Pros
- They pay above industry average. - Dinners are provided during busy season on Tuesdays and Thursdays; lunches are usually provided on busy season Saturdays; there are fruits and healthy snacks! - Good location - Good team of admin staffs, staffs, seniors, supervising seniors and managers, some are very hardworking, experienced, responsible and smart. Managers and supervising seniors will take time to talk to staffs about the returns and projects and help us to grow. I made a lot of friends there. - Good workpaper reference systems - Some partners start to be appreciative and nice; they are also working on eliminating redundant procedures, documentations and references. Things start to get a little bit better than before. - Busy season hours were not bad for myself: mostly 58-65 hours during regular busy season weeks, the most I've worked is about 75-80 (the last two weeks before 4/15) but compared to other big firms it is not bad at all. - I am very thankful that the partners allow me to train new staffs and interns on tax software and tax database software. I am also very thankful that I get allocated the most difficult groups of clients. I am thankful for this opportunity to think clearly about my career options.
Cons
- No audited financial statements therefore a lot of messy Quickbooks files to clean up: too much bookkeeping work for tax accountants. If you have experience on small local businesses' accounting and bookkeeping, this would be a good fit, otherwise the tax returns are very simple. My accounting skill is absolutely better than before, but I've lost so much tax skill (there will be no M-3, state and local, foreign, R&D credit, sec 263A calc, etc) and I did not have too much valuable exposure to 2017 TCJA rules (163j interest carryover, 199A, opportunity zone, etc) just because the gross receipts of the returns were so small. If you do not want to lose your tax edge, think hard. - If you care to have a career there, make sure you kiss the right butt, this will allow you to: randomly not show up at work, call in sick almost every Monday, browse the internet and play video games the whole day at work, without getting fired. - If you are very introverted and not caring for human interaction and appreciation, this will be a good fit. There will be no team building activity at all. Partners are not interested in knowing you and valuing you, you are only told to work like a slave, including summer (by the end of July we were required to work 45 billable hours). - Partners have a hard time getting their own work done. We were told that we did not meet the goals, in fact a lot of returns were done and reviewed, but still sitting in partners' inboxes and waiting for the second review for MONTHS. There are always "administrative obligations" from the CRI headquarter, but please remember as a partner, your job is to GET RETURNS OUT, instead of "ruling your employees and having meetings". - Some partners need to work on their basic tax technical skills. They should have known why certain tax treatments are certain ways or why we need to request certain tax workpapers, instead of bombarding their staffs asking "why did you need this" and "why did you do this". Sometimes it is better to just slow down and learn the tax rules, even though you are already a partner. Our tax career is a blessing, you get to learn new things every day, don't let these learning opportunities slip away. - One time an intern's work was publicly displayed and criticized by a partner in front of everyone in the office. a. Review points should always be communicated privately. b. It is a reviewer/partner's responsibility to teach interns and new staffs and to make sure they do the right things, especially when they are already trying so hard and doing a good job. The partner can always justify the behavior - but imagine being hurt and humiliated in front of everyone in a person's early career. Imagine the trauma caused in your other employees - being afraid that their work will be publicly criticized some day. It is not us being extra-sensitive, but what you did was simply a mistake.
