While accounting internships are certainly a fantastic way to learn and polish the skills you need to be successful at the occupation, they’re also a wonderful way to establish a solid foundation in many transferable skills. With positions now often calling for flexibility and the ability to complete tasks that would have otherwise been well outside of the job description previously, we thought that it would be a good idea to explore the key transferable skills that you can learn from accounting internships so those entering the workforce can better represent themselves.
Bookkeeping
The first key transferable skill you’ll learn from accounting internships is how to manage a business’s books. Although bookkeeping may seem like a pretty niche skill, it is actually applicable across admin, reception and even customer service depending on the company that you end up working with so it’s certainly a good skill to have.
Computer Skills
The next thing you can expect to learn from accounting internships is a whole host of computer skills. Computer literacy is vital in today’s workforce so being able to list on your resume that you’re highly proficient, no matter what operating system a company prefers, will help you to stand out from the crowd. While it is true that accounting internships will focus more so on areas of computer literacy that benefit your anticipated profession, there is still much that can be learnt in this area that can be applied to almost any role.
Software Specific Skills
Speaking of computer literacy that’s focused on managing a company’s financial situation, accounting internships will also help you acquire a collection of software specific skills. Although these are obviously not as transferable as general computer literacy, they will help you stand out when applying for positions where these types of programs may be used for managing other areas of the business as employers love when new hires can get straight into things without any extra training.
Best Practice
Another transferable skill that you’ll pick up from accounting internships is how to adhere to best practices. This will obviously be in relation to managing a company’s money, however, being able to follow guidelines and understand complex laws and legislation will benefit you in literally any career path that you decide to pursue.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking skills are required not only in our professional lives but also in our personal ones. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to navigate tough situations and could land ourselves in trouble without even understanding how we got there. The good news is that accounting internships are designed to help aspiring professionals hone their critical thinking to a fine point so you can rest assured that you’ll be prepared for anything work – or life – throws at you moving forward.
Data Analysis
Finally, accounting internships are also the perfect place to learn and polish your data analysis skills. Being able to interpret numbers is vital to managing a business’s finances, but this ability can also be transferred to almost any other department. Need to know how a marketing campaign is performing? Analyse the data. Want to understand customer purchasing trends? Analyse the data. Looking to understand why a particular product or service isn’t performing as well as the rest of your offerings? You guessed it, analyse the data. Our point is, this skill is highly transferable and looks fantastic on your resume no matter what type of position you’re applying for.
So, now that you have a better understanding of how accounting internships can help prepare you not just for your chosen professional, but also for life in general, it’s time to get everything sorted and go find someone who’ll help you learn the ropes – you won’t regret it.