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Home / The Ledger / The Internship Diaries / Kinahan (May 21, 2002)

Finding the Internship
May 21, 2002

The process for obtaining this internship actually began last summer following my sophomore year [Summer 2001]. During the spring of my sophomore year, I was interested in finding a summer position that would coincide with my major in accounting, so I attended the Career Services summer job/internship fair in '64 Hall. There were several companies there that I was interested in, Hasbro being one of them. I ended up leaving my resume with the woman at the Hasbro table, not really expecting to hear from them. A few weeks later they called me back about interviewing for 3 different positions. After 2 more sets of interviews, I accepted a position in the International Tax Department.

After the summer was over I went back to school with the intention of finding an internship with a Big Five firm for the summer following my Junior year. I went through the interview process with 2 firms, but the market was tight and I was unable to land a position for the summer. After learning that I was not going to be able to work for a public firm, I decided I would like to go back to Hasbro. However, this time I wanted to try Domestic Taxes because it would give me a better background for my future, as well as supplement the tax course [Acc 406: Taxes & Business Decisions] I had just completed. This time I only had to go to one interview and was informed a week later that I would be working for the summer with the Domestic Tax department.

When I first interviewed last spring, I suppose I was somewhat nervous because it was my first true job interview and because I just didn't want to say the wrong thing and then not have a job at all! I interviewed for 3 departments right in a row, and as I went along each one got easier. By the third interview I felt very comfortable and very confident. 

When I came for an interview this year I really wasn't nervous at all, only because I knew the people that were going to be interviewing me since I had worked in the tax department with them the prior year. To be honest, I never really got overwhelmingly nervous because I tried to look at the whole interview process as a learning experience, and the actual job would just be a benefit if I landed it. 

This year the interview was more of just a meeting of old friends so to speak. Because I knew who was interviewing me and she was actually a PC grad, it just seemed so much easier. My mindset going into the meeting was that if I get a job that's great, if not then that's fine too because I would just get something somewhere else. The fact that I had been interviewing elsewhere and had a Temp agency that would have provided me with work either way helped ease my mind with regards to being too worried about not having a job.

Questions for Jim?

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