Fortune recently released their Top 100 companies to work for, so we will be taking a look at those rankings and see where the 4 top accounting firms ended up.

Fortune recently released their top companies to work for in 2017. The top company to work for is google and not a big 4 accounting firm.

4. Deloitte

Deloitte is the 4th best accounting firm to work for out of the 4 biggest accounting firms in the world. They are 64th on the Fortune 100 top places to work in 2017.

Some benefits of working at Deloitte are:

  • Onsite fitness center
  • Fully paid sabbaticals
  • Deloitte University – This is Deliotte’s executive training center where people can attend training sessions or leadership conferences. This allows Deloitte’s employees to play videos games, pool and watch TV during their downtime after training sessions.
  • Paid Leave policy – Deloitte has the best paid family leave policy out of all the big 4 accounting firms.
  • Fitness subsidy – Deloitte offers a 50% subsidy for fitness expenses each year up to $500.

How hard is it to get a job at Deloitte?

Deloitte is projecting that they will have over 17,000 jobs available in the coming year. They received over 700,000 applications for job opening in the past year. 1,400 job openings were filled by current employees. They anticipate 9% of job growth in the coming year. There are almost 50 applicants for each job.

3. Ernst & Young

EY is the 3rd best accounting firm to work for out of the 4 big accounting firms. Ernst & Young is number 29 on the Fortune 100 workplaces. EY jumped up 20 spots from their 49th rank in 2016.

Some perks that EY offers:

  • Fully-paid sabbaticals
  • Telecommuting
  • PTO for volunteering
  • EY advantage – a program that offers $500 reimbursement toward pre-approved fitness and health programs.
  • Career transitioning for mothers and dads
  • EY corporate responsibility sabbaticals – EY professionals can take immersive volunteer sabbaticals with a number of nonprofits.

How hard is it to get a job at EY?

Ey projects that they will have over 16,000 job openings in the next year.  There is about 20 job applicants per job opening. 51% of new employees are hired by way of referral. This shows that you should try to get a referral in order to get a job at EY.

2. PwC

PwC is the next accounting firm on the Fortune 100 best workplaces at number 23. One of the factors in the ranking PwC’s impeccable reputation which is funny in light of PwC’s recent Oscar fiasco. Pricewaterhousecoopers also moved up on the list compared to last year. They moved to 23 up from number 53.

Some benefits of working at PwC are:

  • Telecommuting
  • Discounted gym memberships
  • Paid sabbaticals
  • Student loan paydown – PwC offers a student loan benefit where you can receive $100 per month to pay to your student loans. You can use this student loan benefit to pay down up to $10,000 in student loan principal. You receive this benefit for six years or until you make manager.

The average salary at PwC is $92,000 with the average bonus compensation being $12,400. Another benefit of PwC is said to be that they give employees a lot of responsibility. I think this is true because you can be expected to lead engagements as a senior associate. I don’t think this is necessarily because of trust though. I think this is because of the nature of the firm’s composition of talent. There are so many young people working for the firm and very few experienced employees.

How difficult is it to get a job at PwC?

PwC forecasts 16,000 job openings for the upcoming year. They receive about 15 applicants per position. 39% of new hires receive positions based on referrals from other employees or clients.

1. KPMG

The best big 4 accounting firm to work for is KPMG based on the Fortune 100 best workplaces. This is a huge leap for KPMG because last year they were 43 on Fortune top 100 in 2016. This year they are 12th on the list. They almost made the top 10 places to work is pretty amazing for an accounting firm. The accounting firms never really achieve high positions historically because of the long hours and tough working environment. Based on this new survey it appears that that culture could be going away.

This make KPMG the most favorable accounting firm towards their employees. What makes them so great? Fortune lists the following benefits:

  • World-class training
  • Great mentoring programs
  • Encore recognition – each employee is eligible for an ad hoc bonus of up to $500 based on performance
  • Telecommuting
  • Job sharing
  • Domestic partner benefits for same sex marriages
  • PTO for volunteering

Another thing that is a major benefit at KPMG is that most employees receive 34 days off a year with some receiving 39 days.

The average salary at KPMG is $84,000 with the average bonus being 12,500.  That makes for an average compensation per employee of $96,000.

How difficult is it to obtain a position at KPMG?

KPMG forecasts that they will have about 10,000 openings in the coming year. They will have about 30 applicants for each of those positions. 40% of new hires get their jobs from referrals.

Conclusion

It seems that easiest place to get a job out of the big 4 is PwC. They have the most openings with the least amount applicants. It’s also a good value play because they are also the second best big 4 accounting firm to work for. If you want to work for the best accounting firm for employees, you will be battling against 30 applicants.

The 4 big accounting firms really moved up the top places to work this year. It seems that they are aware of their image as being a terrible place to work and have been really implementing plans to improve. Whether that is measures to improve paid leave or changing their dress code, they have all shown the desire to make the workplace better for their employees.