Summer Leadership Programs (SLPs) are a great way for accounting students to get a jump on their accounting careers. SLPs are typically a one to three day meeting during the summer where students go on site to a firm’s office or headquarters to meet accounting firm personnel and learn more about the profession. The firms will sometimes separate panels of associates, senior associates, current interns, managers, and partners to field questions from students so they get firsthand information and insight regarding anything from the firm’s company culture to nitty gritty details about the differences between auditing and tax.
In addition, SLPs usually also include fun activities and events in the office’s surrounding area to give students an ability to bond with the firm personnel and one another. Because accounting firms often extend an offer for an internship position to the participants for the following year, SLPs are a great way for students to gauge whether or not they will be a good fit with the firm.
Therefore, SLPs are highly encouraged and we recommend applying for multiple SLPs if you can. To get a better idea of what SLPs are, we asked Aubry Casey, an HR Staffer at EKS&H, to do an Instagram Takeover on our account to show our audience what a typical day in the life of a Summer Leadership Program is like at their firm.