More Than Professionalism
Story by Aspen Wooley | Photos Courtesy Abigail Woodbury
Abigail Woodbury is a dedicated Honors student and learner. She is from Princeton, New Jersey and is in her first year of the integrated accounting master’s program at BYU. She had the opportunity to work at KPMG in New York, where she interned as part of her Honors Leadership Development Experience.
At KPMG, Abigail worked on a team to help clients, and she collaborated with other interns on tax research. She worked on yearly audits, prepared documents for review, and assisted in other tasks. She tried to learn everything about being a leader from those she worked with. Looking at their interactions with others and how they prepared for clients set an example. With her intern team, she worked on a tax-technical research topic with a chance to present to the partners of the firm. Her team was chosen as the one to present. While being mentored by professionals and working closely with her peers, she learned what it takes to be a leader.
I sat down with Abigail, and we talked through her experience. Her enthusiasm and laughter were contagious, demonstrating clear passion for her work. (The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.)
Aspen: What are some of your interests/hobbies?
Abigail: I really like music! I love to listen to music, I play the piano, I’m teaching myself guitar, and I like to sing. I also like reading.
Aspen: Who is your biggest inspiration?
Abigail: It’s definitely my mom and dad. They are such a team, and they’ve really instilled in me hard work, dedication, and perseverance. And kindness, which I think sometimes we don’t really think about in workplace situations. I feel like that was something my project really taught me about.
Aspen: What was that like to live in New York City? Working for this big company, I’m sure that was a little nerve-wracking!
Abigail: It was, but I grew up in Princeton which is about a 45-minute train ride into the city. I’ve always known I wanted to go back to the East Coast. And I mean, New York, obviously, is such a unique place. It’s so iconic to be a young girl in New York. It’s a great place to start your career, especially if you’re in the finance industry. So, I knew I wanted to go there, and it was nerve-wracking because it was my first professional job. But, once I could solidify in my mind that professionals aren’t only professionals, they’re just people, it became a lot easier for me.
Aspen: Did you like working in such a collaborative environment? What was that like to work with the other interns on this project?
Abigail: I loved the environment with my team for clients because I needed a lot of guidance. With the other interns…I was looking at a team of people who really wanted to work and do well. The collaboration honestly ended up being a lot of fun. We were able to have clear communication, and in the end, I really liked it because we were all receptive to the feedback we would give each other. It’s also a comfort to realize, “Oh, I’m not the only intern who has questions about this.”
Aspen: I think I would be happy to know there were other interns there with me too! And what led you to do this project?
Abigail: What led me to accounting, in general, was that I’m interested in learning about anything and everything. I just love to learn! If my full-time job could be being a student that is what I would do for the rest of my life. However, there’s no money in that, so I chose accounting because, to me, it seemed like a practical choice. The accounting program is good at networking events and funneling students into internships.
Aspen: Yes, I’ve heard BYU is pretty good at doing that. How do you feel like this is supporting you in your academic or career pursuits?
Abigail: There are obvious ways like learning more about tax-technical things, but others that are kind of soft skills. For example, something I learned came from feedback I received last year during a mock interview final exam. My professor and I had been chatting before, and I was all smiles and very upbeat. And then he said, “Okay, we are starting the exam,” and I became serious and focused in. In his feedback at the end he said, “Abigail you’re such a happy person! You should be a happy person in jobs because it means people will want to work with you more.” I really tried to apply that in my internship experience, and it’s definitely something I want to carry into academics. Whether it’s at school or work, you can have a sense of community. I think that is really important because people then feel comfortable talking to you, and you feel comfortable going to people.
Aspen: Sometimes that can be hard in a high-stress environment where you need to be professional and almost stoic.
Abigail: That was definitely my thought process when I went into it. I thought “I have to be professional.” But being professional doesn’t mean not being friendly. Sometimes it can kind of feel that way, but I knew I had succeeded when we presented to the partners, because that’s high-stress and so it would have been really easy to revert to my habits. Instead, we were all really personable and the feedback we got from the partners was, “This is exactly what we tell young professionals they need. All young professionals come in with very limited technical skills because you’re just at the beginning of your career. But if you can communicate with people and connect with people, that’s what is going to set you apart and make you go far.”
Aspen: What do you feel like you learned from those people who were mentoring you?
Abigail: A major thing I learned was about relationships. I had the opportunity to work, instead of at the KPMG office, on client site. This meant that we were at a table, all together, instead of in cubicles, and throughout the day we would be chatting as we worked. So, the lesson is that you want to like the people you work with, and clear communication is so important. My senior associate would always say to let those asking for a task know that you’re doing it immediately. Otherwise, people are just kind of wondering. Overcommunication is so much better than just normal communication.
Aspen: So, what was your favorite part of this project?
Abigail: My favorite part was when I worked on client site with my team. I got to see the real world of what my future job would look like. Also, presenting my project that I had worked for two months on. Winning that and then being able to present it was really special because it was this culminating moment of, “Oh, I succeeded.”
Aspen: What leadership skills were you able to develop?
Abigail: I think one leadership skill I developed was networking. I remember wondering, “How is networking a leadership thing?” but I really came to understand that here. Purely out of necessity, you have to network when you’re at work. It’s how you get opportunities, but also how you can make friends. At the very beginning of my internship experience, they sent us to Florida for training with all these interns from around the country. If I was going out to dinner at their facility, and I saw someone sitting alone, I would just go sit with that person. It’s just being Christlike, networking, so that’s what I strove to do.
Aspen: Yeah, I think that is really true. Being able to be friendly doesn’t have to be a big professional experience of reaching out to people.
Abigail: I think sometimes networking has this kind of tit-for-tat mentality like you are saying, “I’m only speaking to you because one day you can get me a job.” That’s definitely how I treated it in the past, but now, even though I’m just an intern, that doesn’t mean I can’t help you, right? Everyone relies on everyone in the system, so I think that was an important lesson to learn.
Aspen: How has being part of the Honors Program helped you in this project?
Abigail: Well, first, Professor Kurt Sandholtz is my number one. He’s so nice and was so supportive. Beyond that, I love the Honors Program as someone who wants to learn about everything. You don’t just have to learn about these tax-technical skills, you can also learn about other skills in different areas of accounting or in the business world. So, you’re making those unexpected connections, and I think the Honors Program really is all about that. It’s about inspiring learning and helping others, and that’s what my internship was about as well. I was learning so much.
Abigail’s journey as an intern has taught her how to lead with kindness and professionalism. These are not mutually exclusive attributes but work together in effective leadership. Reaching out to others in any scenario is a crucial trait to develop as a leader. Abigail continues to learn as she makes a positive impact on the people she encounters and works with.