Pros
Not many pros that I can list about this firm: - Some employees and managers are enjoyable to work with. - Starting salaries for recent graduates are attractive. - Fun little prizes and games you can participate in.
Cons
I came across this auditing position through a career fair held at a state university. I was fooled into thinking I would receive an amazing opportunity to work as auditor, but it was all just a false pretense. I only worked at the firm for three months after management decided to terminate my employment due to lack of "performance." This lack of performance is false since I was equipped with accounting experience that encompass my education and successful work history. The main reason I am creating this review is to notify all graduates to be aware of working for this firm. However, if you do decide to work here I suggest starting as an intern. Here are cons of working for this firm: Industry: Mostly governmental and healthcare clients. MSL performs audits outside those industries such as middle-market, hospitality, etc. but you will only partake in few. Work-Life Balance: There is no denying that long hours come with public accounting. Be prepared to stay late until 10:30 pm and working weekends during the busy months which tends to be January - April. However, even outside the typical busy season, you can still experience long hours depending on the engagement. Another impact to work-life balance is commuting from your office location to the client’s site. Some clients are local while others require traveling extensively. Training: Training is not standardized and extremely poor. This creates a huge impact on new hires because everyone is taught differently on how the work should be performed. When an audit is performed, you must document your findings. Since the firm does not have standard procedure on how to document their findings (cash, payables, fixed assets, etc.) it creates a disconnect for that new hire. Example, everyone documents differently when auditing something simple such as a cash. Why not follow one standard and enforce that standard across the board? If done this way, training would not be as complex. Some managers and seniors do not provide timely feedback on areas you should improve on. On the extreme side, seniors/managers would not train you at all and expect you to figure it out. Then once mistakes are made, they will blame you. Work expectations: The firm sets high expectations on recent graduates and not reasonable expectations. Example, I was assigned to complete an audit before a given deadline, but with lack of support from management and lack of training, I do not believe the work got done. The better approach, assign that project to a more experienced person not to a new hire. On my first engagement I was given a crucial amount of work that needed to get complete during an audit field work. Mind you, I was new and still in training. When I got evaluated, they said I suffered in time management. Yes, because I had too many assignments on my plate and not enough guidance to perform the work. Not entirely my fault, but the audit-in charge was responsible for this mess. Ethics: Professional ethical standards are not demonstrated. You learned through school that auditors must demonstrate ethics in their work. However, in the real world, firms often “slip” in this important manner. For instance, I have signed off documents where I no knowledge of what I was auditing. I only did the work because one manager told me too. Second instance, I will perform an audit where I do not have all the required support, but perform the work anyways just to get the work done. I wonder how this firm managed to pass their inspections from PCAOB. Senior Management: Senior management are cut throat executives and do not establish good rapport with their staff and middle management. Recognition: I find it quite sad that this firm does not did not provide any type of recognition for my work. I am not perfect employee, but I am a hard dedicated worker. Despite having disagreements with management, I still came to work over the weekends to complete the audit or at least try. What about the time I discovered huge discrepancies in the client's accounting records? Management only reported my wrongdoings and not my accomplishments. That is no way to treat anybody.