Teamwork

The best solutions come from working together with colleagues and clients. As a first-year associate working in the Pittsburgh office I have experienced what teamwork is really about. I'm sure that most of you have worked in a team setting at Penn State during some point in your academic career. At PwC, teamwork is vital to an engagement team's success - this is why teamwork is one of the firm's core values. Effective teamwork requires relationships, respect, and sharing.

During your first engagement mostly every audit area you work on will be a new experience. Other colleagues on your team won't expect you to know everything. Your team will help 'coach' you through your audit work. One thing to keep in mind, try to be sensitive to the workload of other team members; for example, proactively use the firm's resources to try and find an answer to your question. If that still doesn't help, then reach out and ask a team member. Coaching is part of the culture at PwC and helps shape the development of our people.

During your time at Penn State make an effort to expose yourself to team experiences. Effectively being able to work on a team by incorporating your ideas, handling a disagreement, brainstorming, and building relationships will help generate creativity and ideas and ultimately lead to success of the team and your development as an individual. Feel free to comment on your team experiences at Penn State. Hopefully your experiences have been positive, but if not, how have you learned to adapt or manage your team?