Blog Archives

PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: July 25-29

8/30/2016

Monday July 25th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am and went straight to my room. I revised my email and began to work on a checklist for the week. I only have five days left in the office and I want to finish strong. First, I reached out to my coaches and asked them to meet for a last time in the office. Afterwards I did a checklist for the VAN project and everything I need to complete before I go. There are some people I need to reach out for ideas for the Veterans Day event and also finish some last touches on the Sparkpage. Then, since my group for the consulting project, Blind Spots, got chosen to present in front of the partners I decided to rethink a little more slides and my notes. I did this in order to make my presentation run smoother and connect more closely. Finally, I ended the day by talking to some Advanced interns and asking them about their experience with working with the firm and returning. Since I got the offer for next semester I really need to evaluate my options and decide whether PwC is a good fit for me.

Tuesday July 26th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am and went to my conference room. Here I met with a colleague who had a call with a Partner from Strategy& (Advisory). Because he was going to pitch to the Partner the reason he wanted to be in Strategy&, he wanted to practice with me. From his speech I learned more about the PwC services, and the Advisory practice. There are three things he mentioned that remain with me, and also made me realize why I wanted to be in Advisory more. First, he told me that it is a great way to learn about different businesses, how they work, and the way they are structured. Because Strategy& looks at Deals, more specifically merges and acquisitions, they need to look at every aspect of a business when merging two companies. Therefore, when merging two companies they have to be aware of every aspect of the businesses in order to bring them together, from finance to branding. Then, he said that Advisory presents new and different challenges in every project. Because all businesses are different the challenge to merge them will always vary. Solving new problems all the times improves your analytical thinking skills, and also your problem solving skills. Finally, the last thing he said is that advisory challenges your brain to look at a problem many different ways and it pushes you to search for answers in new avenues. From this experience I realized how much you can also learn from other interns and that in PwC I was not only building a network with professionals, but with my colleagues who in the future work in different places. Afterwards I finished some last minute details on the Spark Page which I need to hand over this week and I connected with people I met in the office who worked on my floor.

Wednesday July 27th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30am and went straigt to work on my presentation for tomorrow. I practiced my part alone and at 10am my group met to do a run through. Paty, IFS Manager, came to give us final feedback and challenge us with questions Partners could possibly ask us. The run through went really good, everyone had practiced and our first presentation already gave us a taste of how tomorrow will be. We just tuned some positioning details. Paty gave us really tough questions about the compliance, which made us really rethink our solution and really develop a structure if the judges asked. Then we changed around some working to make it more professional, but after Paty’s feedback we all felt more confident. Then, for lunch Allyson, my supervisor, took my team to eat. Allyson is great and it was a good moment to connect outside the office and learn more about each others backgrounds. Also, we used this as an opportunity to thank Allyson for being a great mentor throughout the internship. In the afternoon, there was not much work to be completed so I continued to practice for my presentation.

Thursday July 28th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30am and went straight to the 5th floor to meet with my team and practice any last minute things. Once we were done running over last details we just relaxed together before the presentation. At 9:50am we entered the room and introduced ourselves to the Partners. Our presentation flowed very well, the conclusion had the same strong impact as last time, even one of the Partners got emotional and cried. I felt that I struggled a little in the beginning and got stuck, but ultimately I was able to come back from that. The Partners were very happy with our presentation since they acknowledge the importance of our topic considering everything happening around the world. They agreed with our solution and they asked some questions regarding logistics and how we would carry out the compliance. Thanks to Paty we were prepared to answer those questions as we had thought them through. I was happy with our presentation even if we win or not. After lunch we had a Tax webcast explaining the different careers with in Tax. One of the things I really liked was that it gave you stereotypes of what people think Tax is, and what it really is. One of the things I had always thought is that Tax is very repetitive and you don’t travel, but actually the projects vary between clients and also you do get to travel from time to time. After the webcast I finished the day by requesting the Snapshot from my supervisor.

Friday July 29th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am, my last day of the internship. I went to the office and looked at my email. All the people I email yesterday (coaches and PwC professionals I had connected with) had replayed so I made sure to answer. Afterwards, we had a farewell breakfast with all the inters and a talent show. This was very entertaining, and a lot of people had great talents. Afterwards I made sure to cover all the things in the checklist before returning the computer. Since the email can only be accessed through this computer, I had to make sure I had everything answered and covered. Also, Ann approached me and told me that I was selected to do Star Masters Advisory, I was very excited because I know this was very selective and it was something I really wanted to do. Finally, to end the day I returned my things and thanked my supervisor, Allyson, and recruiter, Ann, who have helped me make the best of this experience.

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PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: July 18-22

8/30/2016

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Monday July 18th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am and went to my desk. First, I finished crafting the email for the kickoff meeting with the new VAN members. Then, I saw that Avery Gray, Tax Director and leader of VAN in the NE, had emailed me and invited me to a VAN Northeast Initial Planning meeting. Avery has just been able to get all the leaders together and the purpose of today's meeting was to brainstorm on the structure of the Chapter, the mission, and anything else to start building a framework and setting goals. The meeting was held after lunch, Avery and Anthony were in the room and two other people joined over the phone. Avery began the meeting by introducing the VAN and what he envisioned for the group. After discussing how the group was going to be structured and the main focus, they turned the meeting to me. I presented everything I had worked on, the Spark Page, the kickoff powerpoint, and the members list. They were very happy with my work and they appreciated my help. I was very nervous to talk to them at first, but then I gained more confidence and I was able o give them my input and feedback on the VAN. Even though I have only two weeks left I am happy and proud of how this initiative has grown and the path it is taking. Also, today I had a follow up shadowing in Tax. Last week I attended the call for Joe's (Tax manager) client, and today I attended the meeting with the whole client team. During this meeting the discussed everything that was talked with the client last week on the call and they began to divide roles.

Tuesday July 19th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am, I looked at my emails and at 9:30 am I attended an event with all the other interns. Here Melvin, another, intern, gave a presentation on Linkedin and the importance of a professional presence on social media. Two years ago I created my Linkedin and as I have been getting internships over the years I have realized the value of this profile. Linkedin is an online resume, which is public to many companies and professionals. It is important to have a good online presence as they recruit many people from this social media. If managed correctly, one can take advantage of the benefits it brings along. After this presentation John Farina, Manager Partner for the NE, talked to us briefly about the firm, since they are at year end, and asked for feedback of the program. After this presentation I went back to my office and continued to work on the things I discussed with Avery in the meeting. I crafted an email which I will be sending to leaders of the VAN Chapter around the US. In this email I will ask them how they keep their members involved and what they usually do in Veterans Day. Avery and Anthony, in the meeting, said that this event would be the perfect opportunity to really market the group and get the people involved. Therefore, I thought it would be a great idea to reach out to offices who have already had some experience managing this group to get some insight. After crafting the email, I shared all my work with Avery and the council members of VAN in the Northeast. I still have to get some work done before I leave for the VAN, but I am happy I was able to meet with Avery and share with him the work I have done for this initiative he has brought to the NE. Lastly, today I approached Allyson and asked her to help me connect with someone in Advisory. None of my coaches are part of the Advisory team and I would love to get a shadowing opportunity here since this is the area I am interested in joining.

Wednesday July 20th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am and got to my conference room. I had some feedback from Avery so I continued to improve the Spark page with the new resources he gave me, I also added more things to the page which I was missing. After I finished twitching the spark page I fixed the list of the members that was messed up when I inserted the filters. Since the meeting with Avery I had decided to take initiative and I reached out to two important members of the VAN from the Florida and the NYC office. I asked them how they keep their members involved and the events they had carried out for Veterans Day, since this is the event Avery is thinking about the most to really launch the VAN in the NE and gain more members. After lunch I get to my computer and I had a phone meeting invite with Avery and the NYC leader of VAN i had emailed in the morning. I was kind of nervous, but Josh was really nice and helpful. He gave us a lot of insight about the VAN and how to improve. I took a lot of notes and learned a lot from him. Since we present on Friday I had to work on my slide and the speech I was going to give so for the rest of the day I synthesized all the information and I wrote down what I was going to say. To end the day, I met with one of my other peers from the group to get feedback on my delivery skills and content of the slide.

Thursday July 21st – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am and went to my conference room. I looked at my emails and then got ready to attend an event at 10am. There is a lot of violence, police brutality, and racism going around in the US and this topic is not adhered in the office. Since PwC is a very diverse office they have decided it is important to have a conversation about these topics to be aware and sympathetic towards all members of the community. Tim Ryan, the US Chairman Partner, had prepared a video initiating these conversations. After the video I was very touched because I had realized all the blind spots I have and how little I was aware of the world around me. A lot of people shared their stories and it really made me think about how I need to learn more about these issues and be sympathetic. Also it made me think about how to be more respectful and understanding of my coworkers who find this very personal. After the video and for the rest of the afternoon I continued to improve my presentation with the feedback given from Allyson and Tiffany, our mentors, and also my teammates.

Friday July 22nd– PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:00 am and headed straight to the conference room to practice for my presentation. I felt prepared, but presentations always make me nervous. I challenged myself to only have one note card with keywords so I wouldn't be tempted to read. At 9:15 am I had my Exit Meeting with Ann Ulett, she asked me for feedback of the program and told me I got an offer for next year. I was very excited because I really like the firm, I feel I've built a strong network, and I feel it gives a lot of opportunities. I have applied for the Advisory Internship, but I will be notified next week about that. For now, Ann told me that I am welcome to come back for the Start Master Internship. I now have to reflect back on this experience and evaluate my major decision, I have experienced many careers and areas that I think I have a wider look of the business world. Now I can make a more informed decision on the career I want to pursue. Afterwards I met up one last time with my group to do a run through. When I entered the room I was very nervous there were three judges and a lot of public. When it was my turn I was very confident, I got lost while presenting, but I managed to find my place in y note cards and finish strong. I feel that something I could have done better is mention a personal connection to bring back the attention of the audience, but overall I feel I was very concise and relaxed. Overall I was very proud of our presentation, we presented the blind spots topic, our solution, and the importance of this topic. Especially wit all the violence going around the world the judges got very emotional and supportive of our topic. Our mentors were happy and so were we. After the presentation I had a lunch and learn with my Relationship Coach, Jay, who presented about the HeforShe initiative. Coincidentally, Jay talked about the same topic I talked about in my consulting presentation: gender blind spots. He is in charge of the HeforShe initiative in PwC and he mentioned how this has changed his careers.

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PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: July 11-15

8/30/2016

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Monday July 11th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am and began by looking over my email. Last week, I had reached out to my campus recruiter, Ann Ulett, and asked her for a shadowing opportunity in Advisory since this is my main area of interest. Because she was out of the office, I received a replay from her today and she told me that if I was interested in going into Advisory for the next internship I had to apply by tonight. I had to send her a personal statement explaining why I want to be in Advisory, my updated resume, and updated transcript. So throughout the morning I wrote my personal statement. Also, today I received my performance Snapshot from my supervisor, which gives me feedback on the five PwC professional. I received positive feedback, she mentioned that I am performing at level, but I have decided I want more feedback so I have requested a meeting with her. I think this is a great opportunity for me to grow professionally as I have the opportunity to get real-time feedback from an expert on the field. After lunch I reunited with my book group and we worked on the presentation since we had a meeting with our mentors at 4:30 pm. Because we have already divided the presentation each one worked on their slide. At 3:30 pm I met with my group briefly to talk about what we were going to present to our supervisor later. At 4:30 pm Allyson and Tiffany, our mentors, came and gave us feedback our product and our rough draft presentation. Their feedback was very helpful, especially since they gave us a perspective similar to the one our judges will have. As our product, my group and I suggested that we should make a compliance requirement, which a mandatory course for all PwC new hires. The reason we came to this product is because we believe that blind spots disrupt the workplace culture, and by making people aware of these blind spots as they enter this diverse environment they will be able to contribute to a better ambiance.

Tuesday July 12th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am and responded all my emails. Yesterday I reached out to my Assurance Simulation mentor from Friday and asked her for a shadowing opportunity. This morning I got a replay back from her, she had set me a shadowing opportunity with one of her colleagues. We have scheduled to meet on Thursday morning for the shadow. Also, the Partner I email last week returned from vacation so we have also set up a meeting to network. At 10:00 am I had a Tax Panel that was very open. Everyone asked a question and they referenced it. Something I learned from this session was that Tax has busy seasons, which means that their work year is very predictable. For some people, like me who like to have an organized schedule, After lunch one of my colleagues taught our entire group, everyone who had to do a diversity group on Spark, how to edit the page. Once he was done I began to copy paste everything I wrote down on a google docs last week that I wanted to include on the Spark Page. Today my supervisor emailed me my first Snapshot giving me feedback on my performance so far. The Snapshot is based on the PwC Professional, which has five dimensions that include: Business Acumen, Technological Capabilities, Relationships, Global Acumen, and Whole Leadership. My overall performance review was very good, Allyson was happy with my product and she told me I have good writing skills. Something she challenged me on, and this is something I struggle all the time, is that I need to share my ideas more. Allyson told me that I sometimes withhold myself from sharing my thoughts and she would like for me to speak more up. One of my weaknesses if that I like to have my ideas clearly organized in my head before I share them. Even though this can be something positive, sometimes I also need to see when it is a good idea to just share my thoughts on the moment. By giving my input not only am I enriching the conversation, but I am also throwing an idea before some else thinks of it and make other people. Because the client service lines, as Allyson was saying, are very fast paced, it is sometimes good to have a quick reaction and share ideas as they come.
Wednesday July 13th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today we didn't have work, we had a community and service activity, so I got to the office at 11:30 am. The people who were going today met in the lobby of the office and then we all headed in a bus to Cradles to Crayons to do the community and service. This is an organization PwC works with so they had already volunteered several times. The main purpose of this organization is to provide children from birth to 12 years of age with clothing and school supplies. They believe that high quality clothing empowers children to be successful in school. The organization is set in a warehouse where all the donations are stored and processed. The organization has around 5 stations. Donations come in bags containing many things. The first station, and the one I volunteered in throughout the day, was called sorting. Here all the donations go through a quality check and are separated into different baskets. There are shorts, t-shirts, pants, infant clothing, and more baskets were the different donations are placed. The clothing that is too worn out is put into red bins, which is later re-donated to other organizations. The second station is about sizing so after the clothing is separated into categories it is then divided in sizes. Then the third station is all about separating the different toys into age categories. Moreover, the fourth station is all about checking that the books are in good shape and that they can be used by other kids, considering some donations are broken. Finally, the fifth station is called shopping, here the volunteers have lists with different requests from children. From the sorted things they pick out the things the kids picked and make a package that is later distributed to them. The overall distribution and organization of this foundation is very effective. The systems put into place are so productive that all new volunteers learn their roles and are able to help out a lot. During our time there other organizations were also volunteering. Only PwC people were able to help a lot of kids get clothing and school supplies. It was a very hot day so it was exhausting, but it was a great learning and helping opportunity.

Thursday July 14th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am and went straight to the office. During my feedback meeting I had ask Allyson, my supervisor, for more work, so today I had a really busy day. During our meeting yesterday we checked if we had gotten any new members for the group, and we had indeed gotten 41 members. It was very exciting, especially, since this group is new and I was part of the creation. I felt very successful and very excited that soon Allyson and I were going to get people involved. With new members my first task was to create a google email group and make Allyson the admin. So I looked over all our members and created the list, as I was doing this I learned more how to use google since I had no idea you could create email groups. Afterwards I created a spreadsheet with our new members names, the spreadsheet included: first name, last name, google email, title, line of service, and interest group (Networking & Outreach, Family Readiness, Education & Mentorship, and Veteran Recruiting). Once I had this list I was able to see the product of my work. My first task was to craft the email that was going to be sent in John Farina's July note, announcing this new diversity inclusion group that Allyson and I started in the Northeast. Then I continued to edit the spark page, because now that we have new members I had to invite them soon to join the spark page. After lunch I met with Dan Grady, the Tax Partner who interviewed me back in November. It was a good idea to connect with him because he invited me to join him on a EPQ deep dive meeting which lasts two days. This meeting is all about reviewing the engagement groups, how they are working, and how they can improve. I think I can get a lot form this meeting and understand more how PwC works and how they provide this services. Again, I really feel the people here genuinely care about their employees. This Partner, who met me 7 months ago, still remembered where I went to school and who I was. Tomorrow, I have to continue working on the VAN project and also my shadowing has been rescheduled so I will be working on that.
Friday July 15th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:00 am and went straight to the the Pan Asian Community event. This event was organized by one of my colleagues who is also in charge of a diversity network inclusion group, just like the one I work in. In this even there were three speakers, a Partner from each line of service. Some of the speakers were present via video call because they were from other PwC offices. They presented a very interesting perspective, being foreign, how their experience has been with PwC. The most important takeaway from this event was the importance of being authentic and embracing one’s differences. The more you are authentic the easier it will be to connect and network with people in the work place. After this event I had a shadowing with Joe (Giuseppe) Lanni, person who interviewed me for PwC, in the Tax area. He invited me to attend a call, with one of his clients, where he was going to kickoff this year’s work, goals, and services. This client is a fund that invests in other portfolio companies. Even though I wasn’t able to understand much of the content of the conversation, it was a lot of Tax terminology, I was able to get a lot from this opportunity. For starters, Joe had a very organized agenda where he had broke down the different topics that were going to be discussed in the call. On the side of this agenda he left space for notes so that he could remember everything he said. Additionally, even though he was the main speaker, other people were also in this call taking notes. The purpose of this is that they don’t miss any details and write down everything the clients says. This was a great opportunity and Joe invited me next week to attend a meeting were the team will discuss everything the client said on the call. After lunch I had another shadowing opportunity with Amy, from Assurance and more specifically the Utilities and Retail group. Amy demonstrated what her day to day looks like, and she also taught me how Assurance works. Amy told me something which really impacted me, she mentioned that Assurance is the best place to work and learn more about accounting. As it views most of the areas she is able to see the different roles of accounting and how it works overall. She also told me that by doing audit she gets to experience many company’s cultures and she learns more about the business world. I really like this and this is why I have begin thinking that if Advisory doesn’t work for me maybe Assurance is a great place for me to continue learning and exploring.

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PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: July 4-8

8/30/2016

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Monday July 4th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
July 4th Holiday

Tuesday July 5th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I arrived to the office at 8:30am and started by checking my email after a long weekend. After revising my email I decided to work on the last details of the VAN first meeting PowerPoint. The note was sent on Thursday, so we should soon be hearing about the new members soon. Since I have the presentation done, I decided to continue to work on the Spark Page. Spark is like a PwC internal Facebook, the page I create will be like a Facebook group where people can join and be updated about the activities the VAN hosts. Also, this is a place where the calendar of this group will be posted so our members can attend meetings and join us in activities that will be hosted throughout the year. Once I had set the Spark page I began to work on the content on a Google Doc. I want to make sure everything is clear and well written before I post anything. I have a brief outline of what will be included on the Spark page, but I have to soon meet with Allyson to talk about it. Once I was done with my task I decided to update my Linkedin. I have met many people here, many whom have asked to connect via Linkedin, so I thought it would be a great idea to update my profile. I have added some new activities I had left out and also have connected with some people I have met here in my internship. Finally, to end the day I had a meeting with my book group with whom we discussed about the book. The idea was to have read the entire thing by today in order for us to begin working on the presentation

Wednesday July 6th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I arrived to the office at 8:30am and got to my desk. Last night I looked over the Final Report Outline and I realized that I could use many of the resources PwC has provided me with to do the report. Therefore, in the morning I looked over some of the resources I can only access with the office computer and I took some notes to help me with my report. Once I was done taking some notes I continued to work on the VAN Spark page content. This page will include all the information of the Veterans Affinity Network such as: mission statement, primary initiatives, events, calendar, and other information about the group. At 2:00pm I had a meeting with Guiseppe Lanni, Tax Manager who interviewed me for the internship. Since I reached out to him to connect once again I decided to prepare some questions in order to take advantage of the time he was giving me. After lunch I sat down with one of my teammates who taught me how to edit my VAN Spark page in order for me to put in the information once I am done writing it. At 2:00pm I met with Guiseppe, who was very friendly. He told me about the Tax practice and how he works with startups, he even offered me the opportunity to shadow him when he catches up with all his tasks, because he has just gotten back from vacation. He shared with me his career experience and gave me some advice since I told him I haven't decided 100% on changing my major. He told me that I should take all the opportunities I have to experience as much as I can all the lines of service to have experience with clients. The meeting flowed very well I shared with him the projects I have been working on. I really enjoyed networking with him because I get to expand my connections in PwC. I hope that I get the opportunity to meet with Dan Grady as well to grow my networking web and also to hear more about his experience.

Thursday July 7th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30am and started by writing a checklist of the tasks I have to do. Since I didn’t have a lot of work and I still haven’t gotten the opportunity to shadow I reached out to my supervisor and asked her for help finding a shadowing opportunity. Also, one of my friends from back home put me into contact with another intern who is more advanced. We went for lunch and she told me all about her experience interning with PwC, from the Start Internship to the Advanced Internship, which she is currently doing. She entered the firm without knowing what she wanted to do, and little by little she explored through shadows what she wanted to do. This is how she figured her best fit was Assurance, more specifically the Acid Management group. Something she really enjoys is that she gets a lot of exposure to the client so she gets to be in the field and see how the firm works with other people, and she has also gotten the opportunity to connect with many people. To end the day, I met with my book group and we began to divide roles for the presentation. Our topic is blindspots and I decided to focus on the blindspots of gender. I only have two minutes so I have to plan what I want to share. I choose gender because I feel that specially in the business world there are a lot of blindspots, especially of women.ß

Friday July 8th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 9:00am and went straight to my assigned room for the Assurance Simulation. PwC does simulations of their service lines for the interns in order for them to be more exposed to more career opportunities and they can make a smarter decision on what they want to do. As we started the Assurance Simulation I became more and more aware that this practice required a lot of communication skills because they deal very closely to clients. This is a position perfect for someone who likes to talk, interact, help people, and analyze. First, we saw all the financial statements of a made up company. Our first assignment as a group was to analyze cash, so we were given a bank statement, trail balance, and some transactions. Even though I had some questions I was able to do a lot of the analysis using my Financial Accounting class knowledge. After revising this with the supervisor, she went over the different groups within Assurance, the ones I was interested in where Media & Entertainment and Utilities & Retail. Our second assignment was to analyze accounts payable. In my opinion this was easier because the way they analyze the information was more organized so it was easier for me to find the different dates on the invoices. This activity was very interesting, but it got me thinking about what the day-to-day looks like for an Assurance professional. It is a lot of excel, crossing numbers, consulting with clients, and revision. Andrea, my mentor for the project, also showed us all the software they use such as Aura, and the PwC Assurance Guide, which answers every question. After we finished this assignment we went over it with our mentor and she concluded by telling us her story and how she decided to enter the Assurance practice. From what I heard PwC gave her a lot of flexibility and she was able to find her best fit.

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PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: June 27-July 1

8/30/2016

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Monday June 27th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I arrived to the office at 8:00am because I had a meeting with my Relationship Coach, Jay Sivakumaran. At 8:30am I met with him in the Lobby, Kyaris, another intern who also has him as her Relationship Coach, also came to breakfast. Jay is from Australia so he started in the PwC office there. After being there for some years he decided to transfer to the US, Boston office. I could really relate to his experience as he came from a foreign country to work in the US. According to Jay, PwC was very helpful and flexible. One of the things he shared with me was the fact that he had to take the CPA in the US and the equivalent to the CPA in Australia. As an international student, as I begin to think about an accounting major, I have to also take into consideration my options upon graduation. Additionally, after lunch we had a CPA introduction course that explained what it was, and careers that involved a CPA. After this course I realized how many doors the CPA opens and even though I would have to take another standardized test in my country to be a certified accountant the CPA will definitely enhance and make me a stronger candidate. I will not only be able to pursue an accounting career, but it will open other doors. As I think more and more about changing my major I need to plan ahead towards thinking how I will complete my 150 credits and take my CPA before starting to work, or at least during the first year of my job.

Tuesday June 28th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I arrived to the office at 8:30am and continued to work on my Power Point. This presentation is an outline of the structure of what the VAN (Veterans Affinity Network), my diversity group, will look like. Because it hasn't been launched here in the Northeast, I began to look up how it is structured in other PwC offices and the different activities they do. Getting ideas from different VAN groups around the US, and learning more about the different Veteran organizations PwC already works with, I began to build a backbone of how this group will look in the Northeast. I divided the presentation into four parts: Introduction, Recruitment, Development, and Retention. The introduction covers everything from what the organization is to the mission statement, and the primary initiatives. Then recruitment piece is all about teaching our members how PwC already recruits Vets, and how they help Vets build a Pipeline in the firm. The development is all about an open discussion and what the members would like to see begin done. Finally, the Retention piece speaks a little about the different awards PwC has gotten in recognition to their inclusion initiatives and their corporate responsibility. After working all morning in that presentation I had the second part of the Becker course, which talked more about the CPA and its different parts. Even though I still have some years until I take it, this has helped me gain perspective of my future plans. To end the day, I met with Allyson and presented to her the idea I had for our VAN group and together we redesigned the presentation in order for it to work for the meeting with future members. Allyson also gave me some contacts, so tomorrow I plan on reaching out to the people she mentioned and changing the presentation.

Wednesday June 29th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am and began to make the changes on the VAN presentation with the feedback Allyson gave me yesterday. Once I was done with the presentation I contacted Avery Gray, Tax Director, who brought the VAN (Veterans Affinity Network) to the Northeast. He has been working very hard to create a mission statement and plan how this group will be outlined in the Northeast. Since I have been assigned this project I want to connect with him in order to get his vision and insight on the VAN. Afterwards I decided to reach out to the two people who interviewed me for this internship. After begin here three weeks I have recognized the value of building relationships and networking with people. Therefore, I emailed Guisseppe (Tax Manager) and Dan (Partner Client Service). Guisseppe has responded and we have set up a meting time for when he is back in the office; therefore, I have to prepare some questions and also be willing to ask for a shadowing opportunity if there is a chance. After lunch I had the last session of the Becker course for the CPA. The last session was all about planning for the studying of the CPA, I learned that it is expensive to fail, so it is better to push over the exam than taking it without feeling prepared, and that over studying does no good. All this information has helped me to make a good plan once I am back in school and I decide if I really want to change to Accounting major. Having all the information on the table also allows me to make smart choices of the classes I will choose next semester.

Thursday June 30th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today we had the summer intern Olympics in Thompson Island. PwC does this activity every year to make the intern community bond. I really enjoyed this day because I got to meet many other interns which I don’t get to see in a day to day basis. It was very cool because I met many interns who had already done the Start internship, the one I’m doing, and they told me their experience and how they have been growing with the firm. This made me realize the importance of having networking connections and reaching out to people. I don’t have decided whether or not I want to do an accounting major, but if I do I think that PwC is a great firm to start and grow within my professional career.

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PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: June 20-24

8/30/2016

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Monday June 20th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 9:00 am and was directed to a conference room. I was assigned a group, which whom I will be working with periodically, through the internship, to create a presentation on a given topic. My group was assigned to the blind spot topic. For this reason, our team has been assigned to read the book "Blind Spot" to guide and introduce us to this topic. In the end of the internship my group and I will have to deliver a 10 minute presentation. Each team got a different topic, each of these issues are being looked upon by PwC. Our topic specifically relates to the lack of diversity and how we face many blind spots every day. PwC is a leading firm in diversity and inclusion, but they continue to look for ways to improve this and reduce the unconscious bias we all have. This topic aligns with the section I have been assigned to work in too, Diversity. I believe that everything I discuss with my team on Friday's will come in handy when I work on my diversity position during the rest of the week. Additionally, the reading will enhance my learning and will also help me bring a good perspective to my assigned section. I will be working on the Veterans Inclusive Network, and related projects.

Tuesday June 21th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I came in at 8:30 am and went straight to my office, which I share with other members of the Diversity section. My supervisor set up one to one meeting to explain each individual project to each person. Meanwhile, I worked on reaching out to my Coaches. PwC assigns each intern a Peer, Relationship, and Career Coach in order for each person to network and connect with people from the firm. Since I want to expand my network and get the most out of this experience I reached out to all of my coaches and set up meetings. To be honest I was extremely surprised by the quick replays and the enthusiasm each coach demonstrated. I am eager to meet them and possibly reach out for shadowing opportunities. I haven't received my project from Allyson yet, but I have been doing the things listed in the Start Intern checklist to make sure I am in track. I look foward to meeting with my coaches this week and to get started on my project.

Wednesday June 22th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I go to the office at 8:30am. Unfortunately my supervisor, Allyson, was not able to come to work but she emailed us with some things to do. Allyson had some of the one to one meetings over the phone, however, mine has been scheduled for tomorrow. Therefore, today I begun the day by answering my emails and responding to my coaches, and the continued by reading over my book for our team meeting on Friday. I read over two interesting chapters today, which have allowed me to further understand how the brain works, why people have mind spots, and how psychologist categorize the different "lies" people tell because of their mind spots. After begin done, I wanted to get a head start on my project. Even though I am not quite sure what I have to do I decided to begin my research on the Veterans Affiliation Network so that tomorrow I already have an idea on this area of diversity in PwC and I can begin straight ahead working on whatever I am given. Something that is always reiterated in every training I have attended from PwC is how diverse is their environment. After looking over the website I have realized that they are truly leaders in diversity. At lest in the Veterans network they have been recognized as one of the friendliest firms for veterans to work at. PwC focuses on helping Veterans continue learning and developing skills to further flourish in their professional careers. I really liked and enjoyed looking over their diversity projects because it has made me realize how much this firms values their people.

Thursday June 23th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I arrived to the office at 8:30am and directed to my desk. In general, it was a really busy day in the office, not only did we have an activity planned but I had three meetings. I used the morning to prepare for my meetings by looking up the meeting places and learning a little about the people I was going to meet. At 10am I headed to the Toastmasters activity, which enhanced my presentation skills. I had to leave that a little early since I had a meeting with Allyson Schiller, my supervisor, who was going to tell me about my task. Allyson is really nice and full of ideas, as she delivered to me what my job was she kept on brainstorming more and more ideas for this network. As I have previously mentioned the Diversity team has several projects going on which support the different diverse groups PwC wants to target. I have been assigned VAN, the Veterans Affinity Network. While all the other projects have already been launched VAN is recently being introduced in the Northeast office, so my job is to outline and think about how Allyson and I can start this network here. My main task, which is due tomorrow, is to craft an email, which will be sent out as part of the July note to the entire office on Thursday, before leaving for the holidays. After this meeting I headed to the atrium to meet my Peer Coach, Nelson Álvarez. Nelson is part of the Risk Assurance team and he’s been with the firm for 2 years. During his meeting he told me all about his experience with the firm and how flexible they have been with him. I enjoyed meeting with him because I was able to get an insight of what a day to day looks like for someone who entered the firm after graduation. Finally, to conclude the day I met with Theresa Le, my Career Coach. I was able to relate a lot with Theresa since she is a foreign too, so she was able to relate with me on all the culture shocks she had when she moved to America. She was willing to answer all my questions and I was able to request a shadowing experience with her in Tax. Currently she told me that she has not many things to do, but she will reach out to me if she finds a colleague I can shadow. Even though it was a long day I enjoyed staying busy.

Friday June 24th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today I got to the office at 8:30 am and looked for my team room. We didn’t have a regular working day, instead we had a Tax Simulation. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect from this activity, since I was not familiar with tax at all, but in the end I really enjoyed it. Since I am one of the youngest interns many on the people in my group had already taken a tax class before; however, this wasn’t a barrier for me because instead all of my peers were teaching me. When I started in PwC I thought that Tax was my least favorite, but after doing this activity I really enjoyed it. I have even reached out to my mentor of the group for a shadowing opportunity. I know very little about the topic, but it was very similar to my financial accounting class, which I enjoyed. I made even more friends, and I got closer to some of the people I have already met. These activities help me connect with other interns and get to know more professionals in the firm.

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PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: June 13-17

8/29/2016

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Monday June 13th – PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP (Boston, MA)
Today was my first day as a Start Intern for PwC in the Boston office. I arrived to the office at 9:15 am and was directed to the orientation room. Here I was assigned a group and table which I spend the entire day with. I met a lot of people, everyone from different colleges and countries. It was very interesting to see how all of us came from various places, but still were able to make connections. I was able to meet people who knew two languages and were born outside the US, just like me. It was fascinating to see how the differences between us made the culture richer and the experience more enlightening. Moreover, I learned the importance of personal branding and networking. As a new member of the PwC family it is important for me to maintain a high profile, not only because it reflects who I am, but it also reflects upon my school. In one of the presentations they mentioned that it takes a human 7 seconds to make 11 impressions of another person. Thus, it is key to have in mind your personal brand in order to deliver it properly. Furthermore, I learned that it is vital for me to maximize my connections and network with professionals throughout the internship. By talking to different people and constantly meeting more professionals I will be able to learn more about the firm, and accounting. One of my goals this summer is to figure out if I want to pursue an accounting major, thus it is essential that I participate and talk to my PwC coworkers. Finally, to end the day we were given laptops and we spend the afternoon setting up passwords, accounts, and getting to know the PwC technology.

Tuesday June 14th—Hilton Hotel (Atlanta, GA)
After a two long hour flight from Boston I finally made it to Atlanta along with the other Start inters from the Boston office. PwC took us to the hotel were we signed in and grabbed lunch. I was completely mind blown when I got to the conference area in the hotel where all the training was going to be hosted. Every single detail had been thought through, from the activities we did to the chalk walls were we could respond to different prompts. The entire floor was decorated with PwC themed colors and spirit. To be honest I thought that the training was going to be very boring, I impinged all PowerPoints and a lot of presentations, but it was the complete opposite. PwC made this experience memorable. Instead of having slides and presentations the training was designed as a TV show were the host shared many lessons through entertaining metaphors. For example, to teach about teamwork they showed us a Messi Commercial and made people play games with blind folds. The purpose of the training was to produce real time development, through these metaphors and entertaining activities the lessons became more memorable. One of the major takeaways from this entire day was learning how to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. Personally, I very shy and I like to keep myself in the comfort zone. However, in PwC they work a lot with external clients and outside situations so many of the times it is hard to know everything before a meeting or encounter. Therefore, it is important to learn how to manage oneself in an unknown situation and be adaptable towards making with situation comfortable. This is why I have to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone in order to learn to learn how to work in unexpected or uncomfortable situations.

Wednesday June 15th—Hilton Hotel (Atlanta, GA)
Today was the third day of my internship, and my second day in Atlanta attending training. I had to wake up very early since the activities started in the morning. The first session was all about learning how to work with excel. The approach used by the coaches to teach excel was very efficient. Instead of telling us how to do certain things like Vlookups or pivot charts, our coaches gave us real situations and data to figure out percentages and quantities by applying these excel techniques. By making this learning hands on it was easier to see how the different things one can do in excel are applicable to the real world. This really pushed me to be a thinker and problem solver. Additionally, even though excel is something very individual we conducted a lot of teamwork. In PC I have only taken CAB I so I was not familiar with many things taught to us. Therefore, I reached out to other peers who were more experts in excel to teach me new skills. Moreover, today's sessions also taught me to embrace diversity. As an international student one of the major culture shocks when I arrived to college was how different people saw me. Living in Peru for 10 years, with people who have a very similar culture and point of view as me, has always made me think this is how most people are and think. However, when I got to the US I realized the range of people coming from diverse backgrounds and how different I was from others. PwC strives to embrace diversity in all sense of the word, and begin in this program surrounded by diverse people, it has taught me that having a diverse team can lead to great ideas. The more points of view, the more I will learn. Also it has expanded my way of thinking and has pushed me to be more open minded and accepting of new ideas.

Thursday June 16th—Hilton Hotel (Atlanta, GA)
Today was my last day in Atlanta and in the training. Even though it has been a few days, I feel that I have grown as a person. One thing that I really admire from PwC is how they invest in their people. It is important to consider that they do not sell a product that is stored in a shelf, they sell people, skills, relationships, and trust. Therefore, PwC makes their employees their main priority. As I was reflecting upon my training in Atlanta I realized the amount for thought and work that went into this event and it make me realize that being part of PwC makes you part of a family. I now feel motivated to challenge myself to open up to people and network with professionals from the firm. I believe this training has prepared me to confront the challenges the internship will posses, and has also given me the chance to being connecting with people I will working with this summer.

Friday June 17th—Hilton Hotel (Atlanta, GA)
Today there was no work, PwC hosted their annual Promotion Day in House of Blues in Boston. This event started at 2:00pm and it went until 4:00pm. As inters we were invited to attend, here I reconnected with other start inters and other employees I met in the training. This event celebrated the success and accomplishment of those people in the firm who were offered promotions. Once again, I have been inspired by the care PwC has towards their people.

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PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: July 25-29

PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: July 18-22

PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: July 11-15

PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: July 4-8

PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: June 27-July 1

PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: June 20-24

﻿PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: June 13-17

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PricewaterhouseCoppersLLP: June 13-17