THE PEOPLE - There is a brick wall of senior managers who can not make partner. This is due to the inability of the senior manager rank and above to sell and promote value-added tax services to new or existing clients. Most of the senior management does not possess the skills or competence to work outside of the Big 4.
Do not be fooled by the Big 4 stigma; most of the work at the staff and senior levels are for small projects with limited learning opportunities. Couple that with the rampant nepotism (favoritism) and egotism of the senior managers and partners and it will not be long before you are boxed in. There will be no motivation from your direct bosses.
There were very few people who exercised good interpersonal skills - surprising in any case that these are the same people the firm relies on to sell its services. More over, the coaching and development from upper management is not transparent and is often two-faced and non-interactive. Honest communication is sacrificed for the comfort of avoiding true team-building. Partner communication is almost non-existent on most projects (of course, this depends on the partner).
The firm does not promote on merit. It's much like being in college where you get a promotion for just sticking it out and doing what your told. Even the partners cannot tell you how or why your being promoted, moved to another team, etc. Oh, and you may also get forgotten and not promoted. It's seemingly arbitrary and does not inspire confidence for defining a career path.
The firm spends a lot of resources each year convincing new staff that they can have an impact in the business. On the whole, this is widely untrue, at least in the Denver office. Most ideas or effort initiated by anyone who is not a partner or director are shot down, overlooked, or under appreciated. The firm is too large to change, and certainly too large for one person to have an impact. They will do anything to make you feel like if you just stayed a little longer.... worked a little more... etc. All this is a laugh, considering that they are wasting money doing so, yet all the firm cares about is it's bottom line.
Lastly, while the firms motto is "Quality in Everything We Do", this too is largely a facade with no backing. The teams I worked with did nothing to advance the quality of work product, which is why it was such a large ongoing discussion within the tax practice. On several occasions, I was told to just "make it up". If something is incorrect and not properly by your boss, the blame will fall on your shoulders. This perpetuates the unaccountability of upper management. Even the audit and advisory staff share stories where they were made to work long hours, later to be forced by the partner to only bill a certain amount of time. Once again, the culture is too focused on the wrong things.
