Vault put out its Accounting 50 today and shrug. It's fine if you like rankings and things. For me, the real gems are the employee reviews that are buried deep in the site. And, naturally, when I say "reviews" I'm talking about negative reviews.
Now, it should be noted that the vast majority of the reviews for the firms are positive. Whether that's because people are afraid to write what they really feel or that many, many people suffer from their firm's version of Stockholm syndrome is not known.
But what we do know is that misery in public accounting firms loves company. So as a gesture of service, I dug up a handful of the 1-star reviews on a few accounting firms for those of you aren't feeling the love at the end of busy season. Why the 1-star reviews? Well, for starters the 5 and 4-stars are all the same: great people, prestigious clients, excellent training, etc. etc. It's nauseating. And if you're unhappy the last thing you want to hear is the bubbly endorsements that think their firms are soooo great.
The 1-star reviews are like reading diary entries from Marvin or Debbie Downer. There's a morose comedy to them. After reading these, you won't feel better, but you'll feel less bad than at leaset one person, probably. Observe:
Here's "Entry-level in External Audit" with PwC:
And "Entry-level in Tax":
Here's a cringe-worthy one for KPMG:
And another to top it:
This one for Eide Bailly is a 2-star review but you wouldn't know it based on the review:
I'll just leave this here.
