Pros
As public accounting is a field that many go into right after school, the transition can be a difficult one, leading to unfair reviews a lot of the time. I have found that KPMG has been an amazing place to start my career for many reasons. The first is the people. I have made very good friends in my start class, when I interned, the people I am on teams with, and even management. The second, and also very important to me, is that the job is collaboration based so I mostly work in teams. This prevents the boring day to day cube work. That type of work does happen from time to time but its mostly team based. Third, the partners and management are not stuck up and they will listen to you. Even as a first year associate I would speak with my partner frequently about the best ways to test things, accounting standards, variances, etc. My opinion was valued I wasnt just a data entry monkey. Also a bunch of little things. You can expense pretty much everything when you are busy or traveling, training is good, and actually fun when you travel for it. Perks are great when we travel we stay in 4 star hotels and go to nice dinners etc. I would say stress as a first year is very low. All in all, a lot of people are cynical as they just left the college lifestyle to work full time. Its a hard transition, but I am thankful that I am here.
Cons
The hours duringbusy season are rough. Personally I was busy (60-70 hours a week and weekends) for about two months straight and then a lighter job, and then the same thing for two more months. It really is difficult to have a normal life and work from 8:30 to midnight 4 days a week and then 9-5 on the weekends. I also think we should get paid more for the hours we work but our leverage isnt the best as there are many accountants out of school. 401k matching isnt great, benefits are pretty standard.
