Company: KPMG
Date: 2015-09-13
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Tax associate
Pros: Great training place if you wish to start up your career in taxation / accountancy. 

Opportunities for exposure to large corporate clients and knowledge in the mechanics of these corporations. 

Pay is competitive to the market

Flexible time to come to work (not too late) and freedom in picking your days off so long it doesn't affect the delivery of work
Cons: Poor leadership in management (partner level), most of their time is preoccupied with business and clients rather than leading the units in right direction (or at least assign one with leadership ability to supervise the operation). 

Low motivation in going to work as the colleagues are clearly divided amongst the hierarchy, no bonding or whatsoever. Poor feedback system and appraisal rational, appraisal based on "comments" rather than realistic assessment of your strength and weakness, performance based on "how long you work tilled" rather than your intellectual level. 

Compliance team is production based, managers enforce on production rather than quality of work, whilst the seniors complaints about the quality when things are done out of rush. Lack of variety for compliance jobs, most of the time doing tax computation and dealing with accountants and admin tasks.

People are generally robotised and numb as they climb up the ladder (and stucked) so they would expect you to be part of them. 

Most of the good performers are very meticulous in their work, but adhesive to the rules and policies in very rigid ways.

A place work for survival / reasonable pay but with extra long hours (extreme in certain cases, a place lacking inspiration for further career development.

So overall it causes low employee morales and high turnover rate when people is given a choice.