Novogradac & Company Reviews in Bethesda, MD

Former Employee – worked at Novogradac & Company

Pros – The firm has a laid-back atmosphere and there is potential to make great overtime pay and bonuses. I had the opportunity to work directly with upper management whose doors were always open to answer my questions. I never felt like I was micro-managed and my manager and partner always let me know that my hard work and dedication was appreciated. I had the opportunity to travel all over the country and was given the responsibility to manage and complete projects for large national companies.

Cons – The firm is typically very busy and management encourages you take on a large work load. However, overtime and bonuses make the hard work well worth it.

Former Employee – worked at Novogradac & Company

Pros – 1. While I hated pretty much every minute I spent at Novogradac, I will grudgingly admit that I learned a lot. Quite literally, they put me to work within 2 hours of arriving at the office, and it didn't slow down too much up until the day I left. Working there laid the foundation for everything I know today. Honestly, those days in the "sweatshop" turned out to be worth it.

2. Having worked at both large corporations and small office firms like Novogradac, I have to say that my preference is for the small offices.

3. I developed some good contacts there. The employees themselves were completely fine. I respect and admired my colleagues.

Cons – 1. The pay and structure! Research Analysts were paid $35,000 base (some with more experience as much as $45,000 base) plus time-and-a-half over 40 hours with an absurd compensation structure. Basically, Novogradac charges a flat fee for their services--say, $5,000 for an appraisal. So, if that appraisal takes 5 hours to complete or 500 hours to complete, Novogradac is paid $5,000. So the valuation management decides to run it like an accounting or law firm. Therefore, they forced EVERYONE to keep meticulous track of their hours worked on each assignment in order to assign an arbitrary "hourly rate" of, say, $75 per hour. Most people would lie or fudge their numbers (I NEVER did this). You were judged based on your efficiency--so if one person charged 30 hours to an assignment but missed his/her deadline and another person charged 100 hours to the assignment (but worked until 4 am) and finished the project on deadline, the person who took 100 hours would get dinged EVEN THOUGH the client got his work ON SCHEDULE as ordered. The guy who charged 30 hours (which was usually fudged) but was late would get rewarded in evaluations. It's inane. It's illogical! You charge a flat fee! You aren't actually tracking profit! It's totally arbitrary!

2. Because of the compensation structure, it made no financial or career sense to take 5 minutes to rap with your co-workers because that would be charged against your efficiency (even though you charge a flat fee for work!!!). Therefore, the office environment was similar to a sweatshop where you'd come in at 8:30 am, usually not take lunch, and leave at 6:30 pm without having moved from your computer and having hardly spoken to anyone around you.

3. After leaving Novogradac (I'll admit it, I was laid off due to the incompetence of management and their inability to take advice on the coming market collapse), I took a job with a firm that tends to use the work of organizations like Novogradac. I quickly learned that Novogradac has a GREAT reputation in the affordable housing accounting world, but a putrid reputation in its real estate valuation practice because of poor quality of work and the consistency of missed deadlines. That was embarrassing to learn. Funny thing is, I mentioned the problem of missed deadlines to my boss on numerous occassions but it fell on deaf ears. Obviously, the industry had taken note.

Advice to Senior Management – I've been gone for more than a year now and have had time to think about things a lot. To the managers--your work product is poor and is a running joke in the industry. I've seen hundreds of appraisals come to my desk in the last 12 months and only about 3 or 4 have come from you--because you miss deadlines and have no problem concluding to whatever the borrower wants--lenders don't like these practices and actively encourage borrowers and other lenders not to use you! Also, quit running your company like a sweatshop. There's a reason the turnover rate of analysts has to be approaching 35% within 1 year and close to 95% within 3 years. EVERYONE HATES WORKING THERE! Everyone I knew was looking for a new job, but the market was so bad that options were limited. If you treated your analysts with dignity and respect, maybe you wouldn't have to re-train new people every 6 months. Your compensation structure makes no sense and you pay slave wages for Bethesda, MD, even for managers! You obfuscate with your employees about market conditions and layoffs. And almost everyone on staff has unified political beliefs and you hold it against people who don't share those belief systems. You need to hire for real diversity and not just pay lip service to it.