Put in your two years and get out - Tax Associate BDO Employee Review

2.0
8 Nov 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Its public accounting, so it's not fair to bash things that are part of any public accounting job Good coworkers, fast promotion if you are willing to put in the work

Cons

Lousy meal allowance. Work over 10 hours and get 10 bucks for dinner. In Tysons? Yeah right. McDonalds it is again. I am not looking for a 5 star restaurant but working 10+ hour days for several months and eating fast food gets extremely old. That policy works in Va Beach, not in DC area. BDO buys too many small firms but the acquired firms don't change. The employees of old firm wish that they were working for their old company, which hurts moral for new employees/creates petty resentment of people who are happy to be at BDO. (sounds dumb but I experienced this in several employees of all levels). They don't embrace being a part of the BDO culture or work to promote BDO. A full two years after merging Argy into BDO, Seniors and Managers (millennials) talk about how they miss Argy and still refer to process as "their way" and "our way" (BDO vs Argy practices). Get with the program. By extension, there are sporadic attempts at standardization amongst regions, but the desired one size fits all clients/entities is frustrating. Also an extreme lack of training with technology tools. Too many bosses is way too hard to manage. I reported and was responsible to 5+ bosses at any one time. Some people get away with working less than 30 hours a week while others are book more than 60 due to horrible scheduling -the 30 hour people aren't efficient or superstars, they just don't pull their share and it screws over the rest of the team. I am also not comparing my hours to somebody who is busy at different times of the year.

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5.0
27 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work life balance and range of opportunities

Cons

Tools available and total pay

2.0
5 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There actually are great people, but you play manager roulette.

Cons

BDO is notorious for promoting people who just never leave. The middle of the road, not great, not awful, people get promoted over and over again. There have been changes every 3 seconds since the ESOP. Terrible communication around change (non-existent). My manager's favorite term was "We are building the plane as we fly it". After 4 years, I was hoping to have more plane built. It was never built.

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