Pros
When I joined Schellman & Company (formerly BrightLine) five years ago, I was extremely hesitant to leave a "secure" national Big 4 accounting firm for a much smaller firm (less than 40 people at the time) with a physical presence only in Tampa, Florida. After being completely burnt out and exhausted with the Big 4, I knew better than to trust audit firm recruiters with big promises and was half expecting to be let down again. Looking back at my decision to join Schellman, my only regret was that I didn't join earlier!
The majority of employees will be hired to perform primarily SOC attestations; however, senior associates will have opportunities to gain experience in a variety of audit examinations (PCI, ISO 27001, HIPAA-HITECH, HITRUST, etc.) The firm's original business model was to hire only experienced and high performing ex-Big 4 auditors so that projects run smoothly and efficiently, driving up profits which are in turn shared among the employees. Schellman rewards its employees with high compensation, including large quarterly bonuses and salary increases (I’ve personally averaged over 12% annually), and promotions. The compensation continues to grow the longer you’ve been with the firm and I’ve yet to see or hear of anyone “topping off.”
The firm is fast faced and expects its professionals to be experts in the field of IT auditing; however, it also maintains a high level of work/life balance. There will be times where you will need to work over 40 hours each week, but there will be just as many times where you will work much less than 40 hours each week. Travel is a requirement for the job (as it is for any auditing or consulting role); however, it will likely be less than 50% of the time if you reside in a major market. The standard travel week is Monday through Thursday with all employees working from home each Friday. In the rare event that travel on weekends is required, the firm compensates its employees with $500 each occasion. Additionally, if you are required to travel internationally, employees are given a $1000 bonus per week of international travel.
The annual company parties (Key West, Cancun, Cabo, Vegas, Phoenix, New Orleans, etc.) are a fantastic reward for employees and their guests, and helps build comradery and teamwork with colleagues. Each year I walk away from the party extremely proud of the firm and its accomplishments. Schellman pays medical insurance benefits for individual employees and it was also recently announced that they will be increasing 401(k) matching from 6% up to 10% (immediate vesting). Schellman highly encourages employees to obtain professional certifications and offers annual trainings and paid exam fees to help assist (CISA, CISSP, CIPP/US, ISO 27001 Lead Auditor, CCSK, etc.)
There is no other accounting firm that treats its employees better than Schellman.
Cons
Since the goal of the firm is to operate as lean and efficient as possible, projects move at a fast pace which can be overwhelming to new employees. The expectation is for employees to have significant amount of prior experience so there is little hand-holding or micromanaging. Since employees work from home or remotely a significant amount of time (and often without an onsite manager), employees must have the self-discipline to work independently.
There has been an increased focus on new employee training and onboarding efforts; however, if an employee is not highly knowledgeable and skilled at IT auditing (or willing to put in the time and effort to sharpen their skills) then they will likely not be able to handle the firm culture.
