Growing Up: How Audit Internships Affect Students' Commitment and Long-Term Intentions to Work in Public Accounting

Abstract

This study investigates factors that influence audit interns' commitment and long-term intentions to work in public accounting. We measure the organizational and professional commitment of 127 audit interns prior to the start of busy-season internships with public accounting firms and then again at the conclusion of the internship. We find that both organizational and professional commitment decline significantly as a result of the internship experience. We note that heavy workloads during the internship decreased the degree of commitment to a particular firm. On the other hand, offering challenging work assignments and surrounding the intern with desirable coworkers significantly increased commitment to both the firm and the profession. We also find that changes in organizational commitment are related to changes in interns' long-term intentions to work in public accounting, and that by the end of the internship, nearly 60 percent of the interns changed their views with regard to how long they planned to work in public accounting, with a majority of respondents anticipating a shorter career in the profession. JEL Classifications: M42.

Supervisory Practices in a Virtual Internship Program: A Multi-Case Study

“…Experiential learning has helped to provide students with an opportunity to learn new things, outside of the classroom. Studies have shown that the role of supervision in internships cannot be understated (Hart et al, 2017;Schwartz-Bechet, 2014;Sweitzer & King, 2014). An important challenge that internship programs face is making sure that the intern's experience is educational (Stirling et al, 2017).…”

“…While the focus of experiential learning tends to be on job preparedness, there are many other positive outcomes to be gained from experiential learning, such as opportunities to network, opportunities to experience learning in a different context, and opportunities to grow as an individual (Kolb & Kolb, 2005). Hart, Kremin,and Pasewark (2017) examined an accounting internship program and found that commitment and long-term intentions to work in that particular field might be shaped by early employment experiences with regard to the size of workloads, the scope of work assignments, and the type working relations. While these results cannot be generalized to all fields or general internship programs, the results do point out that the role supervisors play in an internship is pivotal to the intern's success.…”

“…have on job offers, compensation, and job satisfaction (Austin & Rust, 2015;Gault et al, 2000;Hart et al, 2017). For example, a clear majority of accounting interns receive and accept full-time offers at the completion of their internship (Hart et al, 2017).…”

“…have on job offers, compensation, and job satisfaction (Austin & Rust, 2015;Gault et al, 2000;Hart et al, 2017). For example, a clear majority of accounting interns receive and accept full-time offers at the completion of their internship (Hart et al, 2017). The company Intern Bridge found that, across 6,147 students, the level of student satisfaction with an internship was directly correlated with length, ranging from short experiences of 1 to 4 weeks to long experiences of 13 to 16 weeks (Grasgreen, 2012).…”