Internships

Internships

Elizabeth Hall, CPA, Senior Auditor

Office location: Harrisburg
Graduate of: Saint Vincent College

In your free time what do you like to do? In my downtime, I love to cross-stitch or try out a new restaurant with friends/family.  I also volunteer as a developmental volleyball coach for kids.

Elizabeth began her public accounting career in 2020 as an Intern and joined Maher Duessel full time in 2021 after graduating college. Elizabeth serves as a Senior Auditor on a wide range of governmental and non-profit engagements.

1. What made you choose Maher Duessel for your internship? When I was researching different firms with intern positions, I knew I wanted to pursue the audit side of accounting over tax.  I loved that this firm was specifically an auditing firm, so I knew I would not have to worry about where they wanted to place me like I would for other firms hiring for both audit and tax positions.  When I looked into Maher Duessel more closely, I was happy to see it was a smaller firm, as I knew I would be more involved in the audit process during my internship so I could learn as much as possible.

2. What was a typical day like during your internship? I had a very unique internship experience, as it was the summer of 2020 when almost every audit was completely remote.  Most of the days I worked, I started my day with a call from my in-charge walking me through the procedures I was assigned. I would complete the task assigned and call if I ran into any issues.  On the days I was not scheduled on a particular audit, I would reach out to my coworkers and help with miscellaneous tasks to prep for preliminary audit work to be done at a later date. This helped me to get used to multitasking and exposed me to the different aspects of auditing. I was able to travel to a client site some days, which was great because I was able to meet my coworkers in-person and better understand how different procedures I performed related to the audit as a whole.

3. What made you decide to continue your public accounting career with Maher Duessel after your internship was completed? I decided to stay because this firm was exactly what I wanted for my career in public accounting. Non-profit and government accounting was something I was interested in prior to starting with Maher Duessel, and after working with different clients I knew this was the client base with which I wanted to work. My co-workers were also very supportive and interested in my success, and they made sure that I knew all of my work really mattered and helped the overall audit process go more smoothly.