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 It was through my school that I learned about KPMG and how it is an employer of choice. I decided to apply to the firm’s Fast Forward program, a national leadership program held in Hollywood, Calif., last summer that targets rising juniors who are interested in learning more about the firm. Thanks to this program I learned a lot about KPMG, as well as networked with prospective interns and current professionals across the nation. Also, while there I received an interview offer for an internship this summer.

This is a great program that showed me what a career in accounting would be like. It also showed me how much KPMG is willing to invest in both its potential and current employees.

Communication and Networking Within the Firm

One of the things I like the most about KPMG is that the people in the firm always make you feel as comfortable as possible. I was pretty nervous on my way to the New York office a few weeks ago, not knowing what to expect from the first day of orientation. My nerves quickly went away once I arrived at the office and was welcomed with a nice breakfast accompanied by all the New York audit interns and the recruiting team. There was a welcoming atmosphere throughout the week, which made us all feel at ease in spite of the amount of information being given to us. We did many things, from setting up our voicemail and laptops, to self-study assignments, to listening to a two-day seminar on KPMG’s methods for conducting an audit. The week concluded with a conference on our intern community service challenge, followed a boat cruise on the Hudson River with fellow interns and mentors across the different practices.

National training week was very busy; there were definitely some times when I felt a bit overwhelmed. One thing that really helped me keep calm and focused was the people I had already met in the firm from attending KPMG’s Fast Forward program in California last summer. We had a course called "Manage Your Own Message," which taught us about communicating effectively with clients and co-workers. In this course, as well as in all the general sessions, interns from every practice (audit, tax, and advisory) were together. Then we had breakout sessions in which everyone learned about their own practice. The instructors were mostly senior associates, which was great because they could relate to us and our situation. So far, my experience with KPMG has been more than great, from Fast Forward, to orientation week, to national training in Orlando.

I look forward to the next few weeks, gaining experience working with clients, participating in the intern community service challenge and working in Milan, Italy, at a KPMG International member firm for four weeks through KPMG’s global internship program.

Stay tuned to hear all about my experience.

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