Company: KPMG
Date: 2009-09-16
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former

A great place to work and build a career.
Pros: KPMG provides a plethora of opportunities to participate in and work on varying engagement types, both locally and internationally.    Firm employees have every opportunity to chart out their career growth paths, and are encouraged along these lines by periodic discussions with their performance managers about where they are, where they want to be, and what they need to get there.  The firm provides great training opportunities both online and instructor led course; and in fact KPMG mandates that employees complete a specified number of CPE hours yearly.  In line with career growth and education opportunities, the firm provides great mobility.  If for whatever reason find that you need to move to another city, or country for that matter, they will work with you to identify a position in that location.  If you wish to try living and working in another country, KPMG regularly offers secondment opportunities that you can apply for.  

The firmâ??s focus on professionalism and integrity is abundantly clear from recruitment and through your career at KPMG.  Salaries seem fair and benefits are\were great.  Work/Life balance did not seem like just talk, the firm makes an effort to not to drive you to the ground.  They make very reasonable accommodations and provide flexible or alternate work schedules.  They also have great community outreach and volunteer groups.
Cons: Be prepared to work long hours/days at crunch time.  This can be quite stressful and taxing for some.  Travel can be quite challenging.  Depending on the team/line of business you are in, you could spend 3-4 days a week away from home, back on the weekend and its back on the plane again on Sunday in order to be at the client site Monday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed.  Itâ??s amazing how all airports, cities and hotels start looking alike.  There have been times when I have woken up in the middle of the night and could not remember what city I was in.  Travel can really be hard on the family.  I know folks whose relationships/marriages have gone up in smoke because of this.  Of course when home for the weekend i.e. Friday evening through Sunday afternoon, you have your â??crackberryâ? mobile device with you in order to respond promptly to client/team requests.

On a parting note, you may be good at what you do, but as you leave the Associate or Senior Associate ranks and join management, be prepared to start selling.  You will be expected to bring in work and the firm sets the dollar amount that you are to hit.  You may be the biggest, baddest investigator/accountant, once you hit management, you are going to have to be a sales person and start focusing on business developement.  I have known good people that have lost their jobs because they do not sell well, but are otherwise great people managers.  

Compensation does get better though.

Also, senior managers are not always entirely truthful.  Be sure to have your BS filter tuned to high when talking with them.