Careers

What is it like to work in the Tax practice?

Fed Tax Associate #1

I would say it's interesting, challenging, opportunity to work with many different clients.

Fed Tax Associate #1

It varies, but a lot of it is interacting with your senior, with the manager, working on clients. A lot of it is compliance, at the staff level it's making sure the numbers go where they should go. And the higher up you do, it's more why the numbers are going there.

SALT Sr. Associate.

In the State and Local Tax Group, we have a mix of consulting and compliance. We pretty much, I would say, 50 percent of the time, are at client location. If they need compliance help, we're going to figure out how to get it done, otherwise it's consulting.

EVS Sr. Associate

I am in the Economic Evaluation Services group, and I would say more than anything, we do different things every day. There are so many different projects going on in the group, because we're part economic consulting, but really mainly half transfer pricing and half valuation. It's definitely a dynamic consulting environment at any given point, working towards multiple deadlines, working with multiple managers and using very different skills, whether that's statistical analysis or modeling, valuation, transactions, or writing. We get a very broad range of skills to develop in our group. I spend most of my time doing transfer pricing for very large global banks. Someone else in the group could say I do real estate valuation for small Midwestern companies. So there's a very diverse group of clients that we would serve.

Fed Tax Sr. Associate #2

I'm working for Federal Tax, and Japanese practice. In our practice we have a diversity of clients. We have banks, advertising companies. So many kinds of industries.

What do you like most about working in Tax?

SALT Sr. Associate

I like Tax in general. I like the diversity. You've got the International group. State and Local. EVS. Those groups have to work together, whether it be an international client that's doing business in the US, and we provide the State and Local support, or somebody provides us a transfer pricing analysis. It's all Tax, but you've got so many departments within that group, you're never bored.

Fed Tax Associate #2

The people I work with are a lot of fun. I know people think of accountants as kind of bland, but that's not the case with our group. Everybody tries to have as much fun as possible.

EVS Sr. Associate

I don't have a tax background. Most of the people in our group don't. We're all economists for the most part, and it's a very diverse group. Most of my days, I spend not thinking about Tax, and thinking about how to solve problems, how to set up equations, how to think about economics and think about modeling things.

Fed Tax Associate #2

I work for the Real Estate group. In that respect, it's very interesting. You really get to learn and understand how the real estate business works.

What do you think about having a mentor?

SALT Sr. Associate

I definitely feel like I have somebody looking out for me, and looking out for my best interests. I think I'm able to perform at a higher level, I'm comfortable. I think it gets me more motivated to come here and to actually want to stay at KPMG.

EVS Associate

I've only had a mentor for three or four months now. We are definitely building a relationship. It's really great, because I'm just starting out in my career. There's someone to point me in the direction where I want to go. Someone to go to for advice, and look after me.

EVS Sr. Associate

I have some fairly close relationships with a lot of people that I work with, some of whom I could definitely call them mentor. It's really great to feel like there's someone who cares about you and wants to help you do better. It keeps you from making mistakes. It helps you make better decisions if you like bouncing ideas off of people.

What do you think makes KPMG a great place to build a career?

EVS Associate

When I was looking at evaluating different offers that I had, I definitely noticed that the Big Four firms had better clients. That's very advantageous, to be able to build those relationships.

EVS Sr. Associate

I think one of the best things about the firm is just how I feel I have control over my schedule. There are certainly plenty of late nights, but it's not the kind of job where I don't feel I can't have extracurricular things going on.

Fed Tax Associate #2

There's just so many opportunities available to you.

Fed Tax Sr. Associate #2

In my practice, we sometimes use the word "family" in our team members. We have a family-like culture, and we help each other, and we take care of one another, so that's the best thing in KPMG.

Fed Tax Sr. Associate #1

I have managers who fully support me, and I have a staff, who I believe in, and we work together. This place is best for me. I think the people make the environment.

EVS Associate

The people, of course. The managers are very open to answering any questions, and they take time out to like help me if I am stuck on a task, or a project. Everyone's just great to work with, but also, I think the responsibility that I get. I do talk to my friends outside of KPMG, and I definitely feel like I'm learning a lot more than they are.

SALT Sr. Associate

Regardless of what you want to do, you're working on so many different clients, and you're not in industry, you're not at one particular client every day; just the diversity, whether you want to stay here, or you want to go out, I don't know of a better place to start your career than some place where you're going to get a broad perspective on things.