Accounting & Finance

Spring 2018

Position: Capital Markets Intern
Student: Economics Senior

A day in the life of a Capital Markets intern at Ascendant Capital is a glorious one. Ascendant Capital, a place where business leaders are made out of molds pressurized under the pillars of duty, integrity, and trust. An Interns existence revolves around the honor of serving high net-worth clients, whom count on Ascendant to provide a fixed income strategy that they can be proud of. Being a part of Ascendant Capital is no walk in the park, but rather a 100-meter dash with 10 foot hurdles. Those who can stand the pressure are destined for great success in the private equity sector.

An intern’s day begins at 7:45 AM. They are to report to their department head no later than 8 AM, which will provide them with the tasks or objectives that are expected of them that day. Interns are also entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the office kitchen. The kitchen duties are to be regulated amongst the interns themselves throughout the day with tasks split among them equally. During a work day an intern has free range to work on anything he or she desires may it pertain to the company. This gives interns the flexibility of rotating to the department of their desire so that they are still completing their deliverables by the set time line. Come noon the office staff may begin their lunch routines; may that include leaving to grab a bite or going to the kitchen to create or eat a meal you brought. The day wraps up around 5 PM when interns are to follow up with their superiors on the progress of their work. Interns are also expected to perform ad-hoc requests that may be asked on by executives in the company, for example grabbing the office lunch, or coffee runs for the CEO in the morning. This is countered by the events that interns are invited to hosted by the company.

Spring 2017

Position: Financial Planning Assistant
Student: Economics Junior

AXA Advisors is a life insurance and financial planning firm that is one of the biggest firms across the world.  Life insurance is a vehicle used to create generational wealth, wealth that provides for the family of a deceased member and helps pay for funeral costs, college tuition, and much more.  There is also an investment side that allows individuals to generate tax free investment dollars that can eventually pay off the life insurance premiums and create usable cash.  The Life Insurance industry is a very difficult industry to pursue because the agents are ultimately selling an intangible product over the phone to individuals who they do not necessarily know.  Agents cold call and warm call clients constantly trying to set up meetings either virtually or in person to go over what exactly it is that AXA Advisors offers them.  As mentioned earlier, they offer life insurance and financial planning that secures futures for the younger generations given the main holder passes away. 

My job at AXA Advisors required me to work ten to twelve hours a week, working alongside my bosses to help create a beneficial experience for their clients.  Some of the tasks I had to include formulating spreadsheets with client names and contact information that my bosses would utilize later as they cold called them.  I also had to organize documents as they transferred all their paper into a digital format.  My experience was very beneficial at AXA Advisors because I could work alongside my bosses and provide input where I felt necessary, as well as learning a whole lot about the industry.  Overall, I had a great experience working with AXA Advisors.

Spring 2011

Position: CRM Intern
Student: Economics Sophomore

For the past six months, I have been interning at AXA-Advisors under the supervision of the Client Relations Manager. I can whole-heartedly say that it has been an extremely positive experience for me and I have learned so much about the company and working in general. All of the people in the office that I have met have been very welcoming and kind to me each day and I feel like I am a part of the staff that helps the company improve each day.

AXA-Advisors is a branch of the AXA-Equitable company, which is a financial advising corporation that handles insurance, investments, and other annuities that clients can benefit from by having one of these policies. In the beginning of my internship, I spent most of my days becoming more familiar with the software that the company bases its database out of. The system is unlike anything I’ve ever dealt with but I picked up the framework quite easily. Now, I daily pull client quotes for financial advisors, run inforces for policies, fax important documents, check my supervisor’s voicemails (his phone is always ringing so I keep a spreadsheet of the reasons for calling), merge documents to create form letters, stamp and seal envelopes, and send out important papers to advisors in other cities. Although it sounds like a lot, I have mastered each of these tasks in just a few months and I know that the company branch counts on me to produce these things in order for the financial advisors to be able to be completely beneficial to the incoming clients.

I am usually at the office for about three hours a day and I purposely planned my schedule to where I would be very flexible with my availability to work. Being the CRM Intern is a great position for just starting out in the workforce and my time at AXA-Advisors has been nothing but pleasant and valuable for my future in the workforce.

Spring 2023

Position: Contingent Workforce Apprentice
Student: Economics Junior

I found this internship through the Career Fair at the University of Texas at Austin. My duties consisted of helping clients navigate through our website and system, fulfilling our capstone project to install any improvement within the workplace, and independently networking among higher-ups. My favorite thing about the internship was working alongside my peers.

Fall 2022

Position: Finanacial Services Apprentice 
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations Senior

I work at Charles Schwab as a Financial Services Apprentice. I found this internship on a LinkedIn post and they hire new interns every Spring, Summer, and Fall. I go to the headquarters near The Domain Monday - Friday for four hours a day and I spend most of the day talking to clients. Initially, I went through about a month of training to prepare me to talk to clients. Now, I work with four other interns and we spend most of the day at our desks taking phone calls. We had to learn a lot about financial literacy, but if a client’s question involves financial advice, we collaborate with a licensed broker and transfer them the call. We also have daily team huddles to discuss our goals or any problems we may have run into during the day. My favorite part of my internship is how it has forced me to go outside of my comfort zone. I talk to people all day at work and my communication skills are improving so much!

Summer 2017

Position: Transfer Pricing Intern
Student: Economics and Finance Senior

The Transfer Pricing group is part of the tax services that Deloitte offers. Transfer Pricing is about pricing the transactions and services a company sells to a related party. When a company sells its goods, services or agreements to a related party or subsidiary in the same company, it often has the freedom to decide on the price it wants. However, this gives some companies the freedom to move its revenue to countries or regions with less taxes. In that case, the U.S. government for example incurs a lost revenue from the taxes that it could have possibly made from the migrated revenue. My team is responsible for ensuring that the transactions are priced at an arm length, meaning that it is equivalent to the price of the transaction if it was sold to unrelated third party.

As a transfer pricing intern, I work with Ph.D. economists to analyze and resolve international transfer pricing issues faced by multinational enterprises. I assisted the consultants in performing detailed economic and financial analyses, as well as more complex modeling and empirical analyses. I also assisted them in drafting proposals, reports, document requests, client presentations and other client materials.

My day starts by checking my emails and responding to any requests from managers regarding any assignments. I then work on doing extensive research on the clients we have. That often requires reading a lot of information to extract the needed data based on pre-set criteria. We then run financial models on them to assure for the data accuracy and comparability.  The data is later used in a report submitted by the company to the IRS. As an intern I was assigned to update, edit and draft these reports. In preparing for the report, I wrote industry analysis, economic analysis and regulations write-up to decide on the best method to value the transaction on hand.

Summer 2016

Position: Financial Advisor Services Intern
Student: Economics Senior

Dimensional Fund Advisors is a mutual fund asset manager headquartered in Austin, TX with offices across the United States and multiple countries across the globe. The firm manages over $400 billion and as of 2016 was the seventh largest fund family within the United States. With a unique approach to investing based on academic research, Dimensional has a track record of success stretching back thirty-five years.

Dimensional is a world class institution in every sense of the term and interning at the firm exposes you to hardworking professionals from some of the leading universities across the country. From the three Nobel laureates that are on Dimensional’s board of directors to the employees sitting on each floor, Dimensional is a collaborative and encouraging environment that places a premium on a strong foundation of academic knowledge and hard work. As an intern in the Financial Advisor Services group you are first exposed to a multitude of trainings that pertain to the business in general and its functions, as well as the financial services industry as a whole. Throughout the summer though, don’t be surprised to frequently join the rest of the full time employees—from Vice Presidents all the way down to entry-level associates—in various lecture style meetings which afford the whole staff the opportunity to continuously develop their knowledge base and skill set. Dimensional is unique in that it does not try to pick stocks or forecast, its strategy is instead based upon academic research, and so it makes sense that it is valuable for the company to continuously be educating each employee about its strategies and academic background.

The Financial Advisor Services group’s role is to work hand in hand with a wide range of financial advisors across the United States that invest their end client’s assets in our mutual funds. To that extent, as an intern in Austin you aid in servicing that relationship with Dimensional’s advisor clients by performing portfolio analysis, industry performance evaluations and a multitude of ad hoc projects that full-time Associates and Senior Associates need help with. Similarly, as an intern you are assigned a strategic project that you must complete and present to the firm before the end of the summer. Projects are assigned because they actually add value back to the team, they are important in allowing interns to branch out and get to know employees across the company, and are a great way for an intern to leave their mark on the firm.

As an intern you are fully integrated into the firm and work no more than forty hours a week with a one hour lunch break every day. There are between twenty and thirty Financial Advisor Services interns from top universities from across the country and throughout the summer there are multiple social events and dinners that take place all over Austin that are hosted by the firm. In aggregate, Dimensional provides a fantastic internship experience that is valuable in allowing students to learn and grow, and full time offers are extended on the last day of the internship.

Spring 2022

Position: Audit Intern
Student: Economics

This spring I interned at Ernst & Young in their Luxembourg office as an Audit Intern. Ernst & Young Global Limited, also known as EY, is a multinational professional services network with headquarters in London, England, the firm provided services such as Management Consulting, Tax Advisory, and Assurance. I found this internship on the company website and submitted my application from there. My role as an intern was to support audit teams that were auditing private equity firms in preparing the 2021 Financial Statements. During my time at EY I preformed Impairment Testing, the valuation of portfolio companies, Volume Price Analysis for various shipping companies, Legal review for cross border transactions and acquisitions, and various other accounting and audit procedures such as Account Tie Outs and Bank Confirmations. These projects and assignments improved my knowledge and skills in both accounting and finance and helped me learn more about the Financial Industry and potential career tracks in this industry. 

Overall, my favorite aspect of Interning at Ernst & Young Luxembourg was the people. Almost all were willing to help me learn and grow if I had a question or if I was struggling with a task, I was also given challenging and meaningful work that would help me develop and strengthen my knowledge in accounting and finance. Moreover, the International Environment with over 80 different nationalities in the Luxembourg office and working with extremely diverse teams really made for a unique, challenging and interesting experience combined with working for International clients from around the globe. Overall, I would highly recommend working for Ernst and Young Luxembourg due to the interesting nature of the work, the international environment, and an amazing company culture that will challenge you but will also help you learn and grow. 

Fall 2018

Position: Private Equity Analyst Intern
Student: Economics Senior

My internship is with Finrock Growth Partners, a boutique private equity firm located just south of campus in the Dobie-Regus office building. I work 20 to 25 hours per week, but only 15 to 20 hours per week are required. This internship is a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to experience private equity and perform many of the duties normally reserved for full-time analysts or even associates. There are essentially three functions we serve, depending on where deals are in our “pipeline.” The first function is called deal sourcing. This is arguably our most important function as deal sourcing is how we feed potential acquisition targets into the top of the pipeline. Throughout this internship, I have identified over 1,000 companies to be added to our pipeline. We find these companies either through industry research, theme based searches, bankers/brokers and opportunistic searches. The second function is called due diligence. As deals progress and companies give an indication of interest , we must begin the due diligence process. This involves coming up with clarifying questions and conducting detailed industry research to identify potential drivers of growth, risk factors and measure the competitive environment. The third function is financial modeling/deal structure. If the company is interested and our thesis is confirmed in due diligence, the deal typically moves to the letter of intent (“LOI”) stage. This is when we will build detailed financial models to come up with a valuation, structure the deal and calculate an expected IRR for our investors. This internship has given me some great experience which has infinitely helped in marketing myself to full time employers in Investment Banking and Private Equity.

Fall 2018

Position: Accounting Intern
Student: Economics and Sociology Junior

My internship required to work for 4 hours for 3 days per week, I can choose the shift for myself as if I want to work in the morning (9 AM to 1 PM) or in the afternoon (1 PM to 5 PM). The tasks will be the same either I choose morning or afternoon shift except for few such as cash deposit, receiving invoices (which can only be done by the end of the day).

On the first and second day at the beginning of the job, the supervisor will go over the position, discuss what shift each intern will take, how can he help them in grading and supervising as school required, what method should we contact him the best, etc. Then he will sit with an intern(s) and teach us how to do for each task, how to work on finance management websites such as iBuy Efficient and M3. The job has a lot to do on iBuy, so it is necessary to get familiar with this website as a part of the accounting career path.

The workers are assigned will depend on the work amount left from the day before. The intern will receive invoices and cross check with what appears in the system, make sure things are correct, stamp invoices and written date of receiving, then transfer to corporate. For some invoices just delivered, we have to make payment for them, but first have to create Purchase Order (PO) in the system, then make payment. Some vendors have the contract with corporate will be received and make payment, intern required to know how to check what month is already paid and which not. Interns also need to remember the General Legend code according to the department and their reason for purchase. Such as 10 is for everything related to Administration, 80 is for things related to Maintenance, etc. the GL Code has to be recorded correctly and written on each invoice along with PO number. Some other tasks but not appear frequently: create new vendor or update vendor contact information, get cash for each day from safety box.

Interns need to know to raise the question when in confused or doubt of how the job/tasks assigned should be done. Since we work directly to the accounts system so if any mistake related to vendor accounts could cause us in troubles, it may not be big trouble but would create a mess to other process and works of other people who in charge of other parts.   

Position: Accounting Intern
Studnet: Economics Senior

Working at the Holiday Inn as an accounting intern is one of the best decisions I made in my college career. As an accounting intern, you get to work in the accounting department by directly assisting two accounting managers. It is a small group, so you are expected to help them with various tasks including managing accounting receivables, accounting payables, handling cash deposits of hotel staffs and preparing for the bank, dispersing petty cash, and more. When you first start working here, it is recommended that you bring your notes and take notes on everything that they train you because it is highly likely that you won’t remember most of the stuff by just passively listening. It personally really helped me having the notes with me all the time.

The first thing I do after I get there is continuing on the work that another intern has left of if she has not finished the work. Then, I usually take a 30-minute lunch break. You can just eat what hotel is serving that day, or order some food from the kitchen with the employee discount. After lunch, I continue to work with cash deposits and prepare them for the bank if it’s Mondays and also create and receive P.O numbers for numbers of invoices. The key here is to really detail-oriented, so you don’t make any mistakes. You are also responsible for reporting accounting payables and receivable files to the corporation. There are some other tasks that you will learn, but these are the main day-to-day responsibilities of my role.

 The hotel also has a sales department which is located in the lobby whereas the accounting department is in the back in the hotel. You will need to go to the sales department to use the scanner frequently, so it is good that you know the names of people in the sales department. 

Spring 2018

Position: Accounting Intern 
Student: Economics Senior

My internship has been carried out at Holiday Inn-Town Lake Austin. You may know it as the greenly-lit hotel that neighbors the I-35 highway and Lady Bird Lake. I serve as an Accounting Intern within their Accounting Department and I work directly with the Accounting Manager and the Accounts Payable. I was able to secure this internship informally through networking. I have been the only Accounting intern there for some years because prior to my arrival, the position was closed due to interns not taking the internship seriously as well as being disruptive to normal business operations. This could mean asking too many obvious, similar questions that should be common knowledge. I combat this bad habit by taking notes down for reference. Fortunately, I have been able to open the position up again but only per my referrals.

A day at work for me means: creating P.O. numbers for offline invoices, receiving invoices that have P.O.’s, counting the daily deposits that could be upwards of $10,000 (like they are when it’s SXSW or there’s a state-wide convention in Austin), handling chargeback disputes with bank entities, or sometimes depositing the daily deposits at the bank.

My supervisor is a current student at Texas State since he is going back to get his undergraduate degree in order to earn a promotion within the Human Resources Department—he is understanding of my schedule and is very flexible with me. I used to come in during the afternoons after class, but found that coming in the morning before classes was better for my schedule. The days and times I come in also are dependent on whether I have exams or other important events too. I’ve got to network with all the managers and employees there, as well as received a job offer that will always be waiting for me. The hotel is like a family and are always welcoming. Being in the hotel industry, hospitality is a must to our guests, but to get that treatment amongst our co-workers has been a huge plus.

Spring 2018

Position: Finance Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations Senior

Integrated Financial Planning Center is a small wealth management business in Austin. In most cases the financial advisors meet with clients to help prepare them for retirement. In addition to the financial advisors there’s a Chief of Operations, Receptionist that helps clients book annual reviews, an Operations Manager that deals with the customer service aspect when clients may have questions or need to make a trade, a Marketing Specialist to schedule events for clients, and an Administrative Assistant.

The average day for an intern begins as you sit down at your desk in the Operations Manager's office space. You’ll log into their CRM site and begin to look through the assigned tasks for the day as well as any workflows. After a few minutes of settling in, the Operations Manager (Sean) will make sure you understand your tasks and tell you anything else you may need to know about your tasks. In the beginning of your internship you’ll learn how to create folders with portfolio reports and other important information that the advisors take into their clients annual review meetings. Sometimes these folders can take all day and sometimes they can take 1-2 hours depending on the clients portfolio complexity. On a weekly basis you’ll attend the staff meeting in which you’ll gain a better understanding of how all of the roles in the business come together and learn what each position does. As you progress through your time at IFPC you’ll also be added different tasks to better understand the business in general. You’ll typically work 10-15 hours per week and Amanda (Advisor) will work with you to better accommodate your school schedule. The atmosphere is very laid back and professional. Be on time, do your job and get to know everyone in the office because they’re all really cool!

Fall 2016

Position: Finance Intern
Student: Economics Senior

The company I work for is called the Integrated Financial Planning Center, which is composed of financial advisors who serve clients in five areas of specialization. These five areas include retirement ability analysis, risk management, tax planning, investments, and advanced financial planning. Financial advisors are qualified investment professionals who help clients meet their long-term financial goals through portfolio creation and financial analyzing. In a synopsis, the advisors at my firm provide consultations to clients where they discuss the financial matters and gather data to run a financial analysis, analyze the client’s assets and benefits, and then clarify the client’s goals in order of importance. After that, there is a portfolio presentation and if the client approves then the portfolio is implemented. One aspect of this industry that greatly appeals to me is the idea that a financial advisors job helps people for the greater good. Helping clients reach their goal to have enough money in the bank when they retire is quite philanthropic in my opinion. 

Company culture has become greatly emphasized in the past decade due to websites such as Glassdoor. I am lucky enough to say that my company has a great work environment with amazing co-workers. All the employees are cordial and greet me every time I start and end my workday. Regarding work times, it’s up to you, as long as you work 12 hours a week. My boss specifically is understanding and flexible with my schedule; always keeping in mind that I am a full-time student. If I need to leave early she doesn't hesitate to say yes, which eases my stress if I ever need to study for a big test or get something urgent taken care of.

Spring 2016

Position: Finance Intern
Student: Economics Senior

The Integrated Financial Planning Center is composed of financial advisors who serve clients in five areas of specialization. These five areas include retirement ability analysis, risk management, tax planning, investments, and advanced financial planning.

Financial advisors are qualified investment professionals who help clients meet their long-term financial goals through portfolio creation and financial analyzing. In a synopsis, the advisors at my firm provide consultations to clients where they discuss the financial matters and gather data to run a financial analysis, analyze the client’s assets and benefits, and then clarify the client’s goals in order of importance.

After that, there is a portfolio presentation and if the client approves then the portfolio is implemented. One aspect of this industry that greatly appeals to me is the idea that a financial advisors job actually helps people for the greater good. Helping clients reach their goal to have enough money in the bank when they retire is quite philanthropic in my opinion.

2012

Position: Finance Intern
Student: Economics Junior

A typical day as intern at IFPC would be arriving in the afternoon around 1 p.m. after my morning classes.  I’d walk in say hi to everyone in the office and then proceed to the intern desk.  I would then log in and maybe check my email or read a story on CNN.  Then after I am settled in I would start my work for the day.

I had some remedial repetitive tasks that I’d take care of everyday.  The company is small so there are always things that need to be done.  In other words, their goals for the company are always ahead of the work getting done to get there.  This is motivating because I like that IFPC is always pushing forward.

My main purpose as intern was to help the full-time employees with whatever they were working on. Clients want to know where there money is going and if it is growing.  I would help prepare financial documents for annual and quarterly client meetings.  This mostly meant looking up investments on Morningstar and then organizing a portfolio that included data and charts of how their investments were performing.  I enjoyed this the most as I felt I was helping the company help their clients. 

For the most part, the everyday life of an intern at Integrated Financial Planning Center was a good experience.  Of course there were slower days and busy days but the staff is really kind and very helpful to the interns.  You will never feel too pressured to do anything and the staff is always willing to lend a hand.

Spring 2016

Position: Criminal Investigation Intern
Student: Economics Senior

My typical day at the IRS office is pretty similar every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I start off each morning by arriving at the office at 8:30 and get settled by organizing my desk and sorting and responding to any emails that I may have. Around 9:00 I check the mail and distribute it. By 9:30 I start my rounds seeing if any of the agents have any projects for me to complete. Usually by 10:00 I will have all of the projects for the day, I prioritize them by the most important and which ones will get done quickest and which ones will take more than one week to complete. Usually all of my projects consist of downloading information from databases that different banking institutions send on CD’s.

The IRS computers do not allow these applications to be installed so I usually go down to the Task Force room for a couple of hours and sort through data and print whatever I think is necessary for the case. This includes printing pictures of deposit statements, money orders, and checks. After I complete all of the printing and sorting of the different bank accounts I head back upstairs and organize all of the paperwork into folders and file them into my desk.

I usually take my 30 minute lunch after I complete my work in the task force room which ranges anytime between 11:30 am- 12:30 pm. After lunch I go to the USDA office to pick up any paperwork from the attorneys that are working on criminal investigation cases. Once I return to my desk I recheck my emails and then start going over the print outs from the bank accounts I had previously filed away, I then create detailed spreadsheets of each of the accounts containing all of the credits and debits and notate any suspicious activity that I may see. After creating all of the spreadsheets I upload them onto database where the agents can easily access the information and examine the spending patterns. My day then ends at 4:30 after I send in all of my compiled data to each agent concerning their respective case.

Spring 2016

Position: Spring Analyst Intern
Student: Economics Senior

There is no typical “Day in the Life” at Lenox Park LLC. Lenox Park LLC is a due diligence advisory firm and technology solution company. Most of my internship role was on the technology solutions side since this was the focus and most actively growing area in the business. I would say that my experience was very unique considering how much flexibility was involved throughout my experience. Most of the time I worked from home, except I went to the office on Friday mornings to catch up on projects and receive assignments for the next week.

Mostly every week was different, but the one consistent thing I provided every week was a Pipeline report. I would prepare a report for status updates from each of the other five members of the team and prepare a client report from our database system to be used for a team conference call every week. In addition, I was able to participate in a special compliance project throughout the duration of my internship in order to provide insight on an area that Lenox Park LLC would like to add to their technology CRM solution.

Since the culture is mostly about just getting the job done, it was very easy to do the tasks at my convenience. Usually for me, I would schedule all of my data entry tasks to do in a group on the weekend such as tracking metrics or updating the database. Additionally, I would quickly prepare reports or background information on different groups before a conference call during the week. As an intern, it would be extremely important to be flexible and attentive at all times since the team might need a document by giving you short notice. I would say that a successful intern needs to be a self-starter and also inquisitive and ask lots of questions. That would be the best way to make the most out of your internship experience.

Fall 2022

Position: Accounting Structure & Advisory Intern
Student: Economics Senior

I am currently working at an accounting firm called LEK CPAs and Consultant as an Accounting Structure & Advisory Intern. I have found this internship opportunity through family connection. There are about five other offices located in the United States and recently opened up a new location in Austin. My main task is to file quarterly tax reports, organize our partnered company’s bank transactions and create an income statement and a balance sheet. I do this almost 70% of the time. My favorite part about this internship, are the hands on experience I finally get to have after only learning about different accounting concepts from lectures. Working with real firms and obtaining their private information was very nerve-wracking at first, but I have gotten used to it by the second or third week of the internship program.

Summer 2023 

Position: Credit Analyst Intern 
Student: Economics Junior, UTNY Participant 

Nassau Corporate Credit is a CLO manager and an investment advisory firm. I found this internship through the summer UTNY program. Duties include attending company's quarterly lender presentations and loan proposals, updating rating agency information, and modeling credit performance. My favorite thing about the internship is how friendly and knowledgeable everyone working there is! I definitely recommend this internship! 

Spring 2018

Position: Financial Representative Intern
Student: Economics Senior

Before being officially hired, interns are asked to reach out to people in their lives about their personal experiences with financial planning and learn from them about their view of the industry. In addition to these 5 meetings, interns are required to build a list of about 100 prospective clients or other people that could help introduce you to future prospects. Hired interns are then put through a week-long training program; a course on insurance products, financial utilities and Northwestern Mutual philosophies. Before officially becoming a financial representative for Northwestern, you must become a licensed agent with the State of Texas. The General Lines Licensing Exam isn’t difficult but requires a lot of studying for about 3 days leading up to the exam.

Working at Northwestern Mutual is not stressful or overly demanding because you are able to build your business on your own terms. Mentors have expectations about your activity level however, including: how many phone calls you make, meetings you keep and prospects you obtain from meetings. The expectation is that just have a conversation with people close to you to practice prospecting them and listening to their goals. Eventually you will need to invite prospects to the office for a meeting where you sit and listen during the meeting with a veteran agent. The joint work partners will handle all the first meetings until you feel comfortable running some of them. If the prospective client decides that they are interested in a policy, the joint work partner will initiate underwriting and a you two will split the commission if everything goes smoothly.

Fall 2017 

Position: Intern
Student: Economics Senior

Northwestern prides itself in having an internship program that ranks top 10 in the United States. They guide and motivate interns to manage their time, build their own business, and mold into responsible working adults. After three interviews, hired interns are put through a week-long training program; a crash course on the world of wealth accumulation and financial utilities. Before officially being a financial representative for Northwestern, everyone must be a licensed agent. Northwestern’s crash course as well as their variety of study resources will have you well prepared to take your General Lines Licensing exam. 

After these preliminary steps, interns are on their way to becoming successful financial representatives. They earn commissions and a two-hundred-dollar stipend twice a month ($400 a month) upon attending two development meetings a week. Development meetings are biweekly meetings that take place in the office; these times and days are set based on the schedule of all the interns. If you are unable to attend, you may join in over the phone or you may watch the recording of the meetings and give proof of watching.

The commission earned is based off of your activity as a financial representative. By all means they do NOT expect you to be an expert financial representative immediately or even during the course of your internship, and you are encouraged to build your own business on your own terms. At first you are expected to just have conversation with people close to you to practice representing them; once you feel comfortable enough to make moves as a representative you can invite them to the office for a meeting where you sit and shadow a meeting with a veteran agent and the prospective client. Your job at this point is done, the veteran agent will take the reigns. If the prospective client decides on a policy, you and your co-rep will spit the commission on that policy.  

Summer 2019

Position: Finance Intern
Student: Economics Sophomore

As a prominent member of the commercial real estate investment sector of Barcelona, Spain as well as Iberia as a whole, I was exposed to a variety of personalities and experiences.  Often, I worked with Microsoft office to log and maintain information in databases and personal storage files. In addition, I would take the bus to visit properties that Oxygen has investments in to confirm the rate of progress agreed upon before work began. Then, after visiting the site I would compile any information or pictures I collected on this trip. Using this data, I would create a PowerPoint presentation to be presented to investors the next day either by myself or by my boss, Alex. My usual work schedule in Spain was from 9:00AM-2:00PM and from 4:00PM-7PM. However, my boss would often commend my work from the morning and allow me to head home for the day around 2:00PM after we had lunch together. In addition, I was also able to use some prior coding knowledge I had acquired through classes at UT and in High School. I utilized these skills to completely revamp the user interface and client information sections of the Oxygen Capital website. This was very interesting for me because my primary usage of my coding knowledge had been used through excel and excel related tasks at my prior internships in the field. For example, I had previously worked at another commercial real estate investment firm in Dallas, Texas where my skills had not been utilized in this way.

Spring 2017

Position: Lending and Administration Intern
Student: Economics Senior

Now that the semester is nearing an end, I have had the chance to look back on my time spent at PeopleFund provide insight of my experience as an intern. My schedule throughout the semester was 10am to 5pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with an hour for lunch everyday. Although my position was specifically “Lending and Administration” I voiced to my supervisor that I wanted the chance to work within other departments, which she was perfectly fine with. Therefore I didn’t have a typical schedule that was the same throughout my time. On one day I would be asked to complete a file of insurance, I would input information on a program called nls and I would check to make sure there aren’t any discrepancies with any of the clients information. I would then scan the documents and upload them to the PeopleFund client folders. But then the next day I would be helping in closing documents, where I would look through some key information in the file and make sure that also doesn’t have any discrepancies.

There are also days when I go on client visits to visit the PeopleFund clients on site and I would observe while the PeopleFund representative I was with conducts the on-site visit. Those days are the most interesting since I get to see the businesses we work with firsthand. All in all a typical day at PeopleFund is not overwhelming or too demanding. You’re allowed the freedom to move at a very manageable pace, and still learn a lot.

Spring 2018

Position: Assurance Intern
Student: Economics Junior

I interned with the big four accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers. PwC mission is to
“build trust in society and solve important problems.” The firm is focused on helping their clients and do the very best work they can do. On top of that, the firm strives for their employees to have a healthy work/life balance. First I want to briefly talk about the recruiting experience. Their recruiting team is the best. There is the traditional way of getting the internship, which is rounds of interviews. I got the privilege to attend the National Elevate Program in Atlanta Georgia which was a three day interactive program where we learned about the company, had teams to work on team building and working with others and many projects. It was a great experience! There are also other fun recruiting events for people who accepted their internship offer. Work days during my internship were long, usually about 9:00 am to 8:00 - 9:00 pm, keep in mind January-May is “busy” season. My first week I was a little overwhelmed by the lengthy work days, especially when I worked until midnight one night. I think that was because I was not used to their method yet and was not able to get things done as quick as I wanted to. As the weeks went on, the days got shorter, about 9:00 am to 6:00-7:00 pm but the days flew by because I was able to keep up with the work the others were doing around me. We also got free lunch and dinner! If an employee is in client services, they usually work at the client’s offices. I learned many valuable skills such as PwC’s specific auditing methods, significantly improved my excel skills, learned how to navigate data bases and prepare spreadsheets and lead schedules. I was able to see a 10K filing process as well as planning procedure for the next year’s audit. Also the staff I worked with was incredible. They were patient with us and were always helpful.

Summer 2016 

Position: Technology Consulting Intern
Student: Economics Junior

I spent my Junior year summer (Summer, 2016) interning with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. PwC is one of the big four audit and advisory firms in the world, and I was a technology consulting intern under the Advisory sector of the firm. My vertical, which is one of the four subdivisions under each of the four different consulting horizontals, was Financial Services with a competency in Risk and Regulation Technology. Interning with a globally scaled firm with 200 other interns and in one of the biggest offices in the world taught me that my experience would be everything that I put into it, and nothing if I did not make that extra effort to learn and connect. Swallowing my fear and reaching out to the Partners of the firm took me a longer way than I expected and I was connected to multiple other Partners and Directors in the firm. I was fortunate to have met people who prioritize investment in human capital enough to get coffee with an intern and share anecdotes from their time at PwC thus far. Whether or not the next snippet of my internship experience is advisable is debatable, but I spread myself out and took on 5 different projects along with other deliverables on the sidelines. Staying at the office into the night and toiling away at work that was above and beyond what was expected of me took away from time  that would have otherwise been dedicated to soaking in New York City but instead left me with a wealth of knowledge and an understanding of the differences in expectations of different teams. Working with four sets of Directors and two Partners, along with other Managers and Associates, helped me identify the varied paces at which teams prefer to function, the expected turnover rate of deliverables and finer points of the cultures and environments in which they thrived in. As an intern, your work could vary great extents depending on the project(s) you’re deployed to, so it becomes rather challenging to generalize a day in the life of a PwC intern. You might find yourself traveling across the country week, you might find yourself presenting something you created the previous night to the Partners of the firm the next morning. You might find yourself diving into a deep, unknown, sea of research, befriending Excel to a sickening extent or creating something substantial right from scratch. I will conclude by saying that as a PwC intern, you will learn a great amount about the consulting world and an even greater amount about your personal and professional self. 

Fall 2017

Position: Financial Intern
Student: Economics Senior

A day in the life of Financial Intern at RBC Wealth Management begins with everyone’s favorite part of Austin: the traffic. A solid piece of advice I will begin with is to invest into a scooter or motorcycle that allows you to quickly navigate traffic as for the RBC office is in the heart of sixth street, just off Guadalupe. Once at the office, it is important to log-in to your computer quickly and to check your emails for the day, for not only is there important data regarding financial advice from corporate office, on Wednesdays and Fridays you will have a full day worth of missed emails as you only work three days a week including Monday. After catching up on the financial news, it is equally important to check the Bloomberg Terminal on your computer for financial news elsewise. These two tasks are of utmost importance, as your interactions with others in the office, clients on the phone, and your methodology in preparing and binding financial reports will all depend on your knowledge of this advice.

Daily duties around the office are extended to answering telephones from clients, preparing and binding financial reports and summaries for clients, filing reports and client papers, and guiding clients who stop by to their respective financial advisor. It is also expected that you complete a rigorous onslaught of courses related to financial training, primarily KYC (know your customer) regulations. In totality, the workload as a financial intern at RBC Wealth Management is more than manageable and you are provided with time to work on your school work as well. You will gain a great deal of experience and insight into the daily lives of not only financial advisors, but financiers of all kinds via your emails, Bloomberg Terminal, and your interactions with visitors to the office who represent other companies.

Spring 2017

Position: Due Diligence Internship
Student: Economics Senior

SALI Fund Services is a great place to start your career, particularly through the due diligence intern position. SALI is an office full of team players, hard workers, and friendly faces. As any internship goes, you will be required to make the very occasional coffee run or stock the fridge. However, if you prove that you’re up to the task, you can have some really meaningful and important projects handed to you. Overall, being an intern at SALI can be one of the best internships you can have.

Your typical day at SALI varies greatly day by day. If you can prove that you’re ready and willing to take on anything, your job becomes more of a problem solver. However, before you can take on those tasks, you’ll need to get the basic tasks of the due diligence department done first. These tasks include drafting and then corresponding on fund regulatory reporting, firm summaries, and managing the library of files and contacts. From there, you can start to take on evaluating and analyzing due diligence materials. These materials could be filling out due diligence questionnaires, analyzing and evaluating quarterly questionnaires for red flags, and then testing funds for compliance with the appropriate regulations governing the fund. By doing this, you’ll be directly impacting vital firm operations and it can actually be quite a challenge.

Once you’ve completed the basic tasks of the due diligence department, you can move on to my favorite part of the job: problem solving. From here, your possibilities are pretty much limitless. At the bare bones of it all, you’re either taking existing known problems or finding unknown problems. Then, you go about solving it. For me, this type of work came in the form of creating more efficient systems for data management. However, this work can range human resources work like finding a better way to manage time sheets all the way to creating excel training videos for the firm. Most of the work you’ll do is mostly directed at known problems, but occasionally you get the freedom to take on anything you think you can improve upon. Overall, working at SALI is a great way to kickstart your career and prove that you deserve the big bucks.

Spring 2016

Position: Wealth Management Intern
Student: Economics Senior

At Silicon Hills Wealth Management, they require I be there the entire day. They did not want me working for only 3-hour or 4-hour increments. The stipulation was that on days I worked, I would be there from 9:30-5. Working 9:30-5 a couple days a week meant I had to compact my classes schedule. I only have classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so I can work full days on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sometimes during the week I feel drained, but this schedule does break up my week and keeps things interesting!

The environment in the office is good. There are free snacks and coffee! At the Keurig you can make lattes, or chai teas, or just coffee. There are endless snacks like nuts, chips, fruit snacks, cookies, and much more. Nobody gets mad if you take a snack, and it helps keep my blood sugar up during the long day. Also, parking is close by.

A typical day at the internship is doing varying tasks to help the Wealth Managers. The compliance manager, Glenda, will tell me what the Wealth Managers need help with that day. She’s the liaison between the Wealth Managers and myself. Some tasks I’ve done include researching stocks, transferring a client’s budget from a handwritten sheet to our online data base, finding stock’s cost-basis, writing articles for the quarterly newsletter, and a bit scanning. They have me doing different tasks every week.

Spring 2016

Position: Asset Management and Acquistion Intern
Student: Economics Senior

Virtus Real Estate Capital is a real estate private equity firm focused on acquiring targeted recession resilient real estate asset types. Virtus raises private equity through a variety of capital sources and then deploys that capital in opportunistic and core plus acquisitions to assemble a well hedged portfolio of real estate assets. Virtus does not operate commercial real estate properties, but rather is a capital provider for operating partners.

Virtus employs interns to work within a business unit: healthcare, self storage, alternative multifamily, or student housing on acquisitions, asset management, or both. I worked in both asset management and acquisitions within the healthcare business unit, so I will speak to the responsibilities of that position.

The healthcare business unit includes acquisition and management of senior living and medical office buildings. The first skill that every intern should possess prior to joining Virtus is proficiency in Microsoft Excel. More of your time will be spent on excel than any other software. You should be comfortable putting together pro forma financial statements, analyzing financial return metrics, and building in sensitivity analyses for potential acquisitions.

On the asset management side, you will be doing the same thing except that you will be dealing with actual financials rather than pro forma financials. Interns are also responsible for conducting market analysis for potential acquisitions and current assets. Market studies will look at demographics, supply, demand, regulatory barriers, etc. and have the goal of assessing the viability of a given market as well as understanding the subject property’s position within the market. Finally, interns are responsible for other ad hoc analyses related to a given subject property. These include everything from variances to business plan, macro-level research on a given property type, reporting operator sales effectiveness, etc.