Pros
Just finished my first busy season. I want to share some of my experiences for those who might be interested in our firm. My understanding is that the experience might differ from office to office so I am only speaking of the Boston office here. - People are really nice and helpful as long as you strive to keep learning and improving. A lot of training to get you started and keep you stay on the top as well. - The hours in busy season is not all that bad, you might need to stay until 11pm during the last two weeks before deadline, but not on Fridays, and for February and first half of March the hours is much shorter, e.g. something like 8pm. No work on Sunday until the last two in April. - I don't know if it is expected, but company paid meals and taxis (at night) is really considerate and can make your life easier - Andersen really has a very good culture and methodologies that it carried from the Arthur Andersen legacy. You really get to observe, reflect, and appreciate how the everything get organized and flows around the company. The thing is...those might seem generic, but they might not be true in some other mid-cap accounting firms: you might have more demanding and disorganized boss; the company might not staff enough interns and you can get overwhelmed; some firms keep you until midnight and on Sundays etc etc. Overall Andersen provides a really smooth and comfortable working environment.
Cons
- The job might not feel particularly challenging - As a firm with massive number of clients, its a challenge to assign the right amount of work to everyone, so sometimes you might find yourself idly sitting there for two hours while others are working like dogs. It might very well be the case that within 30 minutes you can get three-day worth of work. This is just how it is.
