Duff & Phelps Reviews

Pros

Duff & Phelps offers a great work environment for anyone who thrives on challenging projects and enjoys working among the best in the industry. The firm consistently brings in new projects and works with great clients. The Internal Firm Services teams work hard to support the service lines, and most of the MDs have a very welcoming open door policy.

Cons

Working in this industry, for Duff & Phelps or for ANY of our competitors, comes with the expectation that there will be a lot of work, which sometimes translates into a lot of hours. If you aren't comfortable rolling up your sleeves and getting the work done, this isn't the place for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Great job keeping the associates updated on the direction of the firm, and thank you for including us in our open forum, quarterly calls.

Pros

Great learning experience for newcomers
A lot can be learnt from coworkers

Cons

Very long hours that are not paid. You are expected to work day-night if needed and you are not rewarded for it. The pay is too low, which explains the high company turnover.
Limited promotion possibilities. Tenure is more important than knowledge, skills and what one can actually do when it comes to promotion.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more attention to employee satisfaction. You cannot expect employees to work extremely long hours and perform amazing job if they are not motivated enough. I talk in terms of pay, but also in terms of praise and promotion opportunities. Duff and Phelps have and had some of the most amazing people I know, but leadership does not pay any attention how to retain them, which is such a pity. This will always be an issue and unless more is done along these lines, the company will never be the top in its class.

Pros

Challenging work
Good peer group
Very Good Benefits

Cons

Management that does not care one iota if you stay or leave
Enormous disconnect between management and staff

Advice to Senior Management

Try grooming your existing employee pool for advancement instead of always hiring MD's from other firms.

Pros

Highly technical, high levels of expertise in very focused areas

Cons

No diversity, culture built around negativity, work life balance is not a priority, no transparency with upper management

Advice to Senior Management

Your most valuable asset is your workforce, and management should make more efforts towards retaining employees and creating a more positive environment.

Pros

Access to projects
If you are a associate you will have tremendous responsibility because the folks hire up won't be there for input.

Cons

Company culture changed when it went public from valuation firm to accounting firm.
MD's who were not smart enough to carry their own weight or bring in decent business.
MD's looked out only for themselves when company went public
Company suffered when they change income generation from Associates with MBA's from top schools to Associates barely out of college with no experience.
No diversity.

Advice to Senior Management

Have your workforce mirror your clients as far as intelligence and diversity

Pros

The benefits are good. The company has a good industry reputation.

Cons

Promotion and advancement from within is difficult. The company culture and structure is all organized to benefit and advance the managing directors instead of organic growth of the resident staff.

Pros

- Highly ambitious peers, constantly impressed by abilities of professionals
- Highly professional atmosphere
- Seem to hit a homerun with every acquisition
- MDs are some of the best in their industries. Highly accomplished and regarded by clients.
- No "time-clock cops". Easy come-and-go policy. People are trusted to manage their work load accordingly even at the intern level.
- Sky's the limit for advancement. You decide the pace.

Cons

- Too much overhead in the form of non-revenue employees
- Can lose sight of the big picture as they cut corners on trivial things like computer supplies, yet have admin staff sitting around with nothing to do
- The sky-high rates and long hours equal HUGE revenues, but don't seem to flow down Jr. Mgmt and staff. Someone's getting paid (MDs?EC? Shareholders?).
- Staffing can seem like organized chaos as no one is sure what is two weeks down the pipeline and what they will be working on.
- Hiring cannot keep up with work coming in because they rely on internal referrals or dumb luck of people finding the listing on the website.

Advice to Senior Management

- Continue to make great acquisitions.
- Invest in better recruiting staff to get great candidates or use third-party recruiters.

Pros

Good Benefits. Nice working environment active management. Employees given responsibilitie and tools to succeed but no guidence on how to obtain next level.

Cons

Promotions given out popularity contest. Too many managers and not enough workers. Understaffed and under appreciated. Hours and work life would be better if the staff was beefed up.

Advice to Senior Management

Less Managers and more workers. To many people want to be the boss and not enough actually doing the work.

Pros

most people below the MD level are very nice and good to work with. If you need a job badly and don't care about worklife balance or compensation, they will love you.

Cons

Many MD's treat you like you are easily replaceable and that you should work at their beckon call. You will work a lot of weekends and be paid like someone who doesn't. The stock price is down for a reason. They can not hire good talent.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in your people and you won't have the turnover issues you are dealing with. Don't hire your friends to lead groups. Actually, do a real search.

Pros

Professional Environment, Limited bureaucracy, Challenging work, Good people for the most part. Firm has strong reputation in financial community. Overall, I like what I do each day and the people I interact with.

Cons

At times, I think management does not realize we are a sizable, publicly-traded firm rather than a "mom and pop" shop. Some decisions that are made seem to be more motivated by short-term personal goals than a large, long-term view for the firm.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice would be to look at the bigger picture of firm goals when making big decisions - don't spend a great deal on a marketing effort to the staff the same week they learn their bonuses are not very high, for example.