Fort Belvoir, Va. –
Ron Vonberge is a Senior Auditor with over four years at DCAA including time as an intern. While working on his master’s degree, Ron worked as a full-time intern and found appreciation for the program’s flexibility, compassion, and training. Interns at DCAA choose how many hours they work to best fit their schedules and goals. Ron shares, “I chose to work a full 40 hours a week while taking night classes so I could get the most practical experience I could before joining the auditing world.”
While Ron was concerned about balancing school and work, he felt supported by his supervisor and team, “my supervisor was super considerate of school and made sure that was my main priority. I was encouraged to take time off from work when I had lots of schoolwork and when I had to study for tests and exams.”
As with any new experience, Ron worried at the start of his internship, “I was worried about learning the everyday work and about DCAA. The only thing I knew about government auditing is that I heard it’s completely different from other auditing.” Thankfully, Ron’s internship and committed management team made sure he understood the fundamentals of the agency and how contractors operate, “My internship really helped my familiarity and comfort with government auditing. The DCAA internship is a great and flexible way for students to gain experience in a lesser-known field, government contract auditing.”
While there’s a variety of work throughout DCAA depending on the office, Ron shares his daily internship experience:
A typical day at my internship consisted of small tasks that supported auditors or larger audits. I’d do small parts of larger audits and worked with my coach who helped my understanding for contractor operations and the various programs they audit. I was also trained to review public voucher submissions, something I still do today as a full-time auditor. The main difference in work as an intern to an auditor is the amount of responsibility you have for an audit. My internship let me spend time understanding processes and I think my work as an intern helped me quickly make sense of large audits.
Finally, Ron shares why he decided to stay with DCAA after his internship:
Before working at DCAA as an intern, I interned at a public accounting firm and realized I didn’t want to work in public accounting. DCAA offered me exactly what I was looking for, a job that emphasizes work-life balance and the type of accounting work I wanted in my career. I have lots of schedule flexibility and I love working for an agency with a program that offers paid time to focus on my health, something I find important with a desk job. I also like that auditor positions themselves have a lot of variety. Many different locations and types of offices offer a large variety of work and locations. You can work overseas at the European Branch Office in Germany or nearly anywhere in the U.S. I believe that working in the government, and DCAA specifically, allows for a much more balanced work environment and home life compared to working in public accounting.