Terrible place to START your career - Anonymous employee Ryan Employee Review

3.0
7 Nov 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexibility is how people describe, although it depends to some extent on the type of work you perform and your manager.

Cons

I've seen a few reviews state that Ryan is a great/good/decent place to start your career. Here's why it's the exact opposite: When you get hired, you're either an "experienced hire" or a regular hire. Experienced hires in this case may have direct experience (they come from a competitor where they performed the same basic job functions), or indirect experience (their previous work had direct similarities to their job at Ryan, but was not the same job; e.g. you worked for a REIT and now you'll be a property tax consultant). Experienced hires have significantly higher salaries, which makes sense since they are more valuable starting out. However, regular hires obviously become experienced at some point, but Ryan has no mechanism for recognizing this. Therefore, someone who comes in as a regular hire will generally always be paid significantly less than experienced hires regardless of results, education, ability, responsibilities, etc. Imagine two people, we'll call Ralph and Betsie who graduate college together. Ralph lands a new job as a Property Tax Consultant at Ryan, and Betsie lands the same job but at Ryan's competitor, Lame Tax Consulting. Ralph has a starting salary of $41,000 which he thinks is decent. Over the next 5 years, Ralph performs admirably and earns a 5% raise each year, now making $52,328. Betsie's company goes under and Betsie calls her old friend Ralph who manages to get her a job on his team in the same position he has. But Betsie is now an experienced hire, so Betsie gets hired at $70,000. Both Ralph and Betsie now have 5 years of experience, they have the same responsibilities, the tax savings they generate over the course of the next year is within $10,000 of one another - meaning their revenue is within a couple hundred dollars - but during his 5 years, Ralph also managed to earn a master's degree. When raise and promotion comes around in October, they will both earn 5%, now making $54,944 and $73,500, respectively. Ralph will never be paid what Betsie is paid, despite being equally valuable to the company (in some ways Ralph is more valuable because of his familiarity with Ryan's policies and procedures). Even if Ralph is promoted above Betsie, he will not catch up to her salary-wise. He may get 10% instead of 5% (though that is unusual). Ralph's only hope of being paid his market value is to leave Ryan, to the detriment of his team. Hence Ryan has created a system whereby it incentivizes the resources it has spent thousands of dollars training and grooming, to leave precisely when they become most valuable to the company.

Explore other reviews about Ryan

5.0
16 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The pay, WLB, and benefits are fantastic for a fresh grad.

Cons

The training structure is a little haphazard but this is not universal.

3.0
4 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Culture is great amongst principle and executive team members. The work is not difficult if you have prior experience in property tax. Benefits are good. Great promotion track if you are willing to play the politics.

Cons

Political environment. Senior Consultants do not mind throwing newer people under the bus for their mistakes. Boundaries are not respected. You are expected to know everything with no real formal training, they do provide some training for the first few weeks but then it drops off and everything needs to be self taught. Management has favorites and you will know instantly.

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