Grant Thornton International Reviews

Pros

Learned alot good start to get into public accounting. The firm as a whole doesn't quite have the resources that the BIG 4 have but it is a friendly and comfortable work environment with good experience on interesting clients.

Cons

Performance feed back tends to get back to you relatively late in the game hurting your ability to fix your mistakes and issues in the work place.

Advice to Senior Management

Make your performance feedback especially in the internship program more timely and effective. So that interns may be able to actually address the issues they have in the work place.

Pros

Flexible and Accomodating to work-life balance.

Cons

Public Accounting environment standards include long hours and occaisonal travel

Pros

The organization name on your resume

Cons

Management in the Houston office does not seem to care about their employees. Employees are not treated well. They had an overwhelming amount of employees move from the Houston office of Grant Thornton to the Houston office of Price Waterhouse Coopers in 2010 for this reason. Some even left from senior positions at Grant Thornton to an associate position at Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Advice to Senior Management

Get into the lives of your employees and solve issues regarding the dysfunction in the Houston office. The levels within the organization keep key issues from getting solved. When you have so many employees leave in 2010 (and this was not due to ordinary turnover), there are certain fundamental issues with the organization.

Pros

Sincere people, good values, flexible work arrangements allowed, benefits compare well with other professional service firms, if you're in client service, it's probably a great place

Cons

Those of us in internal client service - marketing, IT, HR, strategic learning, etc. - stay stuck in the same job for years. There are no career paths for non-accountants, non-tax professionals, non-business advisory. Very unfortunate.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your ICS employees as a firm asset or watch the door continue to revolve with talent disappearing for better opps.

Pros

-Great people
-Great benefits
-Flexibility, especially if you need to work from home or if need to take time off

Cons

-Pay---after doing some research you are vastly underpaid. You can easily make 15-20% more elsewhere. Even when doing your research and trying to approach a discussion on salary, you are dismissed.
-Job can be repetitive

Advice to Senior Management

Management should remember to value its employees by simply showing their gratitude (thank yous) and remember to compensate them accordingly, especially if you want them to stick around.

Pros

High growth mindset, and lots of room to expand in their target market
Willing to change and adapt to market conditions
Keep employees involved in decision making process and vision

Cons

Pay not a competitive as it could be
Room for improvement in performance feedback and communication
Training process could be improved

Advice to Senior Management

Provide opportunities for people who may want to customize their career path

Pros

small company...easy to network and build career

Cons

bonus are not too great

Advice to Senior Management

It is unfortuate for those who do not get billable work because they are on the bench and then get burned during roundtables.

Pros

Small firm, good staff, there aren't much pros actually

Cons

Management completely out of touch with the needs of staff, over reliance on workers from asia with no proper training in dealing with staff, often come in at senior level. No accountability in the firm from Seniors, Managers and Partners, blame game often played and placed on the backs of Staff Auditors. Not much room for promotion after becoming certified. Overall not a very good place to grow as professional often leaves a bad impression as to what working in a firm is. Overtime is paid to who management feels should get it even though you make work between 5-15 hours overtime weekly. Bonuses are non existent.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote better training to end the reliance on foreign workers and to be more competitive. Stop being so short sighted and have a long term vision your employees can believe in.

Pros

The staff are friendly and cordial to each other and you virtually always have the ability to work at your home office.

Cons

The work is not interesting or rewarding, it is hard to leave a project even after a year or more, and the staff turnover is quite high.

Advice to Senior Management

I work in the government practice, which has no synergy at all with the accounting firm. The CEO is not relevant to our work and does not show much respect for it.

Pros

GT is a mid-tier firm, and the culture is a lot more relaxed than the Big 4. Managers and partners are expected to spend more time in the field serving clients. Client issues do not get bottlenecked at the national office, and just about anyone is accessible with in the firm.

Cons

Staff/Seniors generally do not see to the completion of their client assignment. The staff scheduling process is a nightmare, and most of the backoffice functions are lacking. As a manager, I often have to type and proofread my own statements. I still have figured out an easy way to manage budgets and billings, as our system reports are not very user friendly. Our audit software does not allow the team to work collaboratively.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest a little more in infrastructure and back office support.