Vantaggi
Benefits- Great 401K options, a good time off policy (should you actually have time to go on vacation), and if you travel a great deal they offer some benefits to offset your sacrifice. To get you away from a larger firm-they will offer more money. They won't offer it at first, but ask for a signing bonus, and they’ll pay it. Work Environment- an interesting client portfolio. They do tax/accounting and advisory services for government and mid-size companies (think small cap stocks). This makes for clients that aren't as bureaucratic and many times the value of your work is felt by the C-suite and is immediately realizable by the client. People/Training- talented people and partnership is small which has it's advantages/disadvantages. Their slogan is “the unique alternative to the Big Four”. That means they sell to clients that usually can’t afford the prices that Big Four firms charge for professional services. From an advancement perspective it also means there’s not as many people there trying to make partner. Technology- their homegrown technology packages are simple and easy to use. The company intranet is built off a SharePoint and if you need to research for projects you have lots of periodicals at your disposal. It’s not a big enough firm to where Technology is a strategic lever for them in selling to clients- so don’t think that you will have fancy software packages at your disposal. Processes-it’s a small firm, so they’re simple and usually the part of the company you work in has some best practices to learn and execute. You can be creative/entrepreneurial about how you process work and get things done faster here.
Svantaggi
People/Training- From a people variety standpoint-you won’t find it. You’re stuck with the people in your part of the practice so better hope you like them. Chance are you’ll be too busy executing your project to branch out and meet others. You’ll meet more interesting people at a larger firm. Training and development is something mentioned-but it’s non-existent. There’s not much of an apprenticeship/mentor culture. Processes-If you travel a lot they do NOT provide you a corporate credit card. Inevitably you will have to pay your credit card bills before you get reimbursed for what you spent on the road. Inconvenient. Overall-An opinion but, if you have a good standing and promising future at a larger and more eminent firm- it’s not advisable to leave that behind to join Crowe Horwath. Like many opportunities that pop up in Professional Services-they’ll offer you more money and they offer a smaller organization to where you can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. It’s better if you have deeper experience working in a smaller firm and to know that you can handle and enjoy it before giving Crowe Horwath a try. If you work in a backoffice type of job it might be a different. But if it’s a client facing job: You have little to no resources, you are the team, and there’s not much margin for error or learning. Carefully consider your options and be aware of the scale of the part of their practice that you are applying for.