Company: KPMG
Date: 2019-08-18
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Insurance Audit Associate - London
Pros: -KPMG are more flexible regarding ACA exam leave and retakes than other big 4 firms. A hard fail (<45) at another big 4 can result in sacking, but at KPMG you will just have to pay for the retake. A fail from 45-54 results in extra exam leave days and the retake paid for.

- KPMG provide a £5 lunch allowance every day while on client site, which you don’t receive at other big 4.

- Depending on your client, the hours can be 9-5 in between busy season and half year (unless you’re on a Lloyd’s client). Although on the graduate scheme, you will typically miss this due to ACA study leave.

- It is a global firm with secondment/transfer opportunities to other departments and locations (although can be difficult to get - see cons).
Cons: - Specifically in the insurance department, long hours (60+ hours a week, sometimes 80-100) are common in ‘busy season’. This can be just jan/Feb, or more months if you’re on more than one year end.

- There is no overtime & minimal recognition for working long hours.

- The difference in pay between low performers and high performers is far more minimal than it should be. This incentivises being an average performer and working as few hours as possible (especially as if you leave your reference only confirms that you worked for kpmg between x dates).

- In the insurance department, you are typically forced to work a 4th busy season after qualification in order to get a secondment to another department. This short sighted policy results in the majority of recently qualified ACAs to leave the firm, rather than stay in a different department/location.