Company: KPMG
Date: 2021-02-05
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Where do I even begin?? This review is for KPMG in Singapore (Advisory)
Pros: - Learning experience
- Variety of projects
- Good place to start your career (only from an experience perspective)
Cons: This review is for KPMG in Singapore, Advisory.

Where do I even begin? I would advise against reading any one-liner reviews you see on sites like Glassdoor. 

1. REMUNERATION AND STAFF RETENTION

It is a no-brainer that Big 4 pays below market especially for fresh graduates but you have no idea how appalling it can be for KPMG in Singapore. The Advisory pay structure is practically Audit pay structure with minor adjustments (Disclaimer: Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of very intelligent, friendly, nice, people in Audit but the value of Audit work in general cannot be compared to Advisory work, even though Audit revenues are generally steadier and less volatile than Advisory).

Hence, standard practice is to accept job offers here as a safety net, and then renege when you get better offers elsewhere. Even after starting work, juniors continuously apply to test the market for better offers. I know people who quit on the first day, after two weeks, within two months, within a year: so really, any time.

So junior turnover is extremely high. And you can imagine the burden this has on engagement delivery: juniors quit, teams have to re-hire, and then re-train the new hire. But while managers are training the new person, it means they have to help out on the grunt work themselves on top of the massive responsibilities they have as managers on admin, compliance, client management, etc. Eventually these managers themselves also quit.

It's a house of cards, really. How bad is the situation? In the Consulting arm of Advisory, some teams only have 1 to 3 juniors remaining (people who are Assistant Managers and below). Many people, especially juniors, left during and after an incredibly disappointing series of townhalls. First, people were promoted without a pay increase. Later, a pay increase was instituted for half a year, and only at half the amount of standard increments (i.e. half increment for half a year). No back-payment was promised. Can you imagine the disappointment? Yes, COVID made it difficult. But imagine a firm that cannot afford you a pay more despite already paying you so much lower than market average.

So I don't get why it is so difficult for management to understand the need to pay their staff better. It's even funnier when you discover some partners apparently believe that they pay above market. Their source? "A recruiter told me." The recruiter either has something against KPMG or is making you believe it in the hopes that this will indirectly cause unhappiness for some of your employees eventually, in turn making it easy for recruiters to target.

When my peers and juniors have become jaded at this company, I encourage them to look for jobs. I even know of people in other teams who forward job postings to their fellow teammates (manager to associate, for example). This is the toxic environment this firm has become although we have no malicious intent. We just want to support our colleagues who have become our friends.

2. JUNIOR PARTNERS HAVE A TOUGH LIFE TOO

When I say management, I really mean only senior partners and above. Junior partners and below have a terrible life. Junior partners find themselves trapped between resolving their team's problems and the need to avoid getting on the bad side of the more senior partners who are important to their career prospects (e.g. relationships with key accounts, relationships with industry, relationships within the broader global KPMG network).

When someone quits, junior partners ask "How can I make your life better?", and if the answer is "Pay me higher", they can only respond "Sorry, even I can't do that for you."