Corporate Culture and Why Does It Matter?

There are 168 hours in a full 7 day week. Approximately 56 of those hours are spent sleeping/resting, 10+ hours are spent grooming and commuting which leaves 102 hours to be divided amongst work, family and friends.

How much of those 102 hours do you think is split between work and play? 50/50? The typical work week consists of 36 to 40 hours on the job. As a young business professional the reality is closer to 50 to 72 hours when you’re starting out your career. We spend more time with the people we work with and within the business environment than we do with our friends and families, let alone having some personal time to ourselves.

Analysis of time in a 7 day week

If we’re spending that much time in the office, wouldn’t it be important to work in a place you feel good about? Somewhere where you fit and belong, a comfortable environment to learn, grow and build relationships. The core to finding this is to best understand the corporate culture.

What is Corporate Culture?

Corporate culture illustrates how the organization behaves as a group. It’s the unspoken understanding of the organization’s traditions, values, accepted norms and attitudes.

They are highly based on the Company’s unique Mission, Vision and Value Statements in which they all come together to build a Corporate Identity. Executives leverage these three components to develop direction and business strategies while most management decisions are influenced by them.

I’ve included a TED talk on company culture below to help you better understand the importance of company culture.

The values are very well communicated to everyone throughout the business organization, setting clear expectations of roles and responsibilities.

During most Company’s orientation you will be introduced to the Core Values and you will see them over and over again in most dealings of the job.

Your annual goals and objectives will be structured around them, your annual performance review will be based on them and most importantly, every person within the organization will pick up the company’s practices based on them.

The Corporate Culture is the narrative of how people get things done.

The Big Four Differences

Each of the big four recruits and retains great talents from around the world. They all offer top-of-the line formal classroom trainings as well as on-the-job informal trainings. All four has impressive client lists and smart, knowledgeable professionals in which you will be able to work alongside and learn from.

If the Big Four is what you want, you cannot go wrong with any of them. They are all highly respected and a great start to your career. The work will be the same at whichever firm you select, however, the biggest difference is the culture in which you will work.

Our snapshot of each of the big 4 accounting firm’s Values and Cultures is detailed below. We highly suggest that you visit their websites and meet with their people for yourself to learn more and find your fit. Keep in mind that while every firm has their overarching values and culture, every location and even every specific work groups will have their own distinct culture.

This is why we cannot stress enough the importance of getting to know your local team and the group you are interested in working with directly.

PwC Values & Culture

PwC prides themselves on their people.

Throughout their website you see their Core Values of Teamwork, Excellence and Leadership presented in terms of what they do for their professionals.

They emphasize professional development, work/life flexibility and community. They believe in coaching their people with formal and informal mentors, real time feedback and a variety of career progression programs for every step of the way.

Not only do they offer the standard internships program for Juniors and Seniors, they also have several other discovery and exploration programs for freshmen through graduate students.

It doesn’t stop there. Once you begin your career with PwC, they offer an array of professional leadership programs ranging from milestone experiences to national and international rotation programs.

Outside Buzz

PwC has been recognized as the No. 1 Most Prestigious Accounting Firm and is known for being “the Best of the Best.”

Deloitte Values & Culture

Deloitte commits to adding value to the marketplace and their clients. They work towards having a competitive advantage in helping the capital markets operate more effectively by developing a strong reputation based on integrity.

Deloitte strives to strengthen their client relationships by promoting trust and leading solutions to business challenges and complex problems.

Deloitte believes in relentless leadership development by offering a state-of-the-art Deloitte University which has a bold commitment to their people and, ultimately, to our clients who will be better served by the transformative learning and leadership development that occurs there.

Outside Buzz

Deloitte is ranked the No. 1 accounting firm in the U.S. by annual revenue. They are known for their variety of client experiences with an emphasis towards consulting style work engagements.

Ernst and Young

Ernst & Young is all about getting everyone involved in a high-preforming team culture. They enthusiastically encourage every member of the team to contribute towards their global work force approach by reminding everyone that everyone’s opinion is valued.

E&Y’s leading people culture is seen in their commitment of inclusiveness, coaching development style and their engagement in each individual’s professional and personal aspirations. In return for your confirmations and ideas they are committed to giving their people the experiences needed to progress and develop in their careers.

Outside Buzz

E&Y has been ranked No. 3 for both Hiring Process & Client Interaction. When people think of E&Y they reflect on the relationships and the inclusive team building environment.

KPMG

KPMG upholds the highest level of professional standards and good business practices. Their deep foundations of trust, quality and collaboration helps drive progress and confidence in the capital markets and economy.

Their policy of open and honest communication builds trust and respect to each independent individual as well as within their working team and client relationships. KPMG continues to strengthens their reputation by leading with integrity and positive contributions to society as a whole.

A career at KPMG is an opportunity to build a global network of resources and experiences ranging from their Graduate Case Competitions to their competitive Global Internship Program.

Outside Buzz

KPMG has been ranked No. 2 in formal training and work place diversity. KPMG is a great firm with a large international presence

Bring it all together

As you get to know each of the Big Four, their people, their culture and their opportunities keep in mind each firm’s culture and try to see how its woven into their daily work environment.

If their values are in their people and/or team work, how is this reflected in available employee programs and/or work assignments? Is the hierarchy well defined or do the leaders see their roles as empowering and coaching their teams?

If their values are professionalism and client services, how is this shown in the professionals you have met and interacted with? How do they communicate with each other? What is the energy level, respect and openness with each other?

Most importantly, how does each firm’s value system align with your personal values and leadership style?

Working for the big 4 as an associate

As the Big 4 Accounting Firms blog, we wanted to provide guidance on what to expect as an associate at the Big 4. The Big 4 today is an ever changing environment. All firms are trying to cater to millennials as millennials make up most of the workforce. Therefore, as an associate you will feel like the Big 4 Accounting firms are centered around you as an associate.

The firms will be trying to show off all their shiny new toys that they have for their new staff. For PwC, it’s Google technology. For other firms, it’s flexible working arrangements.

Don’t be fooled by all of this though. At the end of the day, the Big 4 Accounting Firms still have the basic model of Rate Per Hour * Number of hours = Revenue. If you don’t take anything else away from this article take that away. This means that you will still have to work a ton of hours. The Big 4 firms try to increase the number of hours by making people work a lot of hours and hiring tons of people.

Related Content: What is Utilization?

You will have to work all these hours while people are telling you that your working arrangement is flexible. When you think of flexible, you think of working smarter and not harder. Well be careful if you think you can work less because you would defy the basic principle of increasing the number of hours worked. This means that you have to observe your superiors and learn their working styles. Then build your schedule around theirs. Don’t come in later than them and don’t leave earlier than them.

You will also have to deal with the internal politics. Internal politics means that you will be doing all the work while your senior and managers take credit for your work. Additionally, since the firms have made it seem like you matter so much, you will wonder why no one pays attention to you in the day to day hustle. The firms can be condescending and hypocritical. Understand that and get over it if you want to be successful. If you learn to set expectations before you start, you can succeed. What many of your peers will do is switch groups or switch jobs thinking that the grass is greener somewhere else. That is not always the case. Working is tough in general. Working at the Big 4 can be even tougher, but that does not mean that all workplaces are better than the Big 4. If you are motivated and hard working, then the Big 4 can be the place that you belong. You will just have to get used to the strengths and weaknesses of the Big 4. Some strengths and weaknesses are included below:

Strengths

1.Many opportunities to work on different projects and different clients

2.Good raises and promotion paths

3.Young and motivated workforce

4.Partners make a lot of money compared to their industry counterparts

5.Accountants are in high demand

Weaknesses

1. Large workforce so it is easy to feel like you don’t matter

2. Lots of admin work like billing, setting up meetings, and requesting documents

3. Commuting between different clients and workplaces

4. Lots of internal politics

5. Priorities of your firm and group change all the time as leadership changes frequently

This is a brief outline of what to expect in the Big 4 as an associate. If you manage your expectations before joining the Big 4, you can have a successful career.

“What training is needed to become an accountant” is a good question and probably prevents many people from becoming an accountant in many cases. People often think that being an accountant is convoluted and too hard. I disagree. I think being an accountant can be challenging at times, but it can also be enjoyable if you are well prepared and motivated.

Now back to the question of what training is necessary to be an accountant. Well the answer is a bit complicated. It depends on what type of accountant you want to be. If you want to be a CPA you typically have to attend college and obtain 150 credits in order to sit for the cpa exam. If you simply want to be a staff accountant, you only need a college degree.

In some cases you might not even need a degree. For example, if you just want to help a bookkeeper out, you don’t need to have a college degree. You can use this experience to learn about whether you really want to be an accountant or not.

If you want to be a simple bookkeeper yourself, you really only need to get an associate’s degree from a community college or a similar college from Devry or University of Phoenix. I would warn against getting a degree from one of those online universities like a Devry or Univeristy of Phoenix as they are very expensive and will most likely put you into significant college debt. Community college is good enough for a simple bookkeeping position.

Accountants are in high demand these days as not many people want to be accountants anymore. Whatever type of accounting path you choose, you will have a high degree of employability.
As far as other training to become a successful accountant, there are many things you can do to train yourself. You can train yourself by taking a variety of excel courses on Lynda or Youtube. Whatever type of accountant you choose to become will largely hinge on your use of excel. Being a master of excel will set you apart from your peers.

Another type of training you will need to become an accountant is CPE. CPE stands for continuing professional education. If you want to know what it is truly like to become an accountant, you should test out some free CPE courses online in various accounting subject.

CPAs need to take CPEs in order to stay current with their CPA certificate. CPE courses range in all different subjects. They can cover topics such as: taxes, auditing, managing, international accounting standards, fraud examination,etc.

Your company will also make you take soft skill training such as being able to manage people, dealing with clients and other skills that pertain to your company’s business. It really depends on what type of accountant you are. For example training for a public accountant versus a bookkeeper would vary greatly.