Week 1 - 2

Tuesday

     Early in the morning I made my way to Malaysia's very own concrete jungle as PwC's headquarters is located smack dabbed in the city, to be more precise in Kuala Lumpur Sentral. I walked into the lobby to see some familiar faces alongside some not so familiar faces of the interns from other universities. I could tell that it was going to be a very eventful first day and I was right. The whole day consisted of making new friends and meeting some of the staff as well as an office tour where we saw Dato' Faiz (PwC's Executive Chairman) in action in his office. I received my very own key card and laptop to use for the entire internship period. This was followed by several tutorials by the PwC staff on how to use them. 

     After that there was an ice breaking/team building session which required us to be split into teams to then build the tallest tower out of spaghetti. To our dismay, the tower collapsed but my team still had fun together and we learned that a team should be more organized for a task to be completed properly. As explained by one of the staff, this was to represent the work ethics I should have where team work is crucial in getting something done on time. This was followed by a brief lecture on the dos and don'ts at the office relating to aspects like the proper work attire and behavior. 

Wednesday - Thursday

     These two days were made up of workshops where I learned how to use the audit software system. The workshops were located at PwC's training facility in Sheraton Hotel. First I learned how and where to check the engagements and supervisors I was assigned to. Afterwards, we were put into groups to do an activity to test our knowledge on audit assertions. This was the first time I learned about Audit but I could fortunately keep up. Plus, I learned how to cast financial statements. Learning how to use Aura, PwC's audit system, proved to be complex as most of the interns could not understand but after the staff showed an example on how to use Aura to test an invoice sample, it became clearer to me. There were other complex things I learned for the first time like testing a targeted sample of Property, Plant & Equipment (PPE) additions but looking back now, once I practiced it on the job, it was actually not all that hard. Last but not least, in teams, we had to conduct a mock interview with a "client" as an opportunity to practice our approach with actual clients in the future. An important lesson was that an auditor should not aggressively approach the client as if they had committed fraud. The training PwC had given was really informative and had prepared me sufficiently for the upcoming weeks, which just goes to show how amazing their standards are. 

Friday

     Met my first ever senior in charge, Li Shan an Executive Senior. In retrospect, Li Shan was easily the strictest senior I had worked with but she would constantly give me instant feedback which I had really appreciated. Her criticism was constructive and at first it was hard for me to accept but after a while it helped me better myself. Since the engagement technically started next Monday, there was not much to do so I only ran errands. On the bright side, I did get to learn the basics like how to request for documents from the filing room and how to use the printer. Lunch was slightly more eventful when I ran into Mona, the Head of Resourcing, followed by Dato' Faiz. I began to notice that the working environment in PwC is quite relaxed and most of the employees were really friendly which is exactly why I can call any one of them just by their first names. On top of that, Dato' Faiz just randomly struck up a conversation with me about his wife's amazing cooking skills. On a more serious note, he gave me great advice when I told him I was a new intern. He told me to ask a lot of questions so I can learn as much as I can and to never shy away from opportunities.

                                                                                                                                  

Monday

     Arrived at IPDecor's office in Nilai and the finance department was right above its factory. IPDecor is in the MMG industry and their previous year's performance was really good. Besides Li Shan, the team consisted of Melissa, an Associate, who just so happened to be an ex-Taylorian. She was a lot like me, quiet but still friendly. We were both then briefed on the client's business nature.

Tuesday - Wednesday

     With the help of Melissa, I learned for the first time how to vouch a sales invoice and payment voucher. I started off rather slow but once I became more familiar with the documents, I managed to pick up the pace. At the same time I was learning how to adapt to the professional working environment as I had no previous working experience. I learned through observation mostly, I would mimic how Melissa interacts with Li Shan and the client. If I had any questions, Melissa told me not to hesitate asking so it was really easy to get along with her. 

Thursday - Friday

     Li Shan explained to me how to carry out a physical asset sighting just in case Melissa was not around to do it next week. I immediately pulled out a pen and paper and starting jotting down the key points such as acknowledging the tag, brand and condition of the asset. Afterwards I did a lot of data entry, 10,000 rows in Excel to be exact. I have to admit, I had to get a little creative in finding ways to stay awake during this time because the routine work was not exactly challenging my mind so after awhile it just became second nature as if I were a robot on autopilot. Nonetheless, I did learn many new Excel shortcuts which made me realize just how technically inadequate I was. Be that as it may, I did make up for my lack of IT skills by being a quick learner. I picked up the shortcuts after only a short while and I am quite a fast typer so that made me feel slightly better that I could compensate for one of my flaws.