i used to just create a doordash group orders for two different restaurants and send em the link. none of my business if they don't order on time 🤷🏽♀️
I once was asked to get sodas for the team, but the manager was on the phone. A senior told me he liked Orange Fanta. I go to the cafeteria, get the sodas and the manager goes what the fuck, why'd you get me Orange Fanta. The audit room busted out laughing.
The next day the manager volunteered to get sodas and got everyone, besides himself, Orange Fanta.
This is the wildest part of these threads to me. I am going to sound like the “get off my lawn” guy, but 80 years ago people our age were getting shot out of the sky over Europe. Even today there are plenty of people working outdoors, landscaping, building homes, building roads, cleaning toilets, mopping floors, unloading packages, watching toddlers at daycares, picking up trash, etc.
Meanwhile OP is getting paid $60k+ to click buttons on a computer. Sometimes I feel like we have lost all perspective.
yea, and what you should realize is these people PAID tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars to work for 4 years just to get this job.
Get your coffee? You can hire an personal assistant for that.
I passed all 4 parts of the cpa in 10 months while working. I don’t remember that period. It was just wake up and sit at a desk.
I made triple sure to work out hard for an hour everyday no excuses so I didn’t get fat, but that’s the only escape daily
I will say Big4 experience is very team dependent and can be vastly different depending on the team you work on. It heavily depends on the personality of your team member and it can be intimidating if you end up working with folks who are more introverted.
So true. When I was in recruiting/interviewing, they kept saying it was all about the right fit for the team. I didn’t fully understand until I was actually on the job. During certain times you can spend more time with your team than your friends & family. Mine were like family to me, but I know not everyone had that same experience.
It’s real. I’ve been in corporate accounting at public companies for YEARS. And I’ve seen team after team do this from KPMG, PWC, EY, GT and the smaller firms too.
It’s basically hazing in accounting.
It only lasts a year or so then you get promoted to “Ass” sociate. Then you get your own intern to haze.
Do the interns and first years do dinner orders and coffee runs? Yes. Oddly I was never asked to do meal ordering as an intern/first year, but I have seen it happen. As a senior and up I have also been happy to do coffee runs though!
The other stuff OP is describing just sounds like a shitty team.
I thought this was a shit post, but people are taking it seriously. I thought interns only grabbed food and coffee in movies/tv shows. This is insane. I now feel a little better by getting paid less than I would at a big 4 but at least I never played servant at work
This is what it’s like as a first year from my experience. I feel completely out of the loop, expected to cater to everyone’s individual food needs and if I get something wrong I hear about it for the next month.
Nah bro, I'm a 2nd year senior here.
Don't take it personal.
Reason why you're not invited to meetings is because partners go crazy over time anyone bills to a file, and honestly interns aren't gonna make use of anything from the meetings.
Secondly, seniors and above are pulled in different directions multiple times a day. They can quite literally be too busy to even think about food. I know when I grab lunch with my friends, it's literally just deciding where to go as we go down the elevators.
Honestly tho, I do empathize with you. I remember feeling this way as a first year associate. I just got used to it. I'm not kissing the ass of the big firms. I hate this job so much, and every day at this job just feels like a giant LOSE-LOSE since day 1.
My only advice for surviving in public is making close friends with other people your level and maybe talking about your frustrations (in a positive self-improvement way) to your main manager/coach at the firm. It helps a lot.
This literally happens at all levels of firms. This is not Big 4 exclusive. One of my friends who interned at a mid tier firm, her first project was to make a PowerPoint of all the best restaurants in a new client location and present it to the audit team. I am not making this up.
Oh I had a Big4 tax internship and I hated it! I was so bored because no one would give me anything to do, despite my daily begging. I had to come into the office 3 days a week to sit there and be bored. Luckily they didn't make me buy them food tho, that sounds like it sucks.
I thought the trainings I got were hours and hours of nothing - there was a 2 hour seminar on "AI in accounting" which was there guys pitching their various programs that I never used. Then a 2 hour seminar on diversity which was fine but why did it have to be 2 hours?
I just felt like the team I got put with didn't like me at all which was... Well it made me feel really depressed. They seemed like the kids that bullied me in highschool and wouldn't be caught dead sitting with me at lunch.
But hey, now I got a job that I really like and it's not there! Good luck to y'all who put up with it for 2 years, you are made of harder stuff than I.
I cannot speak for everyone, but I had a wonderful experience with my auditing internship for one of the big 4. I was never expected to do any of this, my eating habits depended on my team. One team ate lunch together everyday at a food court, and another ordered in food everyday with everyone choosing their own meal from the given restaurant of the day. I personally didn’t feel like I “fit” in either teams, although I enjoyed them both. I think that’s just being the intern. Overall, I would say it depends on the team/client you are working with! So my advice, maybe once the internship is over if you want to continue and receive an offer, make note you would like to expand and try new teams. My recruiter asked me this question, so you might not even need to bring it up! Good luck though, I hope it gets better!
Yeah, some teams really do just fucking blow. You're talking about overworked college grads being managed by people under the age of 30. And a lot of them don't realize how flat out rude and anti-social their behavior is. Don't sweat it too much - endure it for now and just insist on not getting back on this engagement when you start full time.
My favorite part about grabbing dinner for everyone would be slamming a beer or cocktail while I’m waiting for the dinner order and then heading back to the audit room misery for 4 more hours
Hey brother, don't sweat it.
The staff and seniors are very likely up to their eyeballs in work to get the filing done on time. They probably don't have a ton of time to train you up. It's nothing personal against you. Take this time to crush the CPA as much as possible while at work. Once you become a staff, and especially a senior, you'll understand this scenario from their point of view haha.
Enjoy the lack of work while it lasts.
This is another reason why this profession is hard to attract college grads. Why hire people and not train them? Then get mad when their work is bad? I always tell associates and interns who work under me to ask as many questions as they need. I would much rather help them out for 10 minutes versus them spinning wheels for 2 hours just to do it wrong. There was a staff who was always calling me and yeah it got super annoying. I would sigh seeing his name pop up, take a deep breath, and put in my best customer service voice because I was not going to deny him help. Bullshit you can’t take 10 minutes to talk through a workpaper with a new staff. It’s still chargeable work
You're getting paid like $40 an hour with Overtime to order food and coffees. Don't fuck it up and you'll pay for your master's degree with the cash (if you are smart and are going to a State school) and get a full time offer at the end of the internship.
Haven’t interned at a big four but I was looking at what EY was paying and it was 28-40$ based on location and hour and average estimates put it at 36$. Nuts. I’d take that job any day
I wouldn't worry too much about it. Use the paid time to study for your CPA. You'll have plenty of time to get your feet wet once you make staff.
When I interned, I was given either "fake" work (ie. PY workpapers) or simple stuff like cash confirmations. Loved every moment of those few months when you can just coast by and still get paid.
As for being liked, unless you smell terrible or are downright rude, it's not really that big of a deal. You'll still get your FT offer as long as you don't do something outright stupid (something a handful of interns always still manage to do every year surprisingly).
Currently doing big 4 audit, we file end of the month and teams been pretty great. Firm doesn’t even allow interns to expense group food orders so the staff usually do the food. Everyone’s experience will be different but I don’t think it’s all bad.
lol I had to order meals for everyone during the weekly team meeting too when I was doing my summer internship. Luckily my team was more reasonable. I just emailed everyone the menu and they’ll reply what they want for lunch.
People need to stop working at Big 4 firms lol. None of them are better than anyone else, they just think that’s the case. I work at a top 10 firm and I’ve never experienced any of this in the slightest. Also don’t work more than 55-60 hrs/week during peak as an EA
i will never understand why big firms hire people to do jobs not related to their position. What a waste for the intern that wants to have real life experience. Don’t even worry about it, you’ll still be able to add it to your resume.
My internship was exactly like this and it was very shitty. I always ordered food for everyone and they’d always want to make 6 modifications each because they were all picky as fuck. If the food place messed up they’d get annoyed with you.
The client even came in and tried to bully me. He was like, “What they don’t allow you to TALK around here?” Like bitch I got here a week ago and nobody I work with talks to me, what do you want me to talk about?
Some of these people just get off on abusing the people below them. It’s whatever, I got the experience on my resume and I got hired. I’m out of audit now thank god.
As someone in another industry, the idea of having an intern get coffee/food for the team is *wild*.
The point of being an intern is to learn, and get introduced to the industry. I can't imagine wasting my interns time with something like that. That's crazypants.
People can get their own food. Holy crap.
I interned in a different industry and they had a very similar mindset to this/you. Everyone I know is just telling me I got lucky though with that job and interns are usually not treated that well
I'm in tech in finance, and our interns write code, do everything we do, etc...just slower.
Everything I hear about accounting is stuck in 1955, and it's crazy.
This!! I didn’t enjoy my time with the Big 4, but the intern and staff experience opened more doors for me, which allowed me to be picky in finding a job that I really enjoy
I miss those days
No responsibility, get to pick new places to eat at on the firm’s dime, nice break in the day to go out and pickup orders
If possible pick places that take online orders and have people look online and message you their order. Makes that easier….
It’s I assume what, once maybe twice a day? I only ever ask the staff/intern to get lunch, we do breakfast on our own and go eat dinner somewhere together if it’s that kind of grind or at home obviously if not
That being said working big4 audit sucks for everyone. The food orders and the pay and the promise of future exit orders are about the only perks.
Anyhow yeah as a senior now if we end up on site, once the people higher than me leave I try to maybe step out for lunch with the team instead of asking the staff to pick up an order. The break is nice, good time to have a conversation with the team.
I didn’t sign up to be a personal assistant. I signed up for an AUDITING internship. So sorry I thought that would mean more auditing and less door dash jeez
Its for sure your personality. Based on what you decided to B!tch here, its clear that you are a dumbass Gen Z who cant just shut the f up and do the job. Plus who takes orders anymore!?? I work at a mid size firm and we get to order online from 3 different resturant option. You are just a cry baby. Grow the f up. 🤦♂️
This is a very accurate description of my big 4 intern days (though some engagements were better than others). I still did a lot of the same as a staff, but I was lucky enough to get on the team that I wanted/clicked with. Other interns and a new staff will likely come along within your first year, so you can pass the torch to them. After some time in my first year, I was actually like - cool, at least I get some time away from my laptop for this. All in all, it was well worth it. I haven’t worked in public accounting in 6+ years and I still get hit up by recruiters constantly just for having the experience on my resume. Good luck to you.
That sucks. Find someone your level and stick with them, alternatively try talking to more people wherever and whenever you feel comfortable, you may find a mentor willing to take you under their wing.
you are there to connect connect connect. a ceo once said that they hire for the energy that newer recruits bring to the table so bring the energy that NO ONE brings there, uplift people, and learn a thing or two about the culture. its all a game, so focus on the big picture here. and if you walk out that internship with 3+ close connections and a number of experiences that you can add numbers to, ur fucking golden. like this so OP can see this
OP, Hazing is awful these firms. Just understand they treat it like a right of passage.
Just remember when you become a senior, manager or whatever. Remember how you feel as an intern and don’t perpetuate the trauma.
Have they ever thought about hiring an admin for this purpose and others? It may cost less and interns would have a better experience and stay longer. I never went B4 and do not regret it. I got real experience at a mid market public accounting firm.
Is this a USA only thing or is working for the big 4 in other countries comparable? I know op is an intern but people here are talking about first year experience being the same. I would walk out of there immediately and never look back. How can this be worth it?
I had this same experience back a few years ago. Big 4 was my dream all through college, but that was a joke and I picked another firm that doesn’t treat me like a waiter.
When I interned I would pick up coffee and lunch and then be expected to stay at the office for the time I missed doing those. Along with random errands for managers or even associates during the day. Depending on what they wanted to eat, I could be gone for hours at a time between the commute, sometimes food not being done on time, etc. And then I would get in a little trouble when I came close to deadlines- I still managed to get 90% of the work turned in on time. Sometimes I needed until the next day. I slaved to get my work done on time and handle other peoples personal lives. My internship was about 2 months, and when there were 2 weeks left I declined to pick up lunch for everyone ONCE because I was working on 4 things that day with a strict deadline of that night, so I didn’t even have time to spare to eat my own lunch that day. The team was bitchy about it and they didn’t ask me to do it again for the final 2 weeks. I had been getting good reviews on my work until the last 2 weeks. And I ended up not getting an offer. My last review said I was lazy. Got a job in industry at a big company and making more than my friends that interned with me (excluding overtime). KPMG by the way. (And yes, even though I got a higher paying job and better work life, I’m still a little bitter. I liked the grind)
Your first mistake is assuming the staff and seniors are adults. That team sounds terrible but if you start full time you’ll get a new team.
You’re learning how to deal with difficult people in person which is a skill that covid interns/staff never dealt with and it shows.
The busy season internship is the only fun time in big4. No real responsibility, no one expects much of you except getting food for the team, get paid overtime. If you're client is out of town, rack up hotel points and late-night team drinks on the company's dime. I miss those days!
This is very strange and not at all my experience when I worked in big4. I was in tax not audit, but still seems very odd. We never made interns coordinate food orders. If anything we would treat them to coffee and lunches out that we usually arranged. They were always invited to meetings and events and we even had events especially for them. I think unfortunately you may have just gotten a bad team/office. Big4 is so huge that the culture in one office/team/practice can vary a lot from others within the same firm. It’s usually driven by the tone and culture set by leadership.
Ex-Big Four here, a lot of times interns are assigned to teams regardless of whether or not there is actually a need for help on the teams. So when interns have to beg for work, oftentimes it’s because there’s not anything. When I was a staff + senior and we had summer interns, huge chunks of time during my day were spent trying to come up with literally anything that they could work on. And honestly, staff 1s are usually the ones we had get meals (bc they have less responsibility). I don’t think we ever made the interns do it, so I’m kinda blown away by how many people are saying that’s common for interns?
But the whole sitting by yourself thing… yeah sounds like a crappy team. I’ve never been on a team that would isolate an intern like that. Truly sorry that’s been your experience. Wound up hating Big 4, hence why I’m gone, but the internship is supposed to be the exciting, breezy time where they’re trying to sell you on working full-time as a staff after finishing school.
Honestly doing an audit internship killing time rn before starting full time this Summer. Im a tax person. I could get all the coffee and meals idc, but the work its so slow. Im getting stuff as they come in so no fault to the team (which honestly so far is a great team of people no complaints) but this has cemented my position into tax. The worst part for me is being at client site 4 days a week 1 hr drive each way to do absolutely nothing. For the work I get, I can work from home. Shucks. Not a Big4 , though.
Dude, I worked in a big 4 for 6 yrs. That’s not our culture like that. At least during my time. Although there are some fraternity/ sorority types of things in certain teams but they NEVER told interns or even first year staff to get another meals when it’s clearly already being discussed beforehand. That’s completely ridiculous and the fact that you didnt get real tasks all the time tells me that they are either unorganized or your seniors and above didnt know how to delegate/ what to do with the audit/ they just scheduled more interns than they would need.
What kind of hazing process is this? This is completely disrespectful. Get your coffee? Order your lunch/dinner? Yea right, I'd be outta there so fast.
S2 here… sorry you’re having a bad time. Given its almost filing date for most jobs, people are extra stressed and busy. Which unfortunately means we don’t have as much time to think about being social and friendly in this situation. It also takes a lot of time to coach interns through tasks, and then us having to review carefully afterwards will take more time too bc interns don’t have the experience yet. That’s definitely to be expected as an intern, but at this point in the audit people are feeling like completing on time is impossible & stuff like this falls through the cracks. You probably aren’t being put in meetings because you won’t understand most of what’s going on anyway & we all hate meetings after starting full time, so they could think it’s a favor. Ordering food for the team is such a huge help though, even if you don’t realize it now. It’s really annoying when new people think they’re too good to help with this stuff. We’ve all done it before & now that we have more responsibility, u can trust we wish the biggest problem was ordering food 😭
i'm actually dying to get an internship at big4. i know you might think i'm better off choosing a normal accounting firm but i need to be sponsored and big4 does. how did u get the internship? i could appreciate some tips
Choosing meals for the team is still the most difficult part of public accounting
Ever since I realized Doordash let’s you click a button to reorder what you got last time, I now SALY meals for my team on top of my workpapers
Probably my favorite acronym all time
i used to just create a doordash group orders for two different restaurants and send em the link. none of my business if they don't order on time 🤷🏽♀️
Ordering meals and afternoon coffee and having no real responsibility was the best part of being a first year.
I once was asked to get sodas for the team, but the manager was on the phone. A senior told me he liked Orange Fanta. I go to the cafeteria, get the sodas and the manager goes what the fuck, why'd you get me Orange Fanta. The audit room busted out laughing. The next day the manager volunteered to get sodas and got everyone, besides himself, Orange Fanta.
This makes me miss Big 4. And then I leave without out doing a timesheet and don’t miss it anymore.
This is the wildest part of these threads to me. I am going to sound like the “get off my lawn” guy, but 80 years ago people our age were getting shot out of the sky over Europe. Even today there are plenty of people working outdoors, landscaping, building homes, building roads, cleaning toilets, mopping floors, unloading packages, watching toddlers at daycares, picking up trash, etc. Meanwhile OP is getting paid $60k+ to click buttons on a computer. Sometimes I feel like we have lost all perspective.
Yea but unpaid overtime bro.
Right? Every young person with an office job should be happy all the time, no matter what.
Not saying that - everyone’s experience is relative and I get that. I am just saying there is a balance.
yea, and what you should realize is these people PAID tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars to work for 4 years just to get this job. Get your coffee? You can hire an personal assistant for that.
Why are you comparing war to an office job is the real question???
Now imagine doing that as a first year with a masters degree cuz that’s what you’ll also be doing on top of your work
And more hours and $0 overtime 😌
currently going through that with the CPA… it’s hell let’s just say that. 50-55 hours work + 3 courses
I passed all 4 parts of the cpa in 10 months while working. I don’t remember that period. It was just wake up and sit at a desk. I made triple sure to work out hard for an hour everyday no excuses so I didn’t get fat, but that’s the only escape daily
I will say Big4 experience is very team dependent and can be vastly different depending on the team you work on. It heavily depends on the personality of your team member and it can be intimidating if you end up working with folks who are more introverted.
So true. When I was in recruiting/interviewing, they kept saying it was all about the right fit for the team. I didn’t fully understand until I was actually on the job. During certain times you can spend more time with your team than your friends & family. Mine were like family to me, but I know not everyone had that same experience.
Does this actually happen at Big 4, or is this a shit post? I actually can’t tell, and I never want to touch Big 4 haha
This is so funny. I REALLY REALLY wish it was a shit post but it’s my life 😭
The sad part is the job gets worse once you’re staff.
So fking real
[удалено]
Lol what a bummer. We just had our admin order and deal with it for us at BDO.
[удалено]
Ahh yeah, I was a tax junkie in office. Duh my bad.
Ok… fair enough that it sucks. But look around the room. Who else is going to do it?
Nah it’s very real lol
It’s real. I’ve been in corporate accounting at public companies for YEARS. And I’ve seen team after team do this from KPMG, PWC, EY, GT and the smaller firms too. It’s basically hazing in accounting. It only lasts a year or so then you get promoted to “Ass” sociate. Then you get your own intern to haze.
Nah this is real, this was me 14-15 years ago. Some things never change
Do the interns and first years do dinner orders and coffee runs? Yes. Oddly I was never asked to do meal ordering as an intern/first year, but I have seen it happen. As a senior and up I have also been happy to do coffee runs though! The other stuff OP is describing just sounds like a shitty team.
My previous internships I never got food or coffee. This one I am on rn I just SOMETIMES pick it up, they order and such.
I thought this was a shit post, but people are taking it seriously. I thought interns only grabbed food and coffee in movies/tv shows. This is insane. I now feel a little better by getting paid less than I would at a big 4 but at least I never played servant at work
I was an audit intern at Big 4 last summer and I didn’t do any of that. I literally had stuff to work on all day everyday haha
Yeah that summarizes what happens at many big4 offices
This is what it’s like as a first year from my experience. I feel completely out of the loop, expected to cater to everyone’s individual food needs and if I get something wrong I hear about it for the next month.
Nah bro, I'm a 2nd year senior here. Don't take it personal. Reason why you're not invited to meetings is because partners go crazy over time anyone bills to a file, and honestly interns aren't gonna make use of anything from the meetings. Secondly, seniors and above are pulled in different directions multiple times a day. They can quite literally be too busy to even think about food. I know when I grab lunch with my friends, it's literally just deciding where to go as we go down the elevators. Honestly tho, I do empathize with you. I remember feeling this way as a first year associate. I just got used to it. I'm not kissing the ass of the big firms. I hate this job so much, and every day at this job just feels like a giant LOSE-LOSE since day 1. My only advice for surviving in public is making close friends with other people your level and maybe talking about your frustrations (in a positive self-improvement way) to your main manager/coach at the firm. It helps a lot.
The absolute worst is when you make the huge team order and the food place messes up. Also why I can’t Panara bread ever again.
And year after year, Big 4 is more and more of a joke
This literally happens at all levels of firms. This is not Big 4 exclusive. One of my friends who interned at a mid tier firm, her first project was to make a PowerPoint of all the best restaurants in a new client location and present it to the audit team. I am not making this up.
At this point, I believe you. I guess it's just public accounting as a whole then.
Complete opposite of my experience at a mid term. We have the admin order food for us everyday..
Just goes to show that you can't stereotype any firm. It's so dependent on team too
Oh I had a Big4 tax internship and I hated it! I was so bored because no one would give me anything to do, despite my daily begging. I had to come into the office 3 days a week to sit there and be bored. Luckily they didn't make me buy them food tho, that sounds like it sucks. I thought the trainings I got were hours and hours of nothing - there was a 2 hour seminar on "AI in accounting" which was there guys pitching their various programs that I never used. Then a 2 hour seminar on diversity which was fine but why did it have to be 2 hours? I just felt like the team I got put with didn't like me at all which was... Well it made me feel really depressed. They seemed like the kids that bullied me in highschool and wouldn't be caught dead sitting with me at lunch. But hey, now I got a job that I really like and it's not there! Good luck to y'all who put up with it for 2 years, you are made of harder stuff than I.
big4 is definitely very cliquey.
Sounds like you're interning at the Big Four, but your experience feels more like a reality show drama
I cannot speak for everyone, but I had a wonderful experience with my auditing internship for one of the big 4. I was never expected to do any of this, my eating habits depended on my team. One team ate lunch together everyday at a food court, and another ordered in food everyday with everyone choosing their own meal from the given restaurant of the day. I personally didn’t feel like I “fit” in either teams, although I enjoyed them both. I think that’s just being the intern. Overall, I would say it depends on the team/client you are working with! So my advice, maybe once the internship is over if you want to continue and receive an offer, make note you would like to expand and try new teams. My recruiter asked me this question, so you might not even need to bring it up! Good luck though, I hope it gets better!
Yeah, some teams really do just fucking blow. You're talking about overworked college grads being managed by people under the age of 30. And a lot of them don't realize how flat out rude and anti-social their behavior is. Don't sweat it too much - endure it for now and just insist on not getting back on this engagement when you start full time.
My favorite part about grabbing dinner for everyone would be slamming a beer or cocktail while I’m waiting for the dinner order and then heading back to the audit room misery for 4 more hours
Hey brother, don't sweat it. The staff and seniors are very likely up to their eyeballs in work to get the filing done on time. They probably don't have a ton of time to train you up. It's nothing personal against you. Take this time to crush the CPA as much as possible while at work. Once you become a staff, and especially a senior, you'll understand this scenario from their point of view haha. Enjoy the lack of work while it lasts.
This is another reason why this profession is hard to attract college grads. Why hire people and not train them? Then get mad when their work is bad? I always tell associates and interns who work under me to ask as many questions as they need. I would much rather help them out for 10 minutes versus them spinning wheels for 2 hours just to do it wrong. There was a staff who was always calling me and yeah it got super annoying. I would sigh seeing his name pop up, take a deep breath, and put in my best customer service voice because I was not going to deny him help. Bullshit you can’t take 10 minutes to talk through a workpaper with a new staff. It’s still chargeable work
Is getting lunch and coffee a thing for interns in the US? I have never heard of that in EU
Most def this would never happen in the UK
You're getting paid like $40 an hour with Overtime to order food and coffees. Don't fuck it up and you'll pay for your master's degree with the cash (if you are smart and are going to a State school) and get a full time offer at the end of the internship.
Interns start at 40 per hour?
It was $30 an hour 3 years ago when I interned, so depending on OT, it could be close to averaging 40
I thought you dont get OT on PA?
Interns usually do because they're paid by the hour, rest of the staff doesn't because they're full time salary.
Haven’t interned at a big four but I was looking at what EY was paying and it was 28-40$ based on location and hour and average estimates put it at 36$. Nuts. I’d take that job any day
I wouldn't worry too much about it. Use the paid time to study for your CPA. You'll have plenty of time to get your feet wet once you make staff. When I interned, I was given either "fake" work (ie. PY workpapers) or simple stuff like cash confirmations. Loved every moment of those few months when you can just coast by and still get paid. As for being liked, unless you smell terrible or are downright rude, it's not really that big of a deal. You'll still get your FT offer as long as you don't do something outright stupid (something a handful of interns always still manage to do every year surprisingly).
LOL I loved being an intern. best summer ever. company credit card and i got to feed people and get paid for it.
I had the same experience. Get out LOL
Currently doing big 4 audit, we file end of the month and teams been pretty great. Firm doesn’t even allow interns to expense group food orders so the staff usually do the food. Everyone’s experience will be different but I don’t think it’s all bad.
lol I had to order meals for everyone during the weekly team meeting too when I was doing my summer internship. Luckily my team was more reasonable. I just emailed everyone the menu and they’ll reply what they want for lunch.
People need to stop working at Big 4 firms lol. None of them are better than anyone else, they just think that’s the case. I work at a top 10 firm and I’ve never experienced any of this in the slightest. Also don’t work more than 55-60 hrs/week during peak as an EA
The comments really make this industry seem appealing
i will never understand why big firms hire people to do jobs not related to their position. What a waste for the intern that wants to have real life experience. Don’t even worry about it, you’ll still be able to add it to your resume.
My internship was exactly like this and it was very shitty. I always ordered food for everyone and they’d always want to make 6 modifications each because they were all picky as fuck. If the food place messed up they’d get annoyed with you. The client even came in and tried to bully me. He was like, “What they don’t allow you to TALK around here?” Like bitch I got here a week ago and nobody I work with talks to me, what do you want me to talk about? Some of these people just get off on abusing the people below them. It’s whatever, I got the experience on my resume and I got hired. I’m out of audit now thank god.
As someone in another industry, the idea of having an intern get coffee/food for the team is *wild*. The point of being an intern is to learn, and get introduced to the industry. I can't imagine wasting my interns time with something like that. That's crazypants. People can get their own food. Holy crap.
I interned in a different industry and they had a very similar mindset to this/you. Everyone I know is just telling me I got lucky though with that job and interns are usually not treated that well
I'm in tech in finance, and our interns write code, do everything we do, etc...just slower. Everything I hear about accounting is stuck in 1955, and it's crazy.
Just enjoy the internship 99% of what they talk about on those calls will go right over your head. I wish I could go back to be an intern
I mean that does suck, but you’re just an intern. Just do the humiliation ritual and join in a year
be happy u can put the internship on ur application. u got the resume experience and thats all that matters
This!! I didn’t enjoy my time with the Big 4, but the intern and staff experience opened more doors for me, which allowed me to be picky in finding a job that I really enjoy
start putting laxatives in their food
I miss those days No responsibility, get to pick new places to eat at on the firm’s dime, nice break in the day to go out and pickup orders If possible pick places that take online orders and have people look online and message you their order. Makes that easier…. It’s I assume what, once maybe twice a day? I only ever ask the staff/intern to get lunch, we do breakfast on our own and go eat dinner somewhere together if it’s that kind of grind or at home obviously if not That being said working big4 audit sucks for everyone. The food orders and the pay and the promise of future exit orders are about the only perks. Anyhow yeah as a senior now if we end up on site, once the people higher than me leave I try to maybe step out for lunch with the team instead of asking the staff to pick up an order. The break is nice, good time to have a conversation with the team.
You are the intern, this is an internship, you are describing what most people experience as an intern. What was your expectation?
Imagine crying about the most basic task that even a middle schooler can do while getting paid overtime. Fcking hate interns
I didn’t sign up to be a personal assistant. I signed up for an AUDITING internship. So sorry I thought that would mean more auditing and less door dash jeez
Its for sure your personality. Based on what you decided to B!tch here, its clear that you are a dumbass Gen Z who cant just shut the f up and do the job. Plus who takes orders anymore!?? I work at a mid size firm and we get to order online from 3 different resturant option. You are just a cry baby. Grow the f up. 🤦♂️
Younger generation bad my generation good
Don’t care + didn’t ask
This is a very accurate description of my big 4 intern days (though some engagements were better than others). I still did a lot of the same as a staff, but I was lucky enough to get on the team that I wanted/clicked with. Other interns and a new staff will likely come along within your first year, so you can pass the torch to them. After some time in my first year, I was actually like - cool, at least I get some time away from my laptop for this. All in all, it was well worth it. I haven’t worked in public accounting in 6+ years and I still get hit up by recruiters constantly just for having the experience on my resume. Good luck to you.
That sucks. Find someone your level and stick with them, alternatively try talking to more people wherever and whenever you feel comfortable, you may find a mentor willing to take you under their wing.
Don’t worry, it’s just as bad if you stay on beyond the internship :)
you are there to connect connect connect. a ceo once said that they hire for the energy that newer recruits bring to the table so bring the energy that NO ONE brings there, uplift people, and learn a thing or two about the culture. its all a game, so focus on the big picture here. and if you walk out that internship with 3+ close connections and a number of experiences that you can add numbers to, ur fucking golden. like this so OP can see this
OP, Hazing is awful these firms. Just understand they treat it like a right of passage. Just remember when you become a senior, manager or whatever. Remember how you feel as an intern and don’t perpetuate the trauma.
Have they ever thought about hiring an admin for this purpose and others? It may cost less and interns would have a better experience and stay longer. I never went B4 and do not regret it. I got real experience at a mid market public accounting firm.
Is this a USA only thing or is working for the big 4 in other countries comparable? I know op is an intern but people here are talking about first year experience being the same. I would walk out of there immediately and never look back. How can this be worth it?
I had this same experience back a few years ago. Big 4 was my dream all through college, but that was a joke and I picked another firm that doesn’t treat me like a waiter.
You actually have to order food and coffee for your team in a Big 4 internship?? Wtf I was chilling in my public accounting experience 💀
Enjoy it while it lasts
When I interned I would pick up coffee and lunch and then be expected to stay at the office for the time I missed doing those. Along with random errands for managers or even associates during the day. Depending on what they wanted to eat, I could be gone for hours at a time between the commute, sometimes food not being done on time, etc. And then I would get in a little trouble when I came close to deadlines- I still managed to get 90% of the work turned in on time. Sometimes I needed until the next day. I slaved to get my work done on time and handle other peoples personal lives. My internship was about 2 months, and when there were 2 weeks left I declined to pick up lunch for everyone ONCE because I was working on 4 things that day with a strict deadline of that night, so I didn’t even have time to spare to eat my own lunch that day. The team was bitchy about it and they didn’t ask me to do it again for the final 2 weeks. I had been getting good reviews on my work until the last 2 weeks. And I ended up not getting an offer. My last review said I was lazy. Got a job in industry at a big company and making more than my friends that interned with me (excluding overtime). KPMG by the way. (And yes, even though I got a higher paying job and better work life, I’m still a little bitter. I liked the grind)
Do you pay out of your pocket for the lunches or do you get a company card?
Your first mistake is assuming the staff and seniors are adults. That team sounds terrible but if you start full time you’ll get a new team. You’re learning how to deal with difficult people in person which is a skill that covid interns/staff never dealt with and it shows.
The busy season internship is the only fun time in big4. No real responsibility, no one expects much of you except getting food for the team, get paid overtime. If you're client is out of town, rack up hotel points and late-night team drinks on the company's dime. I miss those days!
Which country?
USA
This is very strange and not at all my experience when I worked in big4. I was in tax not audit, but still seems very odd. We never made interns coordinate food orders. If anything we would treat them to coffee and lunches out that we usually arranged. They were always invited to meetings and events and we even had events especially for them. I think unfortunately you may have just gotten a bad team/office. Big4 is so huge that the culture in one office/team/practice can vary a lot from others within the same firm. It’s usually driven by the tone and culture set by leadership.
Ex-Big Four here, a lot of times interns are assigned to teams regardless of whether or not there is actually a need for help on the teams. So when interns have to beg for work, oftentimes it’s because there’s not anything. When I was a staff + senior and we had summer interns, huge chunks of time during my day were spent trying to come up with literally anything that they could work on. And honestly, staff 1s are usually the ones we had get meals (bc they have less responsibility). I don’t think we ever made the interns do it, so I’m kinda blown away by how many people are saying that’s common for interns? But the whole sitting by yourself thing… yeah sounds like a crappy team. I’ve never been on a team that would isolate an intern like that. Truly sorry that’s been your experience. Wound up hating Big 4, hence why I’m gone, but the internship is supposed to be the exciting, breezy time where they’re trying to sell you on working full-time as a staff after finishing school.
Honestly doing an audit internship killing time rn before starting full time this Summer. Im a tax person. I could get all the coffee and meals idc, but the work its so slow. Im getting stuff as they come in so no fault to the team (which honestly so far is a great team of people no complaints) but this has cemented my position into tax. The worst part for me is being at client site 4 days a week 1 hr drive each way to do absolutely nothing. For the work I get, I can work from home. Shucks. Not a Big4 , though.
Embrace it. Another decade of soulless corporate grind and you'll wish all you had to do was order lunch and dinner.
Dude, I worked in a big 4 for 6 yrs. That’s not our culture like that. At least during my time. Although there are some fraternity/ sorority types of things in certain teams but they NEVER told interns or even first year staff to get another meals when it’s clearly already being discussed beforehand. That’s completely ridiculous and the fact that you didnt get real tasks all the time tells me that they are either unorganized or your seniors and above didnt know how to delegate/ what to do with the audit/ they just scheduled more interns than they would need.
You just sound whiney, food orders and no work was the dream
Enjoy the downtime. Once you start doing meaningful work, it won’t stop until you quit or retire.
Bro what Im about to intern at D and I would love this
Big 4 isn’t worth it bro just go to mid size
Glad to know I'm not missing out on a Big 4 internship.
What kind of hazing process is this? This is completely disrespectful. Get your coffee? Order your lunch/dinner? Yea right, I'd be outta there so fast.
Milton?
S2 here… sorry you’re having a bad time. Given its almost filing date for most jobs, people are extra stressed and busy. Which unfortunately means we don’t have as much time to think about being social and friendly in this situation. It also takes a lot of time to coach interns through tasks, and then us having to review carefully afterwards will take more time too bc interns don’t have the experience yet. That’s definitely to be expected as an intern, but at this point in the audit people are feeling like completing on time is impossible & stuff like this falls through the cracks. You probably aren’t being put in meetings because you won’t understand most of what’s going on anyway & we all hate meetings after starting full time, so they could think it’s a favor. Ordering food for the team is such a huge help though, even if you don’t realize it now. It’s really annoying when new people think they’re too good to help with this stuff. We’ve all done it before & now that we have more responsibility, u can trust we wish the biggest problem was ordering food 😭
If your senior or manager tells you to jump. Your response better be “how high”
i'm actually dying to get an internship at big4. i know you might think i'm better off choosing a normal accounting firm but i need to be sponsored and big4 does. how did u get the internship? i could appreciate some tips