The benefits suck. They pay for CPA material but under the condition you work for them for 2 years (or something like that), else you have to pay it back. Pay $6 to park everyday. No 401K match, only profit sharing (which is always iffy). The maternity/paternity leave policy is really awful. Coming in as an experienced hire seems really hard (clear lack of training/thrown into sink-or-swim situations). Nobody really honors giving you time to study for your certifications (i.e., letting you leave at a reasonable time to study - everyone is driven by the strict deadlines). I had to take weeks off at a time to make sure I made the time to study. There seemed to be a lot of turnaround/little success with experienced hires and management seems to not be understanding about it (experienced this by participating in the review of experienced hires). Audit busy season is January to maybe mid-May/late April and working 50-55 hours and every Saturday is mandatory for all audit employees. Management is really bad at communicating to the staff of their needs and expectations for jobs. The employee performance review process is not good because I always left my reviews with mixed feelings and not sure exactly where I stood. Senior Management can be extremely condescending and/or contradictory to you, so come with thick skin. Every partner does things differently; there really is no formal or set approach to engagements. Scheduling is tough - I felt that I was constantly in a state of stress to reach deadlines, keep partners happy, and dealing with being overbooked. Limited resources if you get stuck or need help with a client. Always under staffed. Technology isn't great, they could use better systems and training. IT team struggles because they are so small.
