Dafferns Intern – it’s not all numbers!

After two and half weeks with the Dafferns audit team, as an intern, I can honestly say it has been eye opening. My initial thoughts of sitting at a desk all day crunching numbers were not positive. However, thanks to all the members of the Dafferns team, who were friendly and eager to share their expertise, it was a pleasure to be here. 

I had assumed that I would be sat behind someone all day everyday “shadowing” their every move, just taking notes here and there. But fortunately, I was given my own desk, laptop, monitor, even my own assignments, and I was truly treated like just another member of the department. This was not only very welcoming but gave me an insight into what a mid-sized, full-service accounting practice is like. 

Arun, a fellow auditor, was kind enough to take me under his wing. He regularly went out of his way to set up tasks for me and explain the processes and reasons behind the methodology. I got stuck into fixed assets materiality and triviality, reconciling purchase and sale ledgers, and agreeing trial balances, all whilst developing my excel skills.

The highlight of my involvement here was going off site to the client with two fellow Dafferns colleagues for the week. Suzi and Daniel made me feel as an equal sitting around a table together, where we could bond through their teachings and simple small talk of similar interests outside of work.

On the final day, I was set the unexpected task of filling out “personality” and “positive intelligence” tests. Cringe… possibly not!

This was all about my soft skills. Seeing the results, I was pleasantly surprised with some and shocked by others. Some results were flattering like efficient, charismatic, and inspiring but on the other hand the areas to work on were far more interesting. At first I was in denial, but reading the results I saw stubborn, intolerant, arrogant and poor handling of emotions and it all made sense. Going into more depth with my colleagues, I learnt and understood the pros and cons of every emotion and it was interesting to discuss in what situation these emotions would be beneficial. Now I understand my personality traits better, I will be more thoughtful and calculated in how I feel about decisions to come.

Thanks to everyone at Dafferns.

Killian Ashe