Advisory - Great Start to a Career - Associate KPMG Employee Review

4.0
2 May 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Despite being the runt of the Big 4, you still get access to industry behemoths, great learning resources, and name recognition that can open plenty of doors. The Big 4 are pretty much the same in the incestual world that accounting / consulting is in, but KPMG attracts a good combination of bright individuals and scrappy state school kids - at least in Advisory. It's a good combination of interacting with some brilliant people and hard working professionals. Compensation is adequate. The salary is competitive and the 5 weeks of PTO (with it rolling over in CA) is great! Work-life balance is decent. You work hard and have some unpredictable hours, but if an event is important to you, you will most likely be able to make it. Overall, a great learning opportunity to start a career and learn a good foundation of accounting / financial analysis that can be used to transition elsewhere if desired. Not much incentive to stay longer unless you truly love the work and want to realize the pension / 401k benefits, but with the Bay Area offering so much opportunity, Big 4 doesn't seem to entice that many to stay long.

Cons

Compared to other Big 4, KPMG lacks in some benefits, especially health-related perks. The company is well aware that it does not want to be a industry leader in this and instead shows that it offers better 401k and retirement options. Great if you want to be a lifer, not so great if you are planning an exit before year 3 or 4. The culture in Advisory is something that doesn't inspire you to say longer than 2 years. Nothing really shows you that Directors and Partners care about you or your career aspirations. Managers and Directors that are social and awesome almost always have a foot out the door, leaving the mundane, less people-oriented leadership in place. But this is the Big 4, so turnover is high - especially in the Bay Area.

Explore other reviews about KPMG

5.0
4 Jul 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Work life balance - Good benefits

Cons

- Experience depends on team

4.0
11 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It might sound cliche but the Pro for me is the people that I work with. I'm lucky enough to be staffed in a team with great leadership. Managers are actually willing to coach junior members and be a real mentor. I very much appreciate their efforts.

Cons

Long hours and office politics. This is pretty basic and obvious for any public accounting firms. Every time a quarter end, year end, or a special filing is going out, you can expect 10-14 hour days. It might be fine in your early career but it gets really tiring after a few years.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All