With Career Services support, student lands key internships

July 9, 2021 | UHCL Staff

During college, immersive internships in your field of study can be a critical factor in finding a job after graduation. Dawson Dreiling, a University of Houston-Clear Lake senior completing his Bachelor of Science in Accounting, said the support he received from Career Services made the difference in successfully securing two internships that he believes will ultimately launch his career in accounting.

"My career aspiration is to become a certified public accountant," Dreiling said. "I'm hoping to become an audit partner."

His three-month summer internship, which began June 1, is with Nacero, a Houston-based eco-friendly gasoline production company. "I got my summer internship through LinkedIn, and my supervisor is the company's accountant. I do a lot of accounts payable, invoices, paying suppliers, bank statement reconciliation, and monthly financial reports," he explained.

"I got a lot of assistance from Career Services and I took (Career Services Director) Chuck Crocker's Business Principles class, which helped me a lot," he said. "I have a second internship already lined up with BDO USA, LLP in Houston, for January. I attended a career fair hosted at UH-Clear Lake through the Accounting Association. BDO USA and other firms came and I used Jobs4Hawks to submit my application."

In May, Dreiling said that after getting an interview, he'd received an offer letter from BDO USA.

"I'll be auditing companies for three months, going to companies requesting audits and assurance consulting, checking records, and completing internal controls," he said. "This is what I want to do in my career, and Career Services at UHCL has a long history of helping people with things like this."

He said that whenever he needed to update his resume or practice his interviewing skills, Crocker was there to help. "I even had professional portraits and business cards made for free," he said. "I got a lot of training in some soft skills, like good communication and how to present myself, that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I was more confident when it came to doing an interview."

Dreiling said he hopes that his internship with BDO Global will become a hire after he graduates in December 2021. "Everything I have done in my coursework has prepared me for what to expect from my internship," he said. "I learned a lot of information in my courses, so that gave me a head start in understanding what I needed to know. I know I'm ready for this job, or for any job I may get. I'm really excited about it."

For more information about how Career Services can prepare UHCL students for the internship/job search, go online.