Fall 2022 Internship Experience- IT Audit Intern

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. is an American publicly traded provider of loyalty and marketing services, such as private label credit cards, coalition loyalty programs, and direct marketing, derived from the capture and analysis of transaction-rich data. Alliance Data changed its name to Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. on March 23, 2022, and its ticker symbol from "ADS" to "BFH" effective April 4, 2022. It has been a beyond-amazing experience for me at Bread Financial. I joined Bread Financial as a IT Audit intern, and worked in the IT Audit team! The amount of learning and the team bonding experience that I had got at Bread Financial, I am pretty sure I wouldn't have got anywhere else.

With the knowledge that I gained from my coursework in IT Audit and Internal Audit, I was pretty familiar with the concepts covered in IT Audit. Internal Audit, organizationally branded as Global Audit, is an independent and objective assurance and consulting department designed to add value and improve the operations of Bread Financial Systems Corporation and its subsidiaries (collectively Bread Financial). Global Audit's mission is to enhance and protect organizational value by providing risk-based and objective assurance, advice, and insight. Global Audit helps Bread Financial accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of governance, risk management, and control processes. Assist with all activities relating to the organization’s audit of financial, operational, and managerial processes and systems.

As an IT Audit intern, I had the opportunity to explore and develop a variety of work experiences and skills.?Over the Fall semester, I collaborated with several teams and departments and built a firm knowledge of the business and company culture.?My job functions included building relationships by establishing trust, confidence, and credibility with internal partners. I was part of several Audit walkthroughs and the evidence collection to prepare the IT Audit plan. The internship familiarized me with all the different IT audit tools and gave me hands-on experience working for a company audit.

I would like to thank my manager Denny Lee - CISSP, CISA, MBA , my mentor and supervisors, George McKay, CISA, CDPSE and Adam Gilbert, CIA, CISA, CISSP , my recruiter Megan Hefel , and all my teammates for being very supportive during the tenure of my internship. A special thanks to JSOM CMC, the UTD ISACA Student chapter, the UTD MS ITM department, and all the professors at UTD for their constant help and support. Apart from regularly reviewing my work, addressing my concerns, and offering constructive feedback, they consistently encouraged me to make bold decisions based on my insights. All in all, my experience with Bread Financial as a Fall'22 intern was fantabulous, and I'm really looking forward to working with them given the opportunity to in the future!

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