Week 8: Personal Contribution

After eight weeks at the firm, I was able to participate in every step of the transfer pricing process, which gave me an overview of the entire process. Though it usually takes 4-6 months to execute a full a TP report, I was able to assist on all the pieces for different clients. The process usually begins with using a database tool to collect companies similar to the client. In the step, I would use the criteria provided and make a preliminary draft of companies I believed would be comparable for someone more senior to review. After a draft of a report would come together, my tasks were often transcribing and summarizing the results from the benchmarking both quantitatively and qualitatively. As with the previous step, a superior would review the information and if they had any notes or comments, they would send it back for correction.

The majority of my work involved contributing at these two points in the process. The bulk of an associate’s (and an intern’s) work takes place at these two levels. After they are completed, the work typically transfers to the superiors for client interactions. However, I was also able to witness some of the client communication process by sitting in on meetings. In these meetings, it became clear the level of detail and accuracy required within the report, and after realizing that, I began to recognize why it mattered so much that details were correct (which I mentioned in my previous personal contribution post).

As I mentioned in my two previous posts, I also contributed to M&A projects during my internships. My role was often reading large due diligence reports and collecting information that could be useful in transfer pricing analysis. In M&A team meetings, the other team members would ask my opinion on different things or ask whether I had more information on certain things from the reports. While this was mainly my contribution in this area, I was invited to larger meetings to observe the whole process. Serving on this team also introduced me to a principal who exhibited exemplary leadership qualities and pulled those same qualities out of those she worked with.

Ultimately, I was able to contribute through smaller steps that created a better collective whole for the deliverable to the client, which earned me a return offer with the firm!!