Peer Career Consultant Blogs

This past summer, I worked as a Technology Assurance audit intern at KPMG. When hearing the word ‘audit’, people typically imagine complex financial statements and never-ending excel spreadsheets. In Technology Assurance (IT Audit), the work includes this knowledge, but goes far beyond. IT Audit includes reviewing systems, evaluating IT controls, and understanding the flow of data through the company with an emphasis on the relationship between the systems and important financial information. 

Now, this might sound highly technical, but what surprised me the most this summer is that the skills that mattered most weren’t necessarily the technical ones, but were the soft skills. The ability to ask questions, stay curious, absorb information quickly, and learn from mistakes shaped my internship more than anything else. 

On the first day of my internship, one piece of advice instantly stuck with me. Do not be afraid to make mistakes and ask thoughtful questions to improve upon these mistakes. When working on projects, curiosity was my greatest asset. Hard skills such as excel and understanding the accounting literacy fundamentals were important, but only the first step. Asking questions to understand the big picture, not just the problem–why does this matter?--were necessary to learn and continue building on my knowledge foundations. Here are some soft skills were key to my success throughout my internship: 

- Critical Thinking: Asking thoughtful questions, working through problems independently, and knowing when to seek help kept me from wasting time and strengthened my understanding of the work I was doing. This approach even led to being assigned tasks above the typical intern level. I specifically remember when an associate was looking at my screen and mentioned that he never worked on anything that complex during his internship. Even though I continued to make even greater mistakes and asked more questions the harder the assignments got, it allowed for more exposure that allowed me to learn more, making each day far more interesting.

- Time Management: Balancing multiple tasks at once required strong organization and meaningful time management. Only interning for 8 weeks, it was extremely important to make sure I was getting all my work done on time, while also engaging and meeting as many people as possible. Each week I wrote a summary of the work I did, including positive and constructive feedback. This allowed me to absorb and be intentional about the work I was doing and managing my time appropriately. 

- Make an effort to be personable: Throughout each of my three engagements, I made a deliberate effort to schedule at least one coffee chat with each member of my team per engagement. Originally I was nervous to schedule meetings with higher ups, such as Partners, but my assigned mentor encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone and do it. This led to a coffee chat with an engagement Partner who invited me on a client dinner with the CFO, VP Finance, and other key leadership of client. Here I was able to connect a lot more with my team, learn much more about the client, and this experience became a large highlight of my internship. This opportunity would’ve never been possible without my effort to connect with this partner. 

This internship showed me that thriving in an audit internship is not just about knowing everything upfront, but rather it’s about how quickly you learn and how willing you are to ask questions and improve. The technical skills matter, but the soft skills mattered more. Curiosity, communication, and the confidence to ask questions helped me understand the bigger picture and take on more meaningful tasks. If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: don’t aim for perfection—aim to stay curious, be proactive, and make an effort to connect. That’s what truly drives success.

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