Internships

Internships

Elizabeth Hall, Experienced Staff 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 an Experienced Staff 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.