The Intern Adventure 14: 12th Week

I have learned a lot of new things for this week. I was able to work at the reception area which was for me was the scariest place in the office before. I call it as "scariest" because that is the place where I will have to talk to a lot of people and answer a lot of questions. But I never thought that I would enjoy it so much! I guess I have been doing a lot of "behind-the-scenes" tasks and being in the reception area was a new experience for me.

As we are getting closer to the deadline for filing personal tax returns, I am actually starting to get worried that we might not be able to finish all of our personal clients' tax returns on time. Last year, there were more than five persons in the office who were doing tax returns but this year, there are only three. I am doing my best to finish the bookkeeping jobs on my desk. Because it was so busy, no one in the office really has the time to train us in doing income tax returns. I don't think Brendan, Serena, and I will have the chance to do tax returns for this tax season but we are all hoping that we can learn after the tax season is over. For now, we are all busy helping each other out to get all the bookkeeping jobs done and hoping that we will be done before the tax deadline.

Going back to being at the reception area, I also had some problems. There were a lot of times when I really don't know the answer to some of our clients' questions. I had the same problem when answering phone calls. I found it really disappointing for myself, but I learned to deal with it eventually with the help of my supportive colleagues. At first, I was always thinking the negative side of it, which was always feeling stupid everytime I don't know the answer to a client's question, but now, I view it as a learning opportunity.

One of my objectives was to know the Canadian income tax return more closely. Working at the reception area made me realize that I was still not really that familiar with many things about the income tax act because I was always doing the bookkeeping part, which was all accounting-related. I am pretty sure that we will be receiving a lot of questions from customers as we hit the tax deadline and I am really positive that I will learn a lot from them.