Pros
Work environment is well above average and there are several events and functions throughout the year for staff enjoyment. It is by far the best workplace culture I've experienced.
Will reimburse articling accountants their CPA costs while going through the CPA program with a catch. There is also a lot of support during the CPA process provided by MNP. Although, a lack of support isn't really the difficult part of the CPA program. The difficult part is the lack of time the student has to complete their assignments and study going through the traditional program. see the cons section for advice on going through this process.
I want to make it clear that despite my low rating and long con list, MNP is a fantastic place to work. It is just important that you start your career here with a full understanding of what is expected of you.
You are assigned a mentor that helps you throughout your early career with MNP and you're given a lot of support.
Cons
MNP is contractually obligated to pursue employment obligations based on quotas for sex, race, and a person's disability. There is no overt discrimination, but it is true that MNP is financially motivated to meet these metrics. No definitive impact can be stated, but it is likely that your chances of being hired and promoted will be impacted to some degree by your sex, race, and disability level. This is not a unique problem to MNP, but it is a problem that MNP has.
Articling students may be required to pay the upfront costs of their CPA program and wait several months before being reimbursed. This continues throughout the program's duration and may result in the candidate waiting to be reimbursed for thousands of dollars.
There is a very high turnover rate for articling accountants and newly designated accountants. The CPA program is very demanding and compensation levels are very low for articling accountants. You can expect to receive between $15 and $20 per hour and work 60 hour weeks. during tax season you are working 60 hours in the office, and outside of tax season, you can expect to spend between 15 to 25 hours on CPA studies and assignments with the remaining time spent in the office.
It's important to note that while MNP requires those hired as articling accounts to go through the CPA program, They do not ultimately cover the costs of the program until you have worked for two additional years after receiving your designation.
MNP claims to be the fastest growing accounting firm in Canada, but this can be a bit misleading. Part of the reason that the turnover rate for newly designated accountants is so high is that MNP's growth is due to acquisitions. This type of growth increases the number of students that get hired every year by MNP, but a lot of the manager and partner positions are filled due to the new mergers. This isn't a unique issue to MNP, but a very common issue in the industry. New accountants looking to article with public firms should know that they may need to treat the public firm as temporary employment during their articling and make plans for their career growth elsewhere. This doesn't mean that fantastic career opportunities don't exist with MNP. MNP is still promoting many many managers and partners from within each year. Just be aware that the majority of articling students who begin their careers at MNP don't last more than four years.
The normal process for going through the CPA program task roughly 3 years and is very demanding. I would suggest that students take one extended module each year instead of 2 standard modules each year. This will result in it taking 2 additional years to complete, but the only downside would be any time concerns the student might have. The pay increase for completing the program isn't significant as opposed to the standard raises you get each year. the experience you would include on your resume wouldn't be impacted by you getting your designation two years earlier. the extended program would also result in you needing to pay less of the upfront CPA fees so long as you pass the modules as you go. If you can convince MNP to let you take the extended route, I would plan on articling for 5 years. it is very important to pass everything as their are time limits on starting and finishing the CPA program, but the 5 year program would result in you getting a higher grade on average through the CPA program, working less hours each year, and accumulating a lot of banked overtime during task season that would allow you to take your final summer off to focus on the CFE and even potentially receive a nice overtime cash out at the end as well. After receiving your designation, you can take your time to thoroughly look for your next career opportunity as you work off the remaining 2 years of your contract.
Like many companies, employee reviews are very subjective without clear goals to achieve high grades. Many numeric goals are stagnant for first year accountants and third year accountants despite significant improvements in competency for more experienced accountants. This results in 1st and second year accountants not preforming well based on the company set benchmarks. This is almost unanimous for new hires. non numeric goals aren't very difficult to achieve, but there is no clear way to preform above expectations. preforming above your level per the expectation descriptions and reaching the goal in more performance categories don't have a clear correlation with performance grade. Only that they're loosely tied together. The results of your performance achievements are also not communicated well.
There is a decent degree of motivation for employees to work off the clock in order to give the appearance of high performance. MNP tells people they don't like it when they do this, but all employee motivation is geared towards getting good results on those performance metrics. It might be common for new hires to accurately record their time, but there is a lot of incentive for those with CPAs to work without recording their hours in order to get better bonuses. It's a large issue as a mediocre employee can preform better on the books than an excellent employee who follows the rules and records their time accurately. As upward movement is very competitive, this can create concerning expectations. MNP makes a token effort to curb this, but it is unsuccessful.
