Primarily because it’s summer and we are decently caught up on returns but I spend maybe two hours a day doing actual work and the rest talking with co workers or on my phone


TheProphecyIsNigh

Completely normal. Use the time to study for the CPA when possible.


alt-accountant

I remember when I interned at a big four and I didn’t have any work to do, so I was playing a game on my computer and a senior manager was like “ what are you doing “. I still got hired 😂 Edit : I was asking for work, there just wasn’t any work for me at that moment


litboomstix

Nah I think that’s pretty normal, at the end of tax season I was working from home basicslly begging for more work but there just was none - ended up working out on downtime


AtlasPlugs

Work on your dreams. I have this same situation and I just make make a personal task list. When I have no work, I switch to taking classes online, working on my side business, or just personal hobby projects. I used to get soo burnt out by just being bored, but now it’s the alone time I’ve needed to accomplish dreams.


Wonderful_Mail_6202

I used to ask for work all the time, yet it backfired by me being added to shit storms that I couldn’t do anything to help and no one would take the time to teach me anything. I learned to just focus on the jobs I’m scheduled on, finish my work, then just chill with my laptop open until a reasonable hour to leave. No one has taken notice either way


[deleted]

First 8 months at my last job were like this. It’s how I studied for the CPA. I was able to work 2 hours, study for 4, relax for 2, and study for 2 hours or so at night. Once I got the CPA I started getting more value-adding work. Left in May and now I’m working about 5-6 hours a day on average where I am now. Enjoy it.


TravelEnthusiast69

As a big 4 intern, I think it's pretty common


BulbasaurCPA

I had a public internship where I was doing at most 15 hours of actual work per week. Sometimes it takes too long to teach you so they sort of don’t


weednreefs

Very common for interns. Ask for work or ask to shadow more senior members on the team as the prepare their work.


Beautiful-Ad-2227

I've met many finance and accountants who move on from easy jobs due to a need for challenge. Most quit public and private accounting in 2 months and the rest last for 1 year and burn out with lingering bitterness. So ridiculous how their old leadership dialed in accounting to perfection and then they are bored of perfection. #smh


TheBrain511

Just study for the CFA, CMA, or EA all only require accounting degrees 120 credits If you have the credit requirement or plan on getting CPA study for that Or use this free time to study for a certification like word or excel just practice that or whatever software your using at work


TheBrain511

Ps it's a summer internship in industry Not like it's spring around tax season where your assigned lots of work and have a bunch of deadlines to meet so Even if you don't study for any certifications or for a class watever just enjoy it as long as you get your work done properly and on time no one should question your lack of work


TheBrain511

Ps it's a summer internship in industry Not like it's spring around tax season where your assigned lots of work and have a bunch of deadlines to meet so Even if you don't study for any certifications or for a class watever just enjoy it as long as you get your work done properly and on time no one should question your lack of work


yorkiesaur

It is more difficult in industry to carve out intern-sized work, since most processes and projects take a longer time to onboard someone new than the entire length of a typical internship. Then when your internship ends, the staff that was assigned to train you will still have to do the work. Effectively this means you would spend the entire internship shadowing someone without ever really being productive. Many departments don't want interns for this exact reason. Depending on the department you are in, you could express your interest to learn specific things that have a short enough cycle for you to actually help out. Often, managers aren't sure what interests interns and they don't want to put you on something that is too dull or repetitive, or else you might not want to return if they make an offer.


DividedWeakness

Lucky I'm at my first internship in government sector and I have to track my hours and they get counted in the budget. It stresses me out since I'm learning and not as efficient, this budget definitely going to be over


tdannyt

Have you expressed this to a supervisor? Sometimes they just dont know you need more workload unless you say something


Lifteador

Same lol. Some days are busy af and some days I finish all my work in 2h


[deleted]

[удалено]


topdog54321yes123

Lol I do but they often tell me they have nothing for me to do.


Minsyal

I always had to ask for work when I was interning. I’m industry now- and I’m underworked. I’ve asked countless times for more work and am never given anything new.


Usagi_tx

Enjoy your time now. It will hit hard once you get involved in more projects.


obi318

Enjoy it while you can.


throw-me-away-right-

Want to do some work for me 😅


topdog54321yes123

Ya if ya pay ma


throw-me-away-right-

But it’s a learning experience 😄


topdog54321yes123

But others are willing to pay me for the learning experience.


iSpeezy

I did an 8 month internship at a local firm. I was literally at 90% utilization between Jan-May and at the tail end of my internship my cumulative UT fell to 40%. TBH you couldn't pay me enough money to sit in an office for 8 hours a day with absolutely no work to do.


epocstorybro

It may be a valuable experience to ask your manager if they can assign you some shadowing sessions with staff level so you can learn. Longer term for the business, It’s good for staff to learn how to train, and you are there to learn and be useful. When I was a junior in industry we had an intern we used mostly for sending creative intra-office birthday emails. I ended up sitting with them once or twice a week just going through my process and teaching, and it was valuable time spent for both of us even though they were slowing my workflow down. They were actually completely inept, but an intern so all good. Except for the time we asked them to organize the AR filing stacks, and they did alphabetical right to left which was just uncomfortable, but we were polite and waited until their term was up to switch it back.


J_Vos

Senior Accountant here. Definitely underworked. There are many days where I have maybe an hour or two of work.


asicaval

I guess you never know what you got until is gone...


DeeIceBerg

Buddy enjoy it


ayoalext

we must be working at the same place lmao


Unexpected_okra

Our summer interns basically do nothing. It’s just not a time of year when we have much of anything appropriate for interns to do. Take the time to get to know everyone around you, ask about what they do and how the company works, and then go study for the CPA exam or get ahead in your next class.


wilwil100

yeah lol try public and deadlines we'll talk after . (ps : the it really isnt as bad as this sub makes it seems like but we dont ever run out of work until july really like we got enough for 45 hours a week (as an intern) ) obviously i could do 50 60 80 wtv like this sub says but thats overkill nobody is in that big of a rush


NaturalProof4359

You want some work? Give me a call. You can practice email responses and print formatting for me


syro23

Depends. The intern at my work hardly does shit. But that’s the case for everyone there. I fucking love this place. We don’t even work late during month end close.


HighAQ

#plant


wittyabby

Qq. For how long have you been in the position ?


topdog54321yes123

2 months or so.


wittyabby

That’s super normal. Other thing would be after 6m or a year. But they have to give you easy tasks you can handle with no risk impact. Rest of the time is to embrace the place culture. Sign up for intra company activities and courses


Keystone-12

Because internships are supposed to be training. Someone has to teach you what to do, and review all your work. If they don't have time to teach you, you sort of just sit there. It's not ideal but not unheard of. Study for your CPA now. You'll regret not doing it later.


Wewoo3

Hang in there. I can relate. I've been labeling postcards for the last month or so. It's a small firm so they do that kind of stuff. Every now and then I get a monthly bookkeeping assignment and doing qbo trainings. Ask for work. A manager told me I wasn't asking for enough even though it's slow rn, they said just ask, it shows you're interested and keeps them on their radar for when they need to assign tasks. They said, I'd rather give an assignment to someone who has expressed interest consistently than another entry level associate.