Working at The Siegfried Group — Reviews by Employees

08/16/2010

I am reading many of these reviews and am shocked at the amount of negativity surrounding this firm. I can only assume that some recent changes have drastically improved the Siegfried Group. I understand that the name of this website is "job vent" but I have to take a moment to put in my honest experience with TSG.

I have been in a couple of high level accounting and finance environments and have to say that this is by far my best experience to date. My interview process was very comfortable and personable. They took the time to get to know what my goals and motivations instead of just digging into my experience. I knew so much about the job before starting, which was refreshing to see.

Overall, management was very upfront about the type of work I was to do there and didn't "sugar-coat" things like almost every other employer does. Topics such as Travel, Incentives and work-life balance where set straight before I signed an offer.

Looking at the core of many of these reviews, they are actually positive. Then they go on to site personal gripes and grunts about the company without any solid reasoning behind them.

I think with their unique business model, it can be hard to please all of the people all of the time, but right know we are in a position for growth and there are so many engagements on the horizon. I don't think many firms are seeing the type of great opportunities I am seeing here. Everyone has mentioned the resources you work with as being great, and I find that to be true as well. Everyone is competent and pulling there weight.

If I was looking at a new employer I would interview and judge for myself, as I am a better judge of character than a website that revolves around venting. These comments are also easily taken out of context.

I also suggest reading all of the reviews and not just those on the first page before deciding to interview. I think their are more genuine thoughts in the positive longer postings.

I was a cash cow for them until I was on PwC assignment. This company was a joke...the management was a joke...the leadership title was a joke. The CEO was lucky to have some contacts in PwC to get that big of an assignment otherwise this company are run by jokers.

TSG has been getting a lot of negative reviews and though some of them may be true, I must admit I had an absolute blast working for the company. I left because the late night dinners/meetings got to be excessive, but I truly made a ton of friends there. Las Vegas and the talent show was the highlight of the year!!!! And my salary and raises were great. I worked there from 2005-2007.

My first 2 years at TSG I worked very hard and was paid well, appreciated, and pretty much was left alone, (other than mandatory leadership dinners) as long as I was billing. After PwC was completed, management turned over and over and I wish I had left at that time. Leadership roles were filled based on family and personal obligations that destroyed our markets as well as all trust and respect in management. Although I continued to grow professionally at my clients, TSG became a liability with my clients because of the constant calls to "expand" our presence at the client. By the time I left, my salary had stagnated, benefits were expensive, and the constant worry that if you rolled off a client you would be fired had completely embittered me toward the company. I did meet a lot of great people (other resources) and also learned never to work for a company with family members as executive leadership.

I just recently left this company and I'm so glad to get out.

As of today, 1/14/10...this was posted on-line..." Recently selected #24 on IPA’s Top 100 CPA Firms, The Siegfried Group, LLP" when IN FACT in 2009 they were ranked #39...just more proof of how the company continues to LIE to prospective hires!!!

TSG is still a TERRIBLE company and any future prospects need to be aware of how crooked this firm is. ALL of the negative comments posted here are true and MANY more blatant disrespectful/unethical additional ones could be added. The bottom line is, anyone considering TSG - either as a client or prospective employee should RUN not walk away.

This company is aggresively recruiting me. Yet, when I read these reviews, I have huge reservations on whether I should waste my time even talking to these people. Are there any positives related to this company? I know that this is a "vent" website but the comments speak volumes on the type of company Siegfried is. Any thoughts???????

I worked for Siegfried from the beginning of the big expansion in 2004 until 2006. I cannot believe how similar each post is to my own experience. I really can't believe this firm is still in business.

I too was lured in by the pay and the promise of a 45 hour work week - many people were. Two people from my orientation group in particular come to mind - one who's father had cancer and wanted to be with him as much as possible and the other was a soon to be first time dad. Both of these people left great careers with Big 4 firms and were promised the 45 hour work week and a local assignment. Both ended up traveling 100% of the time and working 70+ hours each week. Both left. By the first firm event, all the buzz was about the 45 hour work week that did not appear to exist - we all worked over 70 hours each week. It was such a big deal that management had no choice but to address it. We were told the 45 hour work week was actually an "average" that would work itself out due to bench time [after busy season] being so few hours. Well, yes your bench time hours will be few because - like everyone on here has pointed out - you'll be let go within a few weeks of rolling off a deployment/assignment onto the bench.

People posted on here that in many markets the most talented people were the ones let go first. Now that doesn't make much sense for a company that wants to sell talent - that is what Siegfried does [or tries to do]. Well the most talented people cost them the most money and it's the quickest way to cut costs once they thought they were already established in a market. They were poised to pull a bait and switch but the problem came when the ML in most markets couldn't sell the services at all. So end result was those offices closing.

If there is one thing I'm proud of it's that I did not recruit any of my friends into that mess. I would have a hard time living with that at this point. So many people are now left with either no job or forced into road warrior status which is the very thing they were trying to escape - in many instances - when they joined Siegfried. As for me, I went from supposedly the "superstar" of my market to the whole not being in line with the firm values crap [oh, and that also strangely coincided with being on the bench for 4 weeks with the rest of my office group and not a single prospect/assignment in sight - most of the office was let go]. My not being in line was the failure to brown-nose, drink and participate in the lewd behavior at the parties/retreats. Now I am not a prude - if others want to engage in this behavior I am really not offended...I just don't want to participate and will simply try to find other conversations...but that is not acceptable at Siegfried. Try as they might, they do not have the atmosphere [i.e. class] that the Big 4 retreats and mingles have. It has more of the overtone of a used car salesman convention.

One other disturbing thing I noted recently was professional networking sites with a couple of the market leaders from my old market , they had their Siegfried start date in the 1990's - like '95 and '99. I find this really interesting given that these two came on board long after I did in 2004. The one that had 1999 came from industry in 2005. What is the value in lying about being with the firm as much as an extra DECADE??? I can only summise that they are trying to inject some sort of image of longevity in an effort to try and legitimize the firm. But I really don't know - it's just uncomfortable having these sort of things so blatantly misstated.

The main thing I want people to know is that all of these activities - such as the massive layoffs, office closings and changes in benefits - are not due to the recent economic downturn [as some of the Siegfried defenders have posted]. These activities have gone on since the beginning. Many offices were down to a person or two in 2006.

I appreciate all the honesty on this website - I wish I had known all of this upfront and I could've avoided a big career detour. I too regret falling for their pitch and then not bailing when I realized that it was a farse. Please head these warnings and save yourself the regret.

Remember Waco, TX?
Only one word describes this company and its incompetent and ignorant management...."CULT"!!!