Long hours, stingy salaries, unreasonable project deadlines, and stressful work environment - Senior Audit Associate KPMG Employee Review

1.0
11 Oct 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Working for KPMG proves that you are a strong candidate with the ability to roll up your sleves and get the job done. You also get access to the books and records of some very reputable clients that provide meaningful experience for your career later on down the line. The other professionals working with you are you're greatest resource and are exceptional friends and colleagues.

Cons

Prepare to have no life outside of work. Never in my life could I have ever imagined working this much. You work on weekends, sometimes 7 days a week, often times without charging the time or getting recognized for putting in the effort to meet unreasonable budget and time deadlines that your managers will never commend you on. Prepare for 40-55 hr work weeks during summer and 80-100+ hr work weeks from September-April. Your clients will never be pleased to see you, no matter how good you are, and they will in fact make that known to you at all times. Some are often very difficult to work with or get the right information from. On top of everything, the salaries they are offering are much lower than the mid tier firms for some unknown reason and when you calculate the number of hours you put in compared to your pay you might be making somewhere near $12/hr while they charge the client $350/hr for your services. They give you 25 days PTO but implemented 7 days of mandatory PTO, further reducing your paid vacation/sick time to about 18 days. Its not uncommon to get bad performance reviews for taking PTO at times that are not advantageous to the firm. For example, if you book a vacation a year in advance and due to client push back the engagement doesn't finish on time but you leave for vacation, that will negatively be frowned upon no matter how out of your hands the situation may be.

Explore other reviews about KPMG

5.0
22 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good place to start for sure.

Cons

Can be stressful and highly demanding.

4.0
7 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great general benefits however not as good as it was when I first started at the firm 11 years ago. Firm used to provide better employee incentives but no longer provides. Employee experience all depends on who you report to and work with. Some have great experiences, while others are completely over-worked.

Cons

Let go during RIF. When I started with the firm back in 2015, RIF's didn't occur much but now has become the normal once a year at minimum at KPMG. You must be on top of you game now (high performance culture) otherwise can be let go at any moments notice. Unfortunately if you do amazing on your engagement work, doesn’t mean anything to leadership and can still be let go, especially at manager level and requires you to put many additional hours per week doing extra curricular (Business Proposals, Certifications, etc.).

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