KPMG reviews

If you're a senior rank female with children, be prepared to deal with ultra senior male executives without children. These executives do not understand the last thing about work and life balance and run their own lives and departments accordingly. It takes all kinds of people to make the world go round I guess- but perhaps individuals like this have too narrow of a life experience to run entire offices. Insane hours during busy season. Too many chiefs and not enough indians. Poor supervision of audit managers abusing power (e.g. blaming the lower level team members for late audits, when the managers are at fault for late reviews, starting late, poor planning, poor coaching). I've seen all kinds of crazy cases, as a supporting manager, when the team was allowed to leave the office at 4AM only to be called back for a 7AM meeting the same day. On the projects where I was the manager in charge we did stay late (more often than I would like) during busy season, but I never broke the abuse limit, regardless of project financial priorities. Huge turnover - constantly have to educate new green people at lower ranks. Don't get me wrong, I love working with new people, as long as they are not in charge of executing my projects every time and every project. Ignore ratings that say KPMG is in top 5, 10, 20 in various surveys or whatever other paid-for number for work life balance. These ratings are meaningless and are likely purchased. As mentioned above, some managers at the SVO (Silicon Valley) Audit Practice feel OK asking you to stay until 4AM and come back at 7AM same day or equivalent during busy season. Your mileage may vary.

On the downside, if you look at the Best Places to work lists - you will find KPMG either listed below every other Big Four firm or completely absent from the list. Top management can make all the excuses they want but it comes down to two primary issues. Management loves to take credit for success but blames underlings for failures. Either way you aren't going to share in the money pouring into the firm. Second, management likes to play favorites and no one seems to be willing to reel these managers in. Companies need to be able to show why one employee was promoted over another and in many cases a halfway good lawyer could prove that this was not the case. Over the years I watched countless talented employees jump ship to the other Big Four Accounting firms. As a result, many people who do remain and work up to Partner or Principal aren't the best and brightest. The few fantastic partners/managers remaining have a very long list of employees trying to get into their group. If you find yourself working for this firm and want anything other than a very, very slow climb to the top - take as many classes as you can and constantly look for a position at one of the other Big Four Accounting firms. Many people I know jumped ship with their manager to a new firm and even entire departments have left together. After working one too many 100+ hour work weeks for this firm I left and I would argue that any firm that loses an entire Practice group to a competitor - isn't some place you want to be long term.