Just repeating what most people have said about public accounting. Hours are bad. Some people are cutthroat because they want to make manager, partner etc. Due to favoritism, people are promoted prematurely And leadership rewards people eating hours, although they say otherwise. There's always double meanings to what people say. Your protection relies on being on the right side of management. That's how the culture is and due to leadership supporting this culture, the type of people that last here are the ones who thrive in this culture.
But going back to complaining about public accounting, they are stuck to how things are done. Due to accounting attracting risk averse and more conservative people, people stick to what they know. There's very little room for ingenuity because they want to do things the way things have always been done and trying to look like there's progress on the surface. But internally people are withering away, either in their conquest to prove they're the best in public accounting or the people who are coasting along because it's a job just like anything else and it's not the end all be all of life.
At the end of the day, public accounting sucks, billable hours suck, some people are cool and some are okay and others are the worst people you'll ever meet. Just like any other workplace, pick your poison
