Deloitte Reviews in Denver, CO Area

Pros

a) Brand name - considered of the Big 4
b) Opportunity to work on a variety of things
c) Exposure to top clients

Cons

a) Performance reviews are very political. It is much more important to work with the right partners than do a good job
b) Delivery is poor - there are many great sales people at Deloitte, but many poor delivery people
c) Learn on your own, Deloitte will put you in many situations and you have to learn on your own because there is little training and the people you work with are poor at delivery
d) Siloed in their delivery model, so different areas compete against each other for client work

Advice to Senior Management

To be truly one firm, the incentives should be changed to support working toghther, instead of regional and service area silos

Performance management should be more objective and much more transparent.

Pros

-Health, dental, vision benefits were good
-There is a big focus on continuing education, job skills training, and learning that was really cool
-Two words: Brand Name. Having this on your resume gets you in "the club" once you leave Deloitte. I was shocked at the weight that having that on my resume carried. It's totally overrated in my opinion, but man will this open doors for you.

Cons

I hated almost every minute of this job once I started full time (I started out as an intern, and let me tell you, their internships are NOT representative of how you will ultimately be treated when you are full time).

-Travelled all the time
-Never worked less than 60 hours per week, usually more like 80-90
-Treated like absolute dirt - there is absolutely no respect given to staff. Seniors (who are at most 2 years ahead of you) think it's their role to make you feel as insignificant as possible.
-Tedious, rote, remedial work is all you get to do for your first couple of years. It's such a waste! Big 4 hire the best, brightest, most ambitious young people out there and then they waste their talents, treat their people like garbage, and burn employees out in one year flat usually. I had a Master's degree and was a CPA when I started there and was doing the most basic data entry, errand boy-type work you could ever imagine (can you say "bagel duty"?).
-It's not okay to think outside of the box
-You are just a cog in the wheel- you have no idea what your work means to the overall picture of one audit, much less the firm as a whole
-Woefully underpaid given the circumstances
-Everyone promoted and paid on a set schedule, regardless of your performance compared to your peers
-Cliques, good ol' boys club, brown-nosing, politics

People who stick around are sycophants and puppets. Life is much better on the "outside", or "in industry" as they say.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit working people to the bone and being satisfied with 30-40% annual attrition rates just because you will have a new group of suckers each fall. People deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and basic compassion. Also, you hire amazing talent and then chase them away!

Pros

- Great opportunities for promotion.
- Company takes care of all your CPE on a yearly basis.
- Bonus for passing the CPA exam.
- Ability to work in different industries.

Cons

- Horrible work life balance: go from busy season (11 hour minimum work days) right into Q1 without a break.
- Partners and managers always expect you to be ready and at your best, even when you're overworked.
- Staff are at the mercy of the Senior, who usually "use and abuse" them.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to treat employees better, especially since they are so overworked. Try to at least show some compassion towards employees, as we are all people and not just capital.

Pros

Deloitte has a great internal training and development plan. They focus a lot of time and effort on developing each consultants career.

Cons

Deloitte is a place where people that like "corporate america" thrive. You are not asked to do much and you can fly under the radar.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to do more to make it an entrepreneurial company. It seems like everything is confined by red tape and processes.

Pros

It has to be the money, it can't be the people because we hire anyone who can touch the bar. The culture is good in good times and cut-throat in the not so good times. If you are short on revenue this year, watch out because the axe-man wields a sharp edge.

Cons

There are too many slacking and low revenue principals being carried around by their senior managers.

Advice to Senior Management

Take yourselves less seriously, it's just consulting - you're not really changing the way our clients do business, they are. In the tough times, we look so hard in managing the bottom line that we overlook the opportunity to double-down on our investmest (people). Stop paying lip-service to training.

Pros

So far what I have seen is the commitment to promotion and career development. Comparing it my previous software firm this is something that I have been looking for. Support to move forward and merit wins not tenure. Secondly, from what I have seen Deloitte seems to take this whole process to another level and is very open about it with you. I am sure politics play a huge role with promotions however there is enough open process that you should be able to get a fair shake and not have to work the political side more than actually working. One final note to move up you need to be involved in the sales process if you are given the title of Senior Consultant. That also adds to moving up.

Cons

Learning to navigate Deloitte seems to be a challenge that you needs to work through. It is also the key to getting ahead. The fastest you get this down and your network started the better off you are.

Advice to Senior Management

Demonstrate that you have more to your life the Deloitte. :-)

Pros

Deloitte and other Big 4 accounting firms provide a good Springboard into other accounting fields after some years of employment at any Big 4. Perhaps the best reason to work here is name recognition. You work here, pass your CPA, become licensed, guide some team members in an audit, and then peform that audit, you gain a lot experience that would take many years to achieve. For this reason, working at Deloitte, or any other B4, is beneificial.

Cons

Work/life balance is a joke during busy season. You really do not have the opportunities that you need to keep yourself happy between the months of January through April. Most weeks you are working 80 hours, but only reporting 65 to keep under budget. And during those 80 hours, it's hard to spend time with friends/families/yourself. If you can sacrifice that much time of your life, then come to work here.

Advice to Senior Management

Better communication with staff

Pros

Good training in the accounting world. The ability to fulfill the requirements necessary to be licensed as a CPA. Nice friendly people to work with in the entry level positions

Cons

Incredibly long hours during certain periods of the year. The downside is that you must put the job before family which might be alright for a man (single or married) or a single woman. But for a woman (especially a single parent) with children, there is no consideration given to your personal life. Out of state travel for prolonged periods of time might be expected which is not conductive to a balanced home life. It was not unusual to work 80 hrs/week during the "busy season".

Advice to Senior Management

Consider requests for non-travel and reasonable working hours.

Pros

5 weeks Paid Time Off plus National Holidays. Depending on project, great opportunity to interface with client executives.

Cons

No benefit of starting with an advanced degree, M.S. graduates and B.S. undergraduates start at the same level with minimal salary difference. Some Project leadership blatantly disregard work-life balance issues. Organization is very Top-heavy and junior staff is penalized for for reasons that are controlled by senior management. Staff is recognized on number of hours billed, and not project performance.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize and provide distinct opportunities for staff that might be underutilized but have exceeding expectations performance on client projects. Increase focus on retention and development of existing staff versus experienced hires and acquisitions.