[Anonymous]

Curious what you guys think about working in the accounting industry and receiving poor performance reviews?

Regardless how hard you work, most firms will give you a poor performance review and focus on the areas you didn’t do well rather than praise you for what you did right.

What are your ideas and theories on why many companies do this and do you agree/disagree with this practice? I have my ideas, curious about yours.

[Anonymous]

There's certainly office politics but I think your perception of how easily talent is expendable is extreme. It takes a lot of time and money to train employees. A 40K staff at the Big 4 or mid sized firm could easily cost 50-60K a year to train if you factor in time, travel and training programs. A 55K senior is a senior because they excelled and was promoted. The investment in a senior is much more considering the years of training that was provided. To easily cut or force out good employees would cost a company both time and money since they have to train new talent. If the work environment is toxic and the firm is merely just trying to squeeze maximum value, people leave and firms lose their investments. This happens at some companies and smaller firms but it's generally not the norm. From the way you view employment, I'm thinking you had/have some bad experiences but most companies are out to bring the best out of people while keeping them happy, not the other way around.

[Anonymous]

@ruggercpa2b It is not an argument, it is a discussion. If you are unable to share your experiences without discussing them and becoming defensive, then that says a lot.

The purpose of a discussion board is to discuss and this was posted in the career section, was it not?

[TommyTheCat]

my experiences at PWC are in-line with rugger's. You work hard get a lot of review points and make certain to learn from your mistakes and minimize them going forward. Being social around the office is definitely a needed skill set, since you are working as a part of (and often times the lowest level of) a chain of command. I got plenty of great reviews, and plenty of constructive critique of my performance in my reviews.

Work, as in life, is all about working hard, taking it seriously, putting in the effort to make friends with and get along with others.

dank – while I don't argue your points about talent being expensive to train, staff are expendable at Big 4 on the whole. They generate so much revenue and make so much money on the bottom line that they can afford to cut the underperforming staff while they harvest the better performing staff. I was pretty close to several partners there who would tell it like it is. Plus, that high performing staff makes the partners MUCH more money in the bottom line down the road, so it's worth the investment to churn the low performing staff.

[Anonymous]

This perception of many of you that you are sharing is fine, however, there are countless sources including many posts on this site that claim otherwise. It's easy just to say people who receive bad performace reviews are not doing something right, however, this is not always the case. And employees who do not perform well often get promoted or are favored for one reason or another. So who's to say your experiences are based on competence rather than favoritism or office politics?

I think that is a legitimate question and I can understand if it ruffles some feathers.

[Christopher]

haha wow. @brickell cpa I totally understand your poor performance reviews. Look up the word “Introspection”.

“Regardless of how you work, most firms will give you a poor performance review”

lmao

[Anonymous]

I've only received one performance review in six years, and funny that after they learned I was leaving, they gave me an extra nice bonus check.

[ruggercpa2b]

I think the thing you do not realize is the posts on this site are from the perspective of those people, which are not the same people responding to this post. You asked a question, a few of us chimed in which is not even most of the people on the forum.

I mean if you are getting some other results from other internet posts and some old posts, then I hope you are getting the different perspectives you are looking for.

AUD - 73, 72 retake 7/2/2016
BEC - 8/20/2016
REG - TBD
FAR - TBD

I am so ready for this nightmare to be over. Been at this way too long.

[Anonymous]

Also I am really curious what location and what kind of firms you all are working for? It sounds likely that it may be in locations that are not highly competitive. For example I doubt that your experiences have been in places like NY or MIA or Los Angeles. On the other hand, my experience has been, and my starting salary out of university was $55,000.

As accountants you should know not everything is so comparable in such a one-dimensional perspective. Instead of becoming so defensive, consider using your analytical skills and a bit of introspection yourselves. Often times things can be much more dynamic than they appear.

[Son]

@brickell cpa, at this point I'm almost positive that you're just trolling people at this forum. If so, it's somewhat petty, don't you think?

On the off chance that you're not, your hypocrisy is over the top:

1. You claim you want to have a discussion and hear people's opinions. When people do share them, you shut them down and insult them without provocation.
2. You speak in absolutes – “most,” “all,” “everyone” – yet not a single person on this thread agrees with you.
3. When presented with facts and actual evidence you refer people to “other threads” and your deep knowledge of the industry. Care to share what that experience is? So far it seems like you've had bad reviews and felt underappreciated throughout your career. Wonder why people would not feel good about your performance given how acrimonious you get every time someone disagrees with you.
4. You state there's no good in a discussion if people just state their opinions and don't allow any questioning. Read your post again. Read the replies. You're the one being defensive and rejecting any evidence that things might be different from what you claim them to be. We're all just sharing our experiences – exactly what you've asked people to do.

AUD - passed
REG - passed
BEC - passed
FAR - passed

[NJM34]

@Brickell Attacking other people who responded with their own experiences seems a bit childish. As others have already stated, your experience is not the same as others who have worked in the Big 4 and you asked for their opinion on the matter.

[Anonymous]

“Regardless how hard you work, most firms will give you a poor performance review and focus on the areas you didn’t do well rather than praise you for what you did right.”

This has not been my experience. Top 25 CPA firm, very large city, starting salary about $55k.

[Anonymous]

I don't know about MIA but I worked in Philly, many friends out of school work in NYC and met a few people during my visits to the LA area. The great majority had the experience different from yours. The companies are even more incentivized to treat their employees better in these cities as the competition is more fierce to retain good talent.

[Anonymous]

Ok then, I concede in this discussion. And I will accept that this is not an effective discussion board for careers, but rather a “let me post what I want to post to gain reputation and get defensive when someone questions my authenticity”.

Thanks for the perspective.

[ng3926a]

I work at a small firm (10 people) and I've never received a bad review. They do always tell us what we can do better in the upcoming year. At my firm, if you do receive a bad review, you're fired.

I work in DC and I like to think it's very competitive. Starting salaries tend to be around $60k-70k straight out of college.

I have friends in the big 4 and none have received notably bad reviews.

[rb2017]

lol what even is this thread. If you're getting bad reviews just for the hell of it, you work for a shitty firm.
Get hired, get tons of review points, fix them and learn from them and get a good review.
I see no logic whatsoever in giving poor evaluations regardless if the employee was bad or not. Stop playing the victim – people are telling you what they experience at their firms and you're telling virtually everyone who responded to you that they're wrong.

[Author]

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