KPMG reviews

Unfortunately, KPMG is not all rainbows and unicorns. While, on balance, I have learned a great deal during my time at the firm, there are a few things that really hurt the firm's ability to retain people. First, the partner group is often rather aloof, distant, and totally disconnected from the young professionals that work for them. Yes, perhaps they too struggled and worked hard during their early days, but for the vast majority, that was 20+ years ago, and the world has changed since then. Today's young professionals are looking for more than a stable career and a paycheck, and unless the firm is able to provide more than that, the most talented professionals will continue to leave. The lack of investment and attention to things such as proper mentoring, career guidance, patience, and care simply astounds me at times. The fact that the firm will do nothing to retain top performers boggles my mind. If the top-rated senior or manager is thinking about leaving the firm, what will they do? Certainly not pay them more. They will pay lip service to rearranging workloads so that the top performers aren't burned out, but that never happens in reality. It's wasted opportunity after wasted opportunity. People are simply not appreciated and valued enough, especially when they should be the firm's most valued resource. Second, the slave labor factor still exists. In a world where income inequality has become a rallying cry for millions, the same disconnected and aloof partner group often jokes about how, if you stay to partner, you'll be very, very, very well compensated. Well, that doesn't really make anyone else feel better. Nor does it make any of us, who work so hard for so little, want to work any harder so you can make more money, especially as we are compelled to find efficiencies that may not exist. It's easy as a partner to tell a team to send more work to India. The reality on the ground is that it is not as easy as it sounds. The fact is that for years, young staff have been content to be paid little in exchange for an amazing start to their career, with interesting learning and good mentorship. Lately, KPMG has failed on those counts. Finally, the firm is too conservative, with too much bureaucracy, too many layers, and too many checklists that are redundant. While I understand risk mitigation is important, KPMG has always been the most conservative of the Big 4, and from speaking with peers and competitors, it is clear we are the firm that gets in our own way the most. The other firms clearly enjoy economies of scale that we do not, but because of the way the firm operates, with local partners not even allowed to run their own practices properly, we miss out on too many opportunities for improvement.

KPMG is political. One thing that I've definately learned is that you don't just work for the office that hired you but you work for Nationals. In this way, your office doesn't always have the pull. If a job comes up in another part of the country that needs someone, they can pull you like that and there is little to nothing that you can do about it. Also, raises and bonuses are political. If you work on the larger clients that bring in more of the revenue then your busy season will most likely be shorter, a little easier because of prior year workpapers, and you'll get more praise at the end of the day. If you get put on small clients, especially new clients, you'll be working longer hours, more weekends, and a much longer busy season. Also, your budgets will be too small for the work that needs to be done, you may be hinted at to eat hours so that the job doesn't go over budget, and your bonus and raise will be effected because the job wasn't profitable. I know of VERY few small jobs that have stayed consistently under budget and no first year jobs that stayed under budget. New comers should try and request the job they want to be on because placement very rarely changes after you begin. KPMG has terrible technology and by far the worst of the Big 4 firms. Although they are currently striving to produce a paperless audit soon, based on other current technology, I expect the paperless audit to be terrible for atleast a couple of years. These are things that are specific to KPMG. But I will emphasize that I have friends that work at all the Big 4 firms and every firm definately has its problems, especially with the politics of the firm. A good way to look at Big 4 accounting is as a stepping stone for the rest of your life. The average turnover is 2.5 years. There is a reason for this. An individuals time is measured in how many late nights he can work, how much condescension he can take from management, and how willing he is to give up his life for a few years. I would tell someone to go to a small, local firm if one wants to do auditing as a career.