Fast-paced environment - Senior Associate BDO Employee Review

3.0
Oct 23, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Friendly and helpful colleagues, from audit associates to audit seniors; Exposure to companies of a variety of industries; BDO places importance on training that they even have a team dedicated to training; and You will find that after working in audit, most other jobs are manageable.

Cons

Extremely steep learning curve; Nasty, demanding, and unreasonable clients; There are many friendly, approachable managers and partners, but conversely, there are equally many managers and partners who are fierce and who have no qualms scolding you in front of everyone in the office. It depends on your luck which managers pick you for their engagements; Never-ending workload - although officially you are only booked for an engagement for a period of time, you will definitely have to work on that engagement after the booked period. And you are discouraged from charging the time-cost of that engagement after the booked period. You can request your managers to book extra periods for you to finish the engagement. However, your managers may question your efficiency and ask why you can't finish within the booked period, etc.; and Their employee benefits and salaries are incomparable to those of Big 4 firms and other companies. Advice to prospective employees, the nature of the audit industry is that of a fast-paced, demanding, and stressful one. To thrive in audit, you really need to have good stress management, project management, EQ, and grit. Expect to work with demanding, unreasonable clients and sometimes difficult personalities (of managers and partners). Expect to work overtime frequently because, in most engagements, the audit timeline is very short. You will have a rude awakening if you don't have the resolve to endure the above.

Explore other reviews about BDO

5.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It was a good place to work

Cons

Can be busy at times

1.0
Jun 22, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Compensation is OK. There are some really nice people in the organization to work with, but you have to find them.

Cons

If you are not part of the SWC "club" (company name prior to them joining BDO), good luck. Poor leadership!!! Practice lead talks to everyone like they are talking to a CEO, not relatable in most cases. No clear employee development plans. You are held accountable for things completely outside of your individual control. They stress incorporating AI into work strategy, but have no plan on what that looks like or how to do it and want everyone to formulate it because leadership has no roadmap. One has no control over where you want to take your career, yet you are expected to know everything, about everything. As a result, you become an expert of nothing! Work assigned rarely leverages skills, almost as if they throw darts to see who works on what.

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