The Value of an Accounting Internship: What Do Accounting Students Really Gain?

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Many accounting students complete an internship as part of their educational experience before graduation. Several studies have documented the benefits of internship experiences (Callanan & Benzing, 2004; Cannon & Arnold, 1998; Gault, Redington, S Gault, Leach, & Duey, 2010; Kessler, Danko, & Grant, 2009; Knechel & Snowball, 1987; McCombs & VanSyckle, 1994; Paisey & Paisey, 2010; Rigsby, Addy, Herring, & Polledo, 2013; Violette, Violette, & Hendrix, 2013). These advantages include solidifying students' choice of major, allowing employers to make connections with the most promising students for recruiting purposes, giving students a practical experience that enhances their ability to work with others, improving students' subsequent academic performance, and providing students' with career advantages. However, the specific skills students develop from an internship experience and how these align with what employers hiring full-time accounting students need has received little attention. In addition, the differences in skill development between student interns is not discussed. From the employer perspective, prior research has identified the skills they require. Pernsteiner (2013) interviewed ten recruiters from small to large CPA firms (including two of the Big 4 firms) as well as from private organizations and found that the top skill they looked for in candidates they hired was communication. In fact, the majority of the skills identified by the employers were soft skills rather than hard skills. Soft skills include people skills and personal attributes while hard skills are the technical expertise and knowledge that people need to know to perform specific tasks (Robles, 2012). The recruiters mainly used a student's grade point average to assess technical competence during the screening process and to determine whom to interview (Pernsteiner, 2013). Others have also documented the importance of soft skills for accountants in the workplace (Kermis & Kermis, 2010; Lin, Grace, & Krishnan, 2010; Meeting of the minds, 2008; Violette & Chene, 2008) and in business in general (Amato, 2013; Davos, 2013). In addition to communication, other skills identified by employers included selfconfidence, the ability to manage time effectively, people skills, initiative, integrity, work ethic, and problem solving skills (Pernsteiner, 2013). These are similar to results found by Robles (2012) in a survey of business executives. The top ten soft skills executives wanted their employees to possess were communication, courtesy, flexibility, integrity, interpersonal skills, a positive attitude, professionalism, responsibility, teamwork, and work ethic (Robles, 2012). Considering that accounting employers require these skills for employment, it is important to understand where in an accounting student's educational career they are developed, and perhaps more importantly, if there are some skills that are not developed that need to be. One of the activities that many accounting students participate in is an internship experience. Considering that this is a hands-on learning experience, it is likely that interns develop many of these skills. Several studies have investigated various aspects of internships and skills. For example, Green, Graybeal, and Madison (2011) considered whether business student perceptions of the traits that are important to employment decisions are affected by an internship experience, as well measured the changes in student values of these traits before and after an internship experience. This study examined student and employer perceptions of the importance of soft skills, but not which skills students developed over the course of the internship. Cook, Parker, and Pettijohn (2004) surveyed business interns over a 10-year period and found the majority agreed that they learned to work with a variety of different types of people and matured personally through their internship experience. …