Interns are Expected to Make Mistakes

Norma discusses how much she enjoys her internship at CBIZ, and learns the value of Excel hotkeys, while Becky tells us about her amazing trip to Italy!

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Season 2

Creators & Guests

Host

becky steiger

Host

Norma Steiger

Producer

David Leary

JC

Editor

Joel Collier

What is Accounting Twins Podcast?

To CPA or NOT to CPA? Public vs Private?
What if you could run an experiment?
Take twins, with identical DNA, life experiences, education, GPAs, majors, internships, and careers as accountants. Then have twin A go private and have twin B become a CPA and go public.
Follow Becky Steiger and Norma Steiger on their separate journeys in the private and public accounting worlds! Together they will compare and contrast their experiences and goals in the accounting profession.

[00:13] Becky: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to our second episode of the second season of Accounting Twins podcast. That was a long, awkward pause.

[00:23] Norma: Okay, well, I'm just a little slow and behind because I was so tired today. So there's my excuse.

[00:29] Becky: Me too. I'm still jet lagged.

[00:32] Norma: Yeah. And I worked for 9 hours, so there's my excuse.

[00:37] Becky: We are not the same person.

[00:40] Norma: Since our last episode recording, a lot has gone on. Becky went to Italy. I've been working. Yeah. I'm also very jealous. I also haven't really heard a lot about Becky's trip because I've been so busy with work and with the time difference, I have barely heard back. Because she got back Sunday.

[00:59] Becky: No, I got back Saturday.

[01:01] Norma: Wow. My days are really all I thought the entire day was Wednesday. My senior Jeff and I, every day we have a bad day. We're like, oh, it's a Tuesday. That makes sense. Oh, it's a Wednesday. And I was, like, messaging him today. I was about to say, sorry that everything's going so wrong today. It's a Wednesday. It's freaking Tuesday. Do you know how bad that is? So anyways, in this second episode of the second season of the Accounting Twins podcast, we have a wide variety of different things to talk about. Becky is going to talk again about how freaking lucky she is to be going on vacations and having fun where I'm working, but I'm actually enjoying my job a little more expected. Actually a lot more than expected.

[01:43] Becky: She loves loving it. She's loving it.

[01:46] Norma: So you're going to hear all about that. Whereas I'm so sad that I am not going on vacation with Becky. I'm actually glad that I'm working.

[01:54] Becky: Yeah, well, you should see my bank account right now.

[01:58] Norma: That's true. So I'm going to be talking about the fun things I've been doing with CBA's, how I'm learning through the internship, things that I wish I had learned in college before the internship, and just, honestly, a lot of stop up stuff just about the internship and how great it is. And that's what we're talking about.

[02:15] Becky: Italy.

[02:15] Norma: Of course.

[02:16] Becky: I was going to say I'll do a quick run through of Italy because I ate more food and we went places. So we flew in and we had about a 24 hours day of traveling, including waking up and getting to the airport and getting through customs.

[02:32] Norma: So we did that.

[02:33] Becky: And then we landed in Milan. We got some sandwiches, the best food ever. We were there for two days. We went and saw the Last Supper. I have to say, I did not.

[02:43] Norma: Know it was a restaurant, which is.

[02:45] Becky: Probably going to sound like the stupidest thing ever. I didn't know it was literally the size of an entire wall. I thought it was a painting, like the Mona Lisa. And then we went to Verona, and my friend Sarah and I got her friend Aaron, and we went to what's it called Juliet's Tower from Romeo and Juliet. No. Super fun stuff. Oh, and then we went to Lake Garda for dinner on the second night. No. Yeah, we went to Lake Garda. So much fun. I have so many photos to show you. It's insane.

[03:11] Norma: The photos that she would send our family of the food made me so jealous because of the time difference. If it was, like, dinner or something, she was, like, texting me at work, and I would just be looking at it, and I'd be like, well, ****, here I am.

[03:28] Becky: I've never had better food in my life. And then we went to Venice. And Venice is probably one of my favorite quality time places, but we didn't do as much sightseeing. And we loved Venice, but it wasn't as pretty. It was pretty. I don't even know what I'm saying. It was my favorite place, quality time wise, but not for location. And then we went to Florence, and everything was so fabulous.

[03:52] Norma: This trip just perfect.

[03:54] Becky: And then on the way home, our flight from Atlanta to Arizona got canceled, so we had to stay a night in the hotel and gosh. I honestly started crying in the airport because I just wanted to get home and been ten days. I missed my mom and dad. I just wouldn't get home. That's my trip. Norma, I bought you a gift. Yeah.

[04:11] Norma: Ask me how sad it was, because Becky's flight got canceled, and she was supposed to spend the night with me here in Phoenix so I could see her for the first time in a month. Oh, my gosh. I was so upset. Sadness. But I can't wait for my present.

[04:23] Becky: Lol.

[04:25] Norma: Sorry. I don't know why I said lol. I was just going to say the.

[04:29] Becky: Fact that you just said lol as you were laughing. You were like, lol squared. So, Norman, tell me about your internship.

[04:39] Norma: I feel like I don't know what's going on.

[04:40] Becky: I know you love your senior. I know you love your other interns, but give me the rundown, bro.

[04:46] Norma: This internship has been so fun. We've done a lot of fun things. So we've had lunches with some of the partners, which is really nice, but I do think I had a really funny moment. But also, I dug myself my own grave, because I was talking to one of the partners, and I was telling him how I applied for a different internship with a different company, and I just ended up not taking it, because, one, it wasn't for a company that I really enjoyed being with. And also, the pay was horrible. Like, a 20% decrease from my last one. I was like, Well, I would rather just babysit for less money, but I enjoyed the job more. And he made a comment. I was like, oh, no, Norma, why did I say that I enjoy accounting? I just didn't enjoy that firm and the money. I was like, oh, shoot, there she goes.

[05:29] Becky: Well, they love you and you love your job.

[05:32] Norma: Yeah, but it was so it's so fun. So besides the lunches, we went to happy hour last Friday, which I enjoyed a lot because it was like the interns partners, seniors, managers, associates, like everyone in the office who wanted to go, which I enjoyed a lot because the interns in us, we've all hung out outside of the internship, but going to experience your coworkers outside of work was a lot of fun. And I really enjoyed getting to meet a lot of people better. And it was like a very casual setting. Like, we're all just getting casual drinks and talking and I don't know, I just enjoyed it because it's nice that I work with people who I don't mind being around with after work. Like, I could have gone home and hung out with my sister or friend, but I wanted to hang out with co workers, which is cool.

[06:15] Becky: Don't forget, you could have come out with Boomer.

[06:17] Norma: Oh, yeah. Boomer is the dog. Anyways, the one thing that I really had so much fun doing, it was, I think, our second week of the internship. We went to this place called Brush bar, which was basically like a paint and sip class where they teach you how to paint while you're having a glass of wine. And we had some pizza. And that was just a lot of fun because you got to do a lot of fun things with the fellow interns. My painting was beautiful, becky, you need to go see it at home. I gave it to dad as a father's day present. Are you serious? I mean, I'm going to take it back, but I came home with it because I didn't want it to stay here. And she was like, is that my Father's day present? I was like, I mean, we already got you one. Sure.

[06:57] Becky: Oh, gosh, I didn't know that. Okay, I'm not going to lie. You're not the best artist.

[07:03] Norma: Yet. Hold on. So one day that I've really learned about this internship, like, yes, I'm supposed to be learning, but it's not in the sense of learning. Like, okay, I'm going to take notes on how to do stuff. I mean, it is, but it's learning by doing so many freaking mistakes. Because in my opinion, a lot of auditing is just there are certain ways to do things, but you cannot learn how to do them unless you make a ridiculous amount of mistakes. Because no engagement is the same in finding different work papers or different information from the workspacers. It's also different. So the only way you can learn is by making mistakes. And yes, you'll keep making mistakes as you go, but you will just make less mistakes because you now know what not to do going forward.

[07:48] Becky: That's something really important is making mistakes. Like partners even make mistakes. Interns should never feel bad for making mistakes because literally everybody does. But I think interns feel the weight of it more because they think that they need to be perfectionist to appeal to the company.

[08:04] Norma: Yeah, that's been like stressing me out a lot because I'm not going live and making a lot of dumb mistakes and my senior is amazing and doesn't make me feel stupid about them and helps me, but I'm like, ****, this isn't going to look good to the people who are evaluating me for when I have my exit interview. But then I'm looking because on the software that we use, you can make note of stuff that needs to be finished or issues and stuff like that. And I'm looking like, okay, I have issues on mine, but then, okay, there's issues on stuff other people and the engagement are working and it just makes me feel better. Okay, it's okay to make mistakes. Everyone else is making it. So one thing that I would say for interns who are going to be starting an internship soon or in the future when they have their internships, you are going to make mistakes. Everyone does. I've made a dumb amount of mistakes, but that doesn't mean you're stupid. It quite literally means you're learning. And I think that's just been a little hard for me to get a grasp on. As you know, Becky and I are 4.0 students, so we make mistakes when studying, but we don't make mistakes when we take exams or give presentations. So it's really hard making mistakes on stuff that's trying to be a finished product right now.

[09:11] Becky: I do agree. But however, I am not a 4.0 student. I was a 4.0 student. I am now a college graduate. So take that back. I am never going back to college. I'll probably bite my words later in life.

[09:23] Norma: But also the one thing that I think my biggest mistake is. And it's quite literally just me and I'm going to have to get used to it. It's just paying attention to detail because sometimes if I'm working on a work paper and I'm just getting a little frustrated because it's taking a little longer or I just hate the website I'm having to use or something. I just want to get that **** over with so I just don't look over it. And then I get a message and it's just like where I look at the issue, it's like, go back and redo this or look at this tiny mistake you made. And I'm like, shoot, here we go again.

[09:57] Becky: That reminds me of english and accounting are very different subjects. But I'm not even kidding you, I did not write rough drafts for any single one of my college essays. Like I literally wrote it, read it over and I was like, sounds perfect. And when it was time to submit.

[10:11] Norma: The final draft, I just submitted the rough draft with grammar edits.

[10:14] Becky: Don't do that in accounting. As norma has clearly shown you. Go back, look over your work, make sure it's perfect, give it a little chef's kiss, and then submit it.

[10:23] Norma: Yeah. I need to pay attention to detail at work. I need to pay attention to detail at life, because if all of you could see my text that I sent to my friends, half of them are quite illegible because I'm just typing so fast and my thumbs get in the way. So just words mix, or my thoughts don't fit well into words. It's all over the place. I'm so sorry for all of my friends who have to read my text messages. So I wish I paid more attention to detail. And if I can pay more attention to detail within my life, like within my text messages to people, then I can pay more attention to detail and work. So I got to work on this **** outside of work so I can be successful in work.

[11:04] Becky: I wish you guys could see me right now, because the Norma goes, I need to pay attention to my text messages. Blah, blah, blah. You know, that emoji. And it's like, mind blown. Like, that was me because I was like, Norma. I was going to say the exact thing. Norma is the most not illiterate.

[11:19] Norma: Illegible.

[11:20] Becky: No, she does not know how to.

[11:21] Norma: Type for the life of her.

[11:22] Becky: Like, even auto correct has now started correcting her words wrong because she typed them wrong so many times. Autocorrect also always corrects my name to Becky and all caps, and I don't know why.

[11:32] Norma: Oh, my gosh. I also need to get better at my spelling. I was doing a work paper, and I had to spell census. I thought it was C-E-N-C-U-S. Jefferson looks at me, he's like, that's not how you spell senses. I was like, Are you sure? I'm like, that looks pretty, right. No, it's C-E-N-S-U-S-I was like, oh, ****. Maybe you should take a few English.

[11:56] Becky: Classes when you're going back for your masters.

[11:58] Norma: It's like, I know how to spell hard word sometimes. I know how to spell disbursement. I feel like disbursement is a hard word, but census like, what the heck? No, ma.

[12:07] Becky: You know what word I don't know how to spell, and I never will. Definitely. I definitely do not know how to spell definitely.

[12:16] Norma: So as we all know, this episode is a lot about what I've learned through my internship. Well, there's two things. One, college needs better Excel classes, too. I'm not a morning person until I've had my coffee. We're going to start with the Excel classes. Becky, wouldn't you agree the excel classes in college were kind of ****?

[12:36] Becky: Honestly?

[12:37] Norma: Yeah.

[12:38] Becky: They really don't teach you how to do stuff and what it means. They go, oh, here's VLOOKUP, and here's how you do it for this specific problem. But they never tell you what each things mean. You know what I mean? It goes like blank, comma, blank, comma, blank. You don't know one is column, one is row, one is specific sale, like that type of stuff. They just tell you how to do it for a specific problem, but they don't tell you where the data is coming from and what each thing before the comma means.

[13:04] Norma: Yes, and one of the main things that I wish that colleges had told you was how to use your keyboard instead of a mouse. I didn't know up until two weeks ago that you could use the Alt button when you're in Excel, like Alt to h to go to the home page or a different button to go somewhere else. I now know how to work Excel just using my keyboard, but they didn't teach us that in school, which sucked, because using your mouse makes it so much longer, like, it's a half a second or one more task, and it adds up over time. Yes, it takes a little longer to learn how to use your keyboard, but in the end, it saves you so much time. So, Becky, I'm better than you because I know how to use Excel better.

[13:45] Becky: Hey, I'm better than you in a lot of other ways. I know how to spell.

[13:50] Norma: And you're going to be starting your job soon, so you'll probably learn how to use Excel better then.

[13:55] Becky: And I'm making more money than you because you're going to be an in school student, debt or person, and I'm going to be making money, so I don't want to hear it.

[14:03] Norma: In school, debtor, person.

[14:06] Becky: Yeah, I know. Maybe I'm illiterate or illegible or just stupid, too.

[14:11] Norma: So I really just wish that they were, like, better Excel classes because, yes, it's very important to know how to do formulas, but knowing just how to go through Excel is so important. We had an Excel training for the interns and the new associates. I learned so much more in that 1 hour and 45 minutes meeting than I did in all of undergrad with Excel. It's kind of ridiculous.

[14:35] Becky: I love the difference between our schedules because you're like, for 1 hour and 45 minutes, I learned to Excel, and for me, I'm like, for 1 hour and 45 minutes, the kids and I went to the trampoline park and jumped. And then for 2 hours and 30 minutes, we lolly gabbed around and played silly games, and then for 30 minutes, we read. We're just complete opposites right here.

[14:55] Norma: Yeah. And you don't have to track your time. I have to track everything to the quarter hour of what I'm doing so I can charge clients.

[15:02] Becky: Retract your statement. I do track it because I'm the one who gives my hours every week, and I do it very precisely.

[15:09] Norma: Yeah, but you just say, okay, I worked nine to five. I have to say, I worked nine to 905 on this job. I work 905 to this on this job. Like, all this? Yeah.

[15:19] Becky: Because of different clients?

[15:20] Norma: Well, yeah.

[15:22] Becky: No, I just work for one person every day and my three children.

[15:27] Norma: Yeah. I also learned I'm not a morning person until I've had my coffee. But I read somewhere that it's not good to have coffee as soon as you wake up. Like, you should have it between eight or nine or afterwards, because by that time, your body has produced enough caffeine to the point where if you drink coffee before that, your body just won't produce any caffeine in your system. So you're going to be tired for the first hour or two a day, depending on when I get to work. I just don't want to talk to people and I'm just like doing my work tired, and then once the coffee hits, it hits. It doesn't well, but before that, it's not ready.

[16:01] Becky: I would like to take a sidetrack note about coffee. So when I was in Italy, obviously they love their pasta and their coffee. They don't do sweet coffee at all. Like, they literally just do espressos or Americano or cappuccinos, and I want sugar.

[16:15] Norma: With a side of coffee.

[16:16] Becky: And you can't order, like, an iced coffee or like, a milky latte there. It was so painful because I was so tired some days, but I refused to take an espresso shot, and that was just terrible.

[16:27] Norma: So on the last day, I found.

[16:28] Becky: A tiny little Starbucks in the store.

[16:30] Norma: And they had, like, the to go.

[16:31] Becky: Things of like, a tiny caramel macchiato to go. And so I chugged that thing. I was like, finally, sugary sweet coffee.

[16:39] Norma: Wait, you're telling me you didn't drink coffee while you were in Italy? Are you dumb?

[16:44] Becky: I did drink coffee, but it was, like, really hard because I have the biggest sweet tooth ever. And it was bitter because it was just straight coffee and it didn't have any sugar. And I love sugar, obviously, so it was really hard. So sometimes if there was a Red Bull, I would buy a Red Bull.

[17:00] Norma: And I know it's like, sad, like.

[17:01] Becky: I didn't get to experience the culture, but I tried. I tried for the first three days to have straight black coffee and it didn't work.

[17:10] Norma: Well, okay, so you mentioned culture. I know this is literally not even related. I want to talk about why company culture matters because as you all know, I cannot stop raving.

[17:21] Becky: Sorry, I just thought that was the funniest take onto it. You're like, Italy culture, company culture, let's talk about it. And I was like, perfect.

[17:29] Norma: Oh, my gosh, that reminds me. I was talking to my coworkers the other day and they looked and I was just like, I think I had a little too much caffeine. I was bouncing off the walls and they looked at me and they're like, I would love to know what goes on inside your brain. I'm like, I think that would be great for you because I go from point A to B and you don't see it, but in my brain I go, ABCD, but you just need to see this. I know it's funny, but anyways, I think company culture matters within a company, just like it makes or break if you want to work. Yes, there have been some days where I've been so freaking frustrated with work because I'm making the dumbest mistakes. But also sometimes the information given to us by the client just makes absolutely no sense. And my senior and I are just like, I don't know what the heck to do with this information, but it's the fact that I can work with people who inadvertently they don't even know I'm frustrated. They can just make me in a better mood. That's absolutely so great because there are some days I'm just like, dear God, I just want to be done with this and go home, but I'm hanging out with them outside of work or they're just like having fun with me. So it's really nice. But it's also nice because the culture is so open to where I'm asking my senior so many freaking questions in a day where I don't feel bad about it. Like, on Friday, it was literally 04:00. We have to leave at 430. I came up with him to him with five questions within like 20 minutes, and he ran out of his seat to get away from me because he didn't want to answer my questions. But it was funny and I didn't take offense for that, where I know sometimes I can get intimidated and not want to ask questions, but it's so open there. So especially in a job like auditing where you're going to get overworked, especially during busy season, it's so important to have a company that you want to work at. And that's why I'm also very jealous of Becky, too, because I know she's going to love where she's going to be working at in a few weeks.

[19:15] Becky: I'm so excited because I'm working with two of my friends. One of them is not in the same department as me, but we went to Italy together. And then another one of my friends, we were friends in college and so it's going to be so much fun.

[19:28] Norma: I'm just really jealous of Becky and the fact that she gets to work with people that she went to school with and that she's friends with. But yes, I'm also having such a great time, like meeting a lot of new interns and having a lot of fun. And I just really love this job. I'm not even joking. It's kind of ridiculous how much I love it. I love the people, I love the culture, but I really am able to be myself. I have a lot of taglines every once in a while in my life, and at this point it's saying snazzy or snazbald and my senior looks at me and he just makes comments on how funny that is. And I think it's just enjoyable that I'm able to work alongside a company where I feel like this because I don't know about Rebecca, but at my last one, I just felt I wasn't able to be myself and have a lot of comments or just truly be myself at our last internship. So I'm really enjoying this one.

[20:13] Becky: So you're talking about a lot of company culture, and you love your seniors. So is your senior specific to you? Are there other interns working under him and the same client, or is it just you or do you work with multiple seniors?

[20:24] Norma: So the interns, I think we all have been assigned to one senior or one manager to do their work. But there's a few interns, I think two of them, they are working on the same assignment, but otherwise it's pretty much one intern to one senior. So I've been working with my same senior for this entire internship, which has been so nice. I cannot stop raving about Jeff because he teaches so well and I feel so comfortable with him, and I feel like I've learned a lot and he really has made this experience amazing. But sometimes there's lags in the engagement, like we're waiting for support documents or their stuff that's just out of our scope that we can do. So we ask around to the other seniors or associates on stuff we can help them with. But for the most part, I've just been working with him and I am so grateful for it.

[21:07] Becky: Well, that's fun. We're going to save some of this stuff for next week. Just so you know, we have a little bit to talk about. I'll probably be doing the same thing.

[21:14] Norma: Except update I am getting my gallbladder.

[21:17] Becky: Out, so I'll be one organ less super soon. So as we end this episode, don't forget to follow us on all of our social media account, Twins podcast on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. That's account Twins Pod, ACCT Twins Pod and Accounting Twins podcast on our Facebook and LinkedIn and leave us some reviews. We'd love to hear back from you. What are your summer plans? What do you think about my plans? Enormous plans. Give us the four one. One.

[21:45] Norma: Yeah. Thank you all for listening. We'll see you next time.

[21:49] Becky: Bye. This has been a production of the Accounting Podcast Network.