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Dianna Lovell cried
when she left for New York City.
Lovell grew up on a potato farm in Ririe, Idaho. After
graduating from high school, leaving home for college meant
driving only a hop, skip and a jump to Rexburg.
But on January 9, 2005, she found herself strapped in the seat
of a jet, waving goodbye to the familiar Idaho farmland on her
way to the biggest city in the United States. Lovell would spend
the next four months as a tax intern at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC),
one of the prestigious Big Four accounting firms.
“I kept thinking to myself, ‘what are you doing?’” said Lovell.
“Here I am having grown up on a farm for most of my life . . .
and I am moving to a huge city that I have never dreamed of
visiting! I was scared!”
Despite her anxiety, the internship represented a huge
opportunity for Lovell. As an accounting major, landing an
internship in New York City with a top firm was better than
Christmas.
The internship came as a surprise. Other students had contacted
Big Four firms looking for auditing internships, but firms
indicated a need for tax interns.
When her resume was sent, Lovell was skeptical. “I thought,
there’s no way a Big Four firm would take me, but my teacher
said ‘what do you have to lose?’”
A week later, on Dec. 22, Lovell was asked to fly out for an
interview.
“They put me up in a very nice hotel. I interviewed the next
day. The interview ran long and I missed my flight home — I
barely made it home for Christmas,” she recalled.
PwC called and offered her the internship while she was still at
the airport. They asked her to start in two weeks, implying that
she had two weeks to find an apartment in a city she had never
visited.
The process began with training at a Marriott resort in Georgia.
There, Lovell and others were prepared for the impending tax
season. She found herself in a pool of excited interns with
experience ranging from zero to graduate level.
“I felt very prepared,” she said, speaking of her experience at
BYU-Idaho. “Even Information Systems 140 was helpful — there was
an intern that didn’t even know how to use the sum function in
Excel. We had done many tax returns without programs in classes
I’ve taken . . . the classes I’ve had here definitely helped
me.”
After a week, the interns were taken to the Manhattan office and
introduced to the frenzied atmosphere of tax season at a major
accounting firm. This meant 80 to 90 hours of number crunching
per week. “It was hard at first, but I love taxes, so it was
exciting,” said Lovell.
This fast-paced atmosphere of hard work, big money and big names
was perfect for Lovell. “It was my dream coming true right
before my eyes,” she said.
“The company was great to us. The person I worked with would
make me text message her to make sure that I got home safely
every night. If you worked past 8 p.m., they’d give you a meal
and a car ride home. It was a $75 dollar car ride for me.”
In addition to being loaded with a heavy work schedule, students
were given opportunities to build their personal network through
socials, luncheons, and development programs.
After growing up on a potato farm, this networking experience
was amazing for Lovell. She recalled a particular lunch with a
senior manager and one of the top experts in the industry on
hedge funds. “This tax partner was amazing. She and another
partner wrote a hedge fund investment book together. Just
hearing them talk in millions of dollars of business that they
were bringing in was incredible.”
The big city environment brought with it an opportunity for
spiritual growth. “I’d never really been out of my comfort zone
with religion,” she said. “People would ask why we didn’t go out
and drink and party. We explained that we don’t believe in that,
and they’d ask why not. People were intrigued. I’ve never been
challenged [that way] before.”
Lovell felt that her values were noticed by others in the
office. “I think that’s another reason we [BYU-Idaho interns]
got good reviews, because we’d go home and sleep and be
refreshed instead of drinking. We proved that we can compete
with other schools.”
At the end of it all, interns were evaluated by associates and
managers. Lovell was surprised and delighted to receive the
highest ranking available.
But the big payoff came during her final interview, when she was
offered a job upon graduation.
At last, April 15 rolled around. It was time to return home to
Idaho. And once again, Lovell found herself on the verge of
tears.
“We finished putting things away and then I gave some ‘Idaho’
gifts to a couple of managers and associates that I really
connected with. I became such good friends with colleagues that
I rushed out of the building on my last day to avoid crying,”
she said. “I felt at home in the office with those people.”
“I loved New York. I think I was meant to be in the city. When I
got on the plane home, I made up my mind that my goals were now
to get home, work really hard to finish school, and get back out
there the first of January,” she said.
It’s difficult to plan five years ahead, but for Lovell, the
five years she plans on working at PwC promise to be exciting
and fulfilling.
“I knew that if I wanted a good internship that would open up
the doors, I had to leave Rexburg. It’s a small sacrifice that
can give you the best career in accounting,” she said. |