Grant Thornton reviews

Age discrimination. I wasn't asked to leave, but I was told on three separate occasions that I didn't fit the image of a traditional new associate. Because of my age (38), I wasn't considered to be on a "partner track"...so, my future at Grant Thornton was in question. As a result, I wasn't given the traditional training all new associates receive until I was at the company for almost an entire year. So...for the first year, I had to learn their audit method and internal software suite on my own. They didn't send me to training till I gave them examples of interns receiving the training I was promised...completing their internships...graduating...returning to the company as new hires, and receiving the same training a second time..all before I received it once. After every client engagement, associates receive a performance review. I was never dinged on a performance review...not once for anything other than I needed to get out to more client engagements. It was difficult to get out on engagements, because many partners and senior managers wouldn't work with me. I would be scheduled but get knocked off of engagements at the last minute. I decided to quit...and on my way out...one of the partners (handlers) apologized because I clearly hadn't received what they called the "Grant Thornton Experience." Oh...I also had some of the highest client survey scores in the office and was given an award for it. I am also a veteran of the World's Greatest Air Force. My career has never recovered. Sad.

I knew by the end of my first day orientation at GT that I was going to need a NEW new job when I learned about the flexible time off policy. At GT, you can take as many weeks of vacation as you want, as long as you put in the 1870 or so billable hours for the client and another 300 or so hours towards training, writing proposals, and schmoozing at GT events. Excluding ten holidays per year, that means that you are expected to put in about 2170 or so hours over 50 weeks of work. Do the math, and you are doing nearly 44 hours per week even if you take zero weeks of vacation. Add an hour a week of additional work for each week of vacation that you would like to take. So yeah, you can take off half the year if you like, if you can get your team leaders to approve it and want to commit to working 70 hours per week for the other half of the year. Not for me! I'm too old and cynical to believe that I'm going to make partner if I work my tail off. I also hated that the clock reigned supreme. We had to enter our hours down to the quarter hour, and the ADP software was programmed to send a reminder to you to enter your hours for the day by 10 am the next morning, and if you fail to meet that deadline, you get a warning or a demerit or something. I stayed on top of it, but it all fed into my perception that I was just a revenue-generating unit within an impersonal bureaucracy. I was working in the federal practice at GT, and before I came to GT I had already worked as a contractor at federal agencies where I worked 40 hours per week and would get paid overtime if I was asked to work beyond that. I also contributed to proposals, but it was considered an optional activity. And I didn't have to schmooze constantly to get put onto new projects. I left GT to accept an offer with one of these smaller companies that offered me a much better opportunity with higher pay and more flexibility on the lifestyle items. Also, this may be a pro or con, depending on your background: I was in the data analytics practice, but culturally I am a techie, not a business major. I felt that business majors would feel much more at home at GT than techies who are used to being less buttoned-down. Everyone was smart and helpful, but it wasn't really my tribe, and I didn't expect that over the long term I was going to fit in very well, which was ultimately going to hurt my ability to get staffed on teams.