Novogradac & Company Reviews

Pros

Wage, coworkers, location, no travel

Cons

Hours, partners, location, prestige when leaving the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn how to motivate employees

Pros

Had the chance to do both tax and audit during internship.

Cons

The internship was short - only two months long.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider extending the initial internship offer to longer than two months so that interns can have enough time to learn the process.

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.

Pros

Get exposure to audit and tax.

Cons

Very industry specific. Most of the work is related to low income housing tax credits. They are beginning some work in renewable energy which could be of interest to some people.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward people who do good work. Everyone gets paid the same regardless if you do GREAT or just get by.

Pros

great team, short busy season

Cons

feel a glass ceiling, bad benefits, lots of cost cutting due to partner greed

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

Good pay, great office and management

Cons

Busy season hours
long commute
Slow during the summer

Pros

Novo is a great place to work. People that have posted negative comments on here about their turnover, management style, and the company being a "sweatshop" are clearly interns who were not given offers, or angry former employees who had a bad experience. I have never felt unappreciated or been forced to work any hours that I did not ask to work. I honestly do not understand why anyone would complain about overtime. This year alone I made well over 10k of overtime. However, I had several co workers who were not concerned with making the extra money, and were done working overtime by March 15th. I have several friends from college who work at other firms where they arent paid overtime and work 60+ hours per week the entire year. You won't do that at Novo. Overtime lasts January 1st to April 15th and then is cut off office wide, and anyone who needs to work overtime outside of those dates is required to get special approval.

As far as turnover, the company's turn over rate is actually slightly less compared to other public accounting firms. I also dont believe that the majority of the firm "eats time" as previous reviews have said. My partner and the rest of my team do not practice this horrible technique. Budgets are highly emphasized and new employees/interns are encouraged to pay attention to the time budgeted for an engagement, and inform their direct supervisor if they believe they are going to go over. Also, regarding a previous comment left by a San Francisco intern who stated "If you're lucky and have an easy, simple client, you can take your time, be lazy and work nice and slowly". You should have realized that when you have a simple client it is your chance to shine and get your team a high write up for that engagement. Therefore, when you are working on a harder client where you may go over budget, everyone understands the client is difficult and is able to look back on your extremely efficient work with the easier client. This is what makes you an asset to the company, not that you surfed the internet for 10 hours while charging a client, and worked 10 extra hours on another client that you didnt charge.

My partner and manager are also extremely flexible regarding time off and days where someone may need to leave early. Management understand that the employees have a life outside of their job, and it is fine to leave whenenver necessary to make another comittment.

Everything about the Austin office is casual, including the Partners. Both of our Partners leave their doors open 85% of the time, and can often be seen socializing with their employees. Most everyone at the office is extremely polite at all times and has a positive attitude.

Cons

The only con I can think of is that we are unable to hire everyone we would like to hire. We have so many great interns, because we put a lot of time into recruiting. However, there are usually some fabulous candidates that Novo is unable to bring on immediately after busy season, and when the interns are already out of school they are unable to wait until the following January to start full time.

Advice to Senior Management

I feel like the leadership here is extremely positive and I would love to be in a top position one day.

Pros

The firm has a really nice laid-back, but busy, atmosphere. I never felt like I was micro-managed nor did I feel I was ever left on my own to complete projects. I never felt like I had to give an explanation to step outside and see the sun for a few minutes (you start to miss it during busy season). I felt like the firm (especially my manager) went above and beyond to let me know that hard work was appreciated and recognized.

I think I might have been the only vegetarian in the entire office, so the fact that they would almost always have a vegetarian option during firm-provided meals says something. It was really nice to have a fully stocked kitchen, especially during busy season when time is short.

Everyone with whom I interacted was competent and knowledgeable, and if someone could not answer a question they could usually tell you who could. The performance feedback was spot on; I had two evaluations in the two months I was there.

Cons

I would encourage prospective interns to ask what percentage of interns received offers the past couple years. It seems to have definitely trended down. Many public accounting firms only hire from their pool of interns. Some people will just have one shot to intern. So if your main goal is landing a job where you intern, you could be out of luck if Novogradac is just not hiring, and you might not have the chance to intern somewhere else.

As others have mentioned, it is a niche industry. But for those considering an internship, I would not let that discourage you because the things you will learn in two months are pretty universal (I just took the CPA AUD section and the internship definitely helped.) It might be more of a factor for someone considering long term employment.

I feel a great deal of my positive experience is due to my team placement. Other interns may not have had as good as an experience based on their team, but that is probably true anywhere you go.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to improve the training for interns. It seems like the training process is still being tweaked, which is a positive sign. Training is one of the most important considerations for potential interns considering an internship here.

Pros

Casual work atmosphere. Great fun, enthusiastic, smart co-workers. The fully stocked kitchen during busy season is excellent! They don't pay as much as bigger companies, but it's worth a little pay cut to be around such nice folks. Unlike most other internships, you'll get to do both tax and audit work, which is awesome as most students haven't really figured out which they want to do yet.

Cons

Niche company focus on real estate and related credits makes me a little afraid to invest a lot of time there. You'll only do partnership tax returns, for example.

Pros

There was always so much food being served during busy season - they take such great care of their employees' health.

Cons

A performance review was given at the end of the internship, and my feedback was good, but I would have liked more during the internship.