Company: KPMG
Date: 2012-07-15
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

Recommended "Big 4" Public Accounting Firm - Audit, Tax, & Advisory Services
Pros: 1) Competitive culture - employees are highly intelligent.  If you are a high performer, you will thrive at KPMG. Bonuses are given if your practice does well.  Also, there's a bonus for high utilization rate.  
2) Excellent trainings including KPMG paying for CPA, CFA, PMP, FRM, CMA, etc. reviews.  Bonus is also given upon passing the exams for CPA license or other certifications.
3) Community service and Diversity/Inclusion activities are highly encouraged and supported.
Cons: 1) Salary does not reflect the "High Performance" culture at KPMG.  When an employee gets promoted in July, she/he gets only a little bonus (ie, 2% of base salary).  Although her/his new title is effective as of July, the salary increase is not effective until October. The "little bonus" is supposed to compensate for 3 months.  :(
2) One of the key factors to measure performance is utilization rate.  Although KPMG promotes life balance, the utilization rate goes down when paid-time off (PTO)/vacation are taken.  :(   A company that truly believes in work-life balance will not penalize you for taking your vacation that you earned.