McGladrey Madness

Written by Ashley Schmitt
Tax Intern
Elkhart, IN

As you have probably read in my previous blogs I have very much enjoyed my internship at McGladrey. I have great coworkers and have learned a lot. I feel that one of the purposes of writing this blog, along with giving people an inside look at the culture of McGladrey, is to give future interns an idea of what to expect. In that regard, I feel like it is my duty and obligation to pass along an important lesson that I have learned during the last few weeks. It wasn’t until the beginning of March that I realized that in one aspect I am completely under-qualified. It is amazing to me that I lasted through an interview without one mention of this seemingly pertinent qualification to be an employee of McGladrey: You must watch college basketball. Of course, my cube is within ear shot of my cube buddy- “The Man of Troy[er],” and at many times what at first seems like very serious conversation going on behind me is, well, a “very serious conversation” between him and Mr. “Fantastic” about the NCAA tournament. For the first time I filled out a bracket and of course, just like most everyone else, it was busted by the end of the first weekend. Brady, one of my fellow interns, is in charge of the March Madness pool. This was a great idea because I think most people can agree that he is a very straightforward, honest person.  Unless you are a partner who didn’t get the team they wanted in the random draw. I have no doubt that the bracket money is safely hidden and that the random draws were, indeed, random. However, I think we can all agree that if Chris Bradford wins again this year, we know who rigged it!

Since the March 15^th deadline, we have been moving away from corporate returns and towards preparing individual returns. After getting the hang of doing corporate, it’s a little difficult to make the adjustment to 1040’s. I’m sure it won’t be long before I start having hallucinations of little red “TR” stamps (that’s a tick mark used on PDF Flyer software to symbolize a number has been added to a tax return).  Thankfully, I have access to the master of individual returns, Garrett, sitting five feet away. I do think it has been a nice change and it is a little more interesting to look at an individual rather than a corporate return (we’ll see how I feel on April 17^th!).

Heifer

This internship has given me the opportunity to learn things that I most likely would not have from a textbook. For instance, for the first time this month I depreciated a heifer. I did not even know this was possible, but I can’t help but to assume I probably wouldn’t have learned of this particular asset’s ability to be depreciated if I did not live in Northern Indiana. I have also learned that if you keep Starburst jellybeans, fruit snacks, and Twizzlers in stock there will be happy accountants, no one can talk sports like Karen Wagner, and it’s impossible for an intern to survive a week without Mexican food. In all seriousness, the experience and knowledge a student can gain from an internship at McGladrey is priceless. I have been able to put together many of the pieces that I have been taught during various classes but could never quite fit together until now. With the internship coming to a close I can say that I enjoyed my time here and know that I will take the knowledge I have learned during these 4 months with me and build upon it in the future.