Checking the Numbers on the Big Bang Theory
LCM Student Interns in Accounting Department at Television Network
Lander College for Men (LCM) student Joel Friedman spent his summer as an accounting intern at CBS, the same company that produces his favorite sitcom. Friedman credited his experience at LCM with helping him land the prestigious internship.
“CBS is a huge company,” Friedman said. “When people think of internships, they think of interns doing lowly tasks like getting coffee. But my internship was legitimate work—the same thing that full-time employees do.”
“I got to see the ins-and-outs of what goes on in a big broadcasting company—I was able to learn so much in such a small amount of time.”
During his almost-three month long internship, Friedman travelled to the company’s corporate headquarters in midtown and spent his day reconciling quarterly reports, logging journal entries and fulfilling payroll accounting. Friedman landed the internship with the help of a family friend and a stellar resume.
“The thing about LCM is it’s a small school so we get to have personal connections to our teachers,” Friedman explained. “My accounting teacher, Professor Yosef Newman, helped me with my resume and what I should stress during my interviews, like bringing up the skills I developed from my past internships.”
One internship was with the IRS’s Free Tax Assistance Program (VITA) , run at Lander College of Arts and Sciences, where students from across Touro’s Lander Colleges volunteer to help low-income New Yorkers file their taxes.
“That helped prepare me for what I did over the summer,” Friedman said.
Friedman said that most days were 9-5:30, but as they closed the second quarter, he, like his accounting coworkers, ended up putting in eleven-hour days.
What advice does Friedman have for his fellow LCM students considering an accounting internship?
“Pay attention to details. If you make a mistake in school, you get a few points deducted. In real life, you’re dealing with numbers in the six or seven figures. There’s no margin of error.”
