To those eyeing a career in international business, young executive James Lister shows how far an internship can go.“That’s how I got my job,” James told The Royal Gazette. “I got my internship at Deloitte and I really enjoyed what I did for the summer.”Currently on secondment in London, James is working through 18 months in the company’s offices there.The 26-year-old admitted it had been “a bit intimidating at first”.Aside from supervising a team of three associates, the job meant getting used to different clients, a new city and markedly different practices.“The major difference is that in the Bermuda office we spent most of our time working in our offices,” he said. “Most of our clients were overseas. Here in London, you go out to everyone’s offices. I’ve gotten lost my first share of times.”The opportunity grew from taking advantage of what was on offer.“The key thing is to try and get internships,” he said.It was after that summer job at Deloitte six years ago that James “decided maybe I’d give accounting and auditing a try”.He advised interested students to “network as much as possible, go to all the business events, and apply for all the scholarships”.Deloitte has also commended his passing of the certified public accountant exam in just four months.“What most people do when they graduate is start working, and they study while they’re working,” James explained. “I stayed in Los Angeles during the summer after graduating and just focused on my studies.”Having a master’s in accounting made for a good background and it helped that his parents were also number-crunchers.His mother, Cheryl-Ann Lister, is a chartered financial analyst and his father, MP Terry Lister, is a chartered accountant and former Deloitte partner.James, who hails from Sandys, started working full-time at Deloitte in 2009 as an audit assistant after graduating from the University of Southern California.His stint in London is aimed at steering him to a management position in the investment department back in Bermuda.Leaner times have set in in Bermuda since James set out.He advised: “Talk to people who are in the industry. Ask them how they got started and what tips they have. I was lucky — both my parents work in this industry.”