Coming in, they tell you the way things are through rose colored glasses. It is dishonest at best. They do the same thing after every tax season. Telling you fairy tales of endless new hires and system improvements.
They are understaffed, yet somehow will find a way to be even further understaffed next year. The partners try to validate the staffing levels by noting that everybody is still taking their vacation days. That's probably more of a reflection of how little everyone cares about getting their work done.
If you stay for too long(3+ years), you get trapped. You only have WMTS knowledge, which is pretty specific. You won't be able to find another tax job for similar pay, because you've now been promoted. So you either leave and take a pay cut, or stay and continue a miserable life. Or you can go to EY to do the exact same miserable thing.
They will tell you that you are expected to work 300 hours of overtime during tax season and that this is figured into your pay. So if your salary is 50k, you really make about 43k before overtime. Except you actually work more like 500 hours of overtime. So you now make 40k before overtime. For the amount of stress - and it's a lot - I don't think it's worth it.
Dealing with the client and beneficiaries sucks. There's no other way to put it.
The people that you work with will complain endlessly about everything. "The catering isn't healthy. We can't eat tacos every night." So they hire new caterers with a focus on healthier options. "The food is so bland. They never have any good food. I want something cheesy." The same people complain when ordering out, which is rude because they are essentially complaining about their coworkers. Order your own damn food if you don't want what we're having!
If you're on an engagement that hasn't ventured into 2009 yet, you have to print everything. Like all else, the printers suck. So you become a low level mechanic during your time working in WMTS. You also develop some mad stapling skills. On the other hand, your intern probably can't staple six pages together so you have to use your mad stapling skills more often than you'd prefer.
Did I mention that summers are no better than the winter? You don't work the same hours, but you find yourself being just as busy. This is when a lot of people are quitting so you have to handle more than your usual account load. The type of work is also a lot less motivating. I would much rather spend my time cranking out tax returns than doing data projects. Don't get me wrong, they need done, but my point is that it's no picnic working in WMTS over the summer.
Pam Morse.
