Firstly, I would like to thanks to my faculties who gave me this opportunity to share my internship experience. During my MBA first year, when I met with one of my senior friend who came back from his internship at H&R Block, he shared his experience with me that he filed taxes of the individuals who worked in different organisations. As I was the topper of Income tax during my graduation so it was very interesting for me to get that practical experience of tax filing. I discussed it with my mentor then he also advised me to go for H&R Block Interview. He recited me the stories and work culture of the office, after which I decided that, I would definitely sit for the interview.
On February 2019, the mail was floated that H&R Block was coming for providing opportunities, approximately 20 students sat for interview. I was very excited for that interview, but at the same time I got a call from my placement coordinator refusing me to sit for H&R Block interview as I was already selected in other company. Post this, I requested to co-ordinator to give me permission to sit for that interview, to which they agreed. Now, the most difficult part for me was my pronunciation as I belong from a small city where ascent is different, so I had to start working on it and improve my ascent.
I prepared really hard for that interview. The Interviewer asked me questions like 5 heads of Income, GST rates, questions related to tax, asked about H&R Block, some questions related to General Knowledge and checked our communication skills. The interview went on for near about 20 minutes. I also asked the interviewer about the profile, if I was selected in that interview. Interviewer replied that I would get the opportunity for filing returns for the clients and would be working under the guidance of CA's. That field really excited me as I already had some knowledge of Income tax. Also I got an opportunity to explore Pune as journey from Saharanpur to Mumbai and then Pune, like my dreams come true.
“Keep your dreams alive, understand to achieve requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe” - Gail Devers.
On 6th May, 2019 my first day at the office was good, as I met different students from different colleges situated in different cities. My trainer was CA Hemant Sir and Aishwarya Ma'am who trained us and informed us about the subject income tax and clients experience. Income tax was not new for me but I studied client experience first time. It was easy for me to grasp the concept of client experience. After three weeks training, then the day came when we implied our theoretical knowledge in filing the returns of our clients. Now, it's time when I filed close to 18-20 ITR’s a day. I became the team leader of 8-10 colleagues. My manager was happy with my performance and then he offered me to do mid complex cases which is usually done by CA's.
Learnings from internships:
- E-filing procedures: the rules of filing the ITR and how to understand documents like Form16, Form26AS etc.
- Client handling experience: how we handle clients when there is payable situation for them.
- Confidence while talking with clients and solving their queries.
- Control on emotions: Doesn’t affect one client’s conversation on another client’s conversation.
- Dedication towards work: working daily for more than 8 hours with fresh mood.
“
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do” – Steve Jobs.
- Build good relations with Managers and CA’s working in the organization.
- Guidance on achieving my future goals and dreams.
It was very memorable and remarkable experience for me to work in such an organization. I have loads of memories from the organization, the best part is making new friends from different colleges and different cities, share their experiences and struggles of their journey. The best moment was when I filed 100 return, like me I scored century and doing something wonderful for my country’s welfare and development. It was overall great experience and it will definitely help in my future.
Thanks to Universal Business School who gave me this golden opportunity, also thanks to H&R Block who gave me such wonderful and memorable experience of my life.