This reflection paper examines an accounting internship experience through the lens of organizational goal-setting and personal professional development. The paper explores how the host firm's primary objectives — timeliness, cost-effectiveness, and reliability of its accounting information system — shaped the intern's daily responsibilities, which included data entry, tax calculations, and fulfilling federal and state requirements. Drawing on Jeffrey Davis's framework for organizational goal-setting, the paper discusses how the intern's personal goals of dedication, accuracy, and hard work aligned with and contributed to the firm's broader mission. The paper also reflects on how the internship reinforced core professional values such as accuracy and accountability.
Every organization has a vision, mission, and set of goals that need to be accomplished. Some goals are long-term plans, while others address immediate priorities. Successful organizations often set both long- and short-term goals for their services, and it is therefore important for those goals to meet specific criteria. As Jeffrey Davis writes in Managing and Achieving Organizational Goals: "Goal setting is one of the basic tools used by organizations to assist in setting a direction and achieving it. Successful organizations often set long- and short-term goals for service development, improving quality, reducing errors, becoming more customer-focused, and building better internal and public relations." Goal setting is particularly central in professional service environments such as accounting, where accountants set goals and objectives for entire departments to ensure the business follows the best possible accounting practices at any given time.
Goals set by most organizations are designed to ensure that the business performs at its best at any given time — by producing a quality product, increasing production, promoting workforce job satisfaction, maximizing profit, and promoting fairness. My host organization, an accounting firm, sought to accomplish the goal of timeliness by using a new accounting information system to offer its customers the best possible services. Their primary goal was to have an accounting system that was timely, cost-effective, informative, and reliable for its users.
A system like the one instituted at the firm where I interned is an asset to any organization because it presents information to users at any time the data is required. I contributed to this goal by ensuring that I was on time with all assigned tasks, such as entering correct data and delivering completed work on schedule. I also followed up to identify any areas needing adjustment, in order to avoid passing responsibilities on to another party.
My expectation going into the internship was to be a resourceful intern who contributed to the organization's goals through dedication, hard work, creativity, and teamwork. I was able to interact with the accounting system by feeding in data and deleting entries whenever data had been entered incorrectly. I was also able to forward data for compilation on time, directly supporting the organization's core goal of timeliness. In doing so, I confirmed that I had achieved my own objectives — contributing to the organization's goals through dedication and hard work.
"Internship work as service reinforcing accuracy and values"
"Personal dedication aligning with firm's accounting objectives"
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