Burr Pilger & Mayer Reviews

Pros

Management is open and honest and they give you the opportunities and tools to develop and become a leader. The firm has a clear vision of what it wants and where it is headed, and it's nice to know someone is steering the ship. You form really good relationships and you are willing to give it all you got for the people you work with.

Cons

Public accounting in general is not a 9 to 5 job, which can be draining. Also, the firm is always going through a lot of change and new initiatives, so you need to be really organized and able to to multi-task or it can become really challenging.

Pros

Medium sized full service firm with great opportunity for one to explore different areas of professional services - assurance, tax, consulting, and even internal operation.

Cons

The firm grew a little too fast and has lost its original emphasis on "people".
Evaluation is top-down so there is not much chance for one to report poor supervising performance of one's in-charge except during the exit interview.

Pros

1. Opportunities to work with different clients/industries
2. Have different events throughout the year
3. Many energetic staffs
4. Decent benefits package

Cons

1. Keep telling employees BPM is proud of providing work/life balance when the fact is NOT.
2. Keep telling employees BPM is investing a lot on each employee by providing different training or a good benefits package when other CPA firms also do so.
3. Coach/Coachee program sounds good if the coachee can pick someone that he/she trusts.
4. Upper management ignores the fact that people "eat" hours to make the budget looks good.
5. Different offices have different management styles. It is okay when the team is from one office but this is not the case for most jobs.
6. Corporate culture - the culture has changed A LOT due to the mergers in past few years. Employees are not as close to each other anymore.

Advice to Senior Management

Dont' tell your potential new hires that BPM has good work and life balance when the fact is not. You may tell others when your staffs think they have a life other than work.

Pros

People make it the best place in the Bay Area to work in Accounting by far. Plenty of Career opportunity.

Cons

Long hours make it hard to balance life and work. It is hard to manage time when you are overwhelmed.

Advice to Senior Management

Build a gym in our facilities, especially SF!!! If they can't do that then we should have a shower :)

Pros

- Variety of work: diverse group of clientele
- Pay =)
- Location

Cons

- Great clientele; HOWEVER, due to big firm politics you get stuck doing one thing
- "Encouraged" employees to vote them as "Best Place to Work."
- Upper Management: Supervisors, Managers, Partners, AND Office Manager showed too much preferential treatment and they faked they cared. This is specifically in the PALO ALTO OFFICE
- Wedsnesdays with Steves (as someone mentioned) SOOO DUMB! We dont care Steve!
- The firm consist of many mergers and so alot of ppl did things differently. How ppl did things were very inconsistent! it should be ONE company = ONE way to do things in ALL the offices
- Worked here a few YEARS, I CAN say I HATED working here!!!

Advice to Senior Management

PALO ALTO office AND Steve take that "I'm too good for everyone out of your A**!!!"

Pros

Good team members, with the majority of management and senior management genuinely interested in mentoring, offering feedback, and real skill development

Cons

Excessive deadline pressure, a lack of work life balance, unclear milestone and achievement guidelines for promotion and incentive pay structure.

Advice to Senior Management

Take the time to implement an incentive pay system for your staff that is based on a clear performance and professional development structure.

Pros

Great people and staff. Easy to get along with.

Cons

Firm is top heavy and partners are out of touch with what their staff needs and wants.

Advice to Senior Management

Compensate better.

Pros

Great work experience, work on many different clients and really learn many different types of businesses. Good opportunity to advance upward. Can specialize or be a generalist, nice to have the choice...

Cons

As with many Public CPA firms, vvery long hours. High pressure to pass the CPA exam. Heavy push on practice development, very fast paced firm.

Advice to Senior Management

Development of staff is crucial and BPM does a great job.

Pros

Capable management. Great working environment.

Cons

As with all other public accounting firms, long work hours and tight engagement schedules. It takes commitment to be in this field in general.

Advice to Senior Management

Maintain the vision of the growth of the firm. Expand brand recognition efforts with bigger marketing budget.

Pros

Good benefits, easy commute to downtown SF office

Cons

Draconian corporate culture, Mediocre people at best

Advice to Senior Management

Stop being Big Brother and learn how to trim fat by cutting back on the corporate red tape. Cut the crap with "Wednesdays With Steve" and stop telling people BPM is "Voted Best Place To Work."