Each summer, students from the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics gain important real-world professional skills through internships and externships. In each installment of this series, you’ll hear firsthand about how one Lerner student secured their externship, what their experience as an extern was like and what comes next!
Kelly Tatulli, Class of 2021, majoring in accounting, spent her summer in Budapest, Hungary in the Global Advantage Leadership externship at KPMG.
Q: How did you find out about this internship?
Tatulli: Since my freshman year, I have attended every University of Delaware Career Fair and any opportunity where I could get to know more about the accounting world. By doing so, I had the chance to learn more about different companies and different programs that potential employees were offered.
The more I learned specifically about the Big Four accounting firms, the more I could see myself working for all of them, which is why the relationships I created with the recruiters became really important to me and my internship decision. When KPMG offered me Global Advantage I was so overwhelmed with joy and decided that I would love to intern for the company.
Q: What is the most exciting task that you have undertaken in your role?
Tatulli: During my externship, my group and I had the opportunity to travel to the company Tungsram, one of KPMG’s clients. This was one of the most exciting tasks that I undertook because I had the opportunity to learn all about the companies past innovations and future creations that have yet to come into the marketplace.
While at the client site, I had the opportunity to talk to the creator of the company’s newest piece of technology where I was able to ask her any questions I had and get to know more about the technology field. While I was at the client site eager to learn more about what the KPMG auditors did, I left with even more information than I thought I would have been able to gain. The experience surpassed my expectations of how much I was going to be able to learn while interning for KPMG.
Q: What did you learn through this internship that you don’t think you would have learned anywhere else?
Tatulli: Throughout my time in Budapest, Hungry I had the opportunity to learn so many new things. However, there was one thing I was fortunate enough to learn through the global externship that I would not have had the opportunity to learn in any other program. This lesson taught me that every culture operates in its own way and, in order to work together, different cultures all have to make alterations to their norm.
I had the opportunity to work hands on with other interns from Germany, Ireland and Italy. In the past, I have only ever worked with employees who lived in a similar demographic as myself. To say working with interns with such different backgrounds was different would be an understatement. Working with these individuals from all over the world forced me to open up my mind to global perspectives and new ideas. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to experience such an eye opening situation that I know will help me tremendously in the future.
This was hands down the best experience of my life and I would urge all other University of Delaware students to ask potential future employers about global options. There is so much we can learn about ourselves and our industry through new perspectives and cultures!
Q: What is an example of a time you were able to apply something you learned at the Lerner College to your role?
Tatulli: An important part of the externship was understanding how we operate on a day-to-day basis and how we can identify how others operate. Before my group and I were trained, we were working to solve one of our clients problems and were given a short description of the client. I was actually prompted to use one of the lessons that I learned in my one credit BUEC101 class that I took this past semester.
My group and I completed all of our analysis and constructed exactly what needed to be explained to the client, but knew we needed to take into consideration the short description of the client that was given to us. During my BUEC101 class, we learned about four types of personalities that leaders should recognize which were analytical, driver, amiable and expressive. After identifying our client as an analytical, we altered our data to be visual in a way that they would best understand. By doing this, we were able to successfully present our idea to the client and put what I had learned in class to good use!
Q: What has been the most fun part of your internship?
Tatulli: I honestly cannot just pick one singular part of my KPMG Global Advantage externship that was the most fun. Between being able to travel abroad for business, travel all the way to Budapest, meet interns from all around the world, learn about new cultures and ways of life, try new food, work with global clients and everything in between I had the most fun experience of my life during my externship with KPMG!
Q: How do you think this internship will help you with your professional goals?
Tatulli: I think that this externship will definitely help me with my professional goals because it taught me how to work with different types of people. No matter where I end up professionally, I know that I am going to have to work with others who may have similar or different values, beliefs and working styles than I do. After completing the externship, I can confidently say that depending on someone’s work style I understand how I can alter the way that I communicate with them in order to fit both of our styles.
Q: What are your plans or next steps once this internship is over?
Tatulli: Now that the externship is completed, I plan on interning for KPMG next summer in their Short Hills, New Jersey office. During this internship, I plan to use the new leadership and global skills that I learned during my externship.
I would love to continue keeping in touch with the partners and other interns I was fortunate enough to meet in order to keep the relationships I was able to build with all of them during my time in Budapest, Hungry. From now on, and until my next internship, I hope to represent KPMG as a host at all University of Delaware events.