SCIP Interns visit Mitchell & Titus
Recently Posted News
By Janis Mahnure
August 3, 2010
The concrete pavement sparkles and in the middle of the chaotic city the lustrous trees are humming along with the children as the suit-clad auditors walk past without a glance. Entering One Battery Plaza, as the cotton candy clouds reflect on the tinted windows, the interns are instantly beamed at with smiles of an amiable environment. The elevator goes directly from the first floor to the twenty-fourth and the interns were to go to the offices of Mitchell & Titus on the twenty-seventh floor. Mitchell & Titus is a public accounting firm under Ernst & Young.
Though the windows are scarce and one would imagine the feeling of suffocation, the cheerful faces of various employees lighten up the mood of intense work. The interns were welcomed by a supervisor and participated in an activity in which they were forced to use non-verbal communication skills to organize themselves in order by birthdays. They finished the activity fairly quickly, in about five to seven minutes, and were successful. By completing this activity the interns learned about leadership skills and communication skills as well as acknowledging the assertive vs. passive behaviors of different group members.
After the short introductory exercise, the interns met Herbert Harriot, the Human Resources Director, who was able to liven up the mood with some delicious pizza for an early lunch. After lunch they split into two teams and played Jeopardy. Some of the questions were very straightforward whereas others were specifically created to have one answer that neither team was able to come up with. The game was extremely entertaining as well as educational.
Herbert Harriot then brought in a panel of auditors and other employees of Mitchell & Titus to tell the interns about accounting and more about the firm itself. They were given the opportunity to ask questions to learn more about a typical day in the life of an auditor and how these auditors came to be interested in accounting. Most of them already took accounting classes in high school and really enjoyed it. The interns also met Fred Davis, a Senior Partner, who provided words of wisdom and his background of how he became involved with accounting. One phrase he continued to reiterate was ‘Always focus on the end.’ If one has some sort of goal or standard to reach, even if he or she does not get to that specific target, that person would still be going up somehow, in some direction, on some path, and ending somewhere.
Before exiting the marvelous building the interns were given some gifts from the firm itself: backpacks, some little trinkets and mints as well as a huge smile. All in all, it was a great day, and the interns even had a small adventure afterwards, walking around through the money-world, including the one and only Wall Street.