Vault’s Verdict

Baker Tilly is ideally looking for driven, resilient team players who are eager to learn and have strong communication skills. Technical skills are a plus, but soft skills and cultural fit are more important. For students, Baker Tilly runs a valuable internship program. Former interns rave about the hands-on experience, access to real work, helpful colleagues, and networking events with fellow interns. Meanwhile, career development and growth opportunities for full-time staff are plentiful. Insiders say trainings are strong and seniors are willing to help and are focused on junior staff development. One drawback is promotion paths can be unclear.

Salaries, benefits, and perks are competitive, though several insiders note that post-merger with Moss Adams, some benefits as well as bonuses have been reduced. On the other hand, a healthy work-life balance can be achieved—at least during the non-busy season. Insiders very much appreciate the generous PTO, remote work options, and flexibility in their schedules. Like at most accounting firms, busy seasons can mean high stress and long hours, and work-life balance can be hard to achieve in those peak periods.

Inclusion is a strength. Baker Tilly has several active business resource groups for women, Asians, LGBTQ people, people of color, and people with disabilities. In addition, insiders say the firm has a diverse staff and there are several women in leadership positions. As for the firm’s business outlook, insiders say that Baker Tilly is experiencing quite a bit of growing pains in the wake of the Moss Adams merger. On the plus side, the merger and the firm’s growth in general has created a tremendous number of work opportunities for employees. On the negative side, many employees lament the lack of transparency from leadership about the merger and new procedures and say the near-term outlook is uncertain.

EMPLOYEE REVIEWS

Quality of Life

• “From the top of the department, it is encouraged to take time off when work is slow, and everyone understands that hours may vary during busy times of the year. Partners and directors are extremely aware and are very generous with time off when there is need for it. Work-life balance is always promoted.”
• “The firm allows for unlimited PTO, but it is very difficult to find time to make that work due to resource demands and deliverables. The firm allows for flexibility in one’s schedule, as long as the work still gets done and the hours are put in.”
• “Extremely generous PTO, lifestyle allowances, and flexible work arrangements. Great culture of inclusivity and I genuinely enjoy the people I work with. However, work is seasonal—very high hours sometimes and very low hours sometimes.”
• “Good flexibility and managers are understanding of alternative work arrangements—as long as there is communication and the work still gets done, the specific hours worked can be adjusted to your own schedule both during busy season and during the non-busy months. However, it’s public accounting and the busy season can be brutal.”

Compensation

• “I feel fairly paid for my experience and contributions to my team. My practice leaders have fought for market increases to my salary to get my compensation to this level.”
• “I feel that my base compensation is reasonable, but my bonus has not grown in accordance with my efforts to the firm. The benefits got much worse this year. Health benefits got much more expensive and the firm contribution decreased significantly. Maternity leave also got reduced by the function of no longer having accrued PTO. We used to be able to add the 200 hours of accrued PTO to the end of maternity leave; with unlimited PTO, regardless of the lack of PTO taken prior to leave, we no longer can add PTO to the end of maternity leave.”
• “Moss Adams had very strong benefits and perks. Insurance coverage was strong, 401(k) plans were decent, and incentives such as the cell phone/Wi-Fi allowance, parking allowance, WFH subsidy, etc. were appreciated. Since the merger, insurance coverage is less money but also less suitable, 401(k) match decreases, cell phone/Wi-Fi allowance was reduced, it is rumored parking will be taken away entirely, and any accrued PTO that employees had was not paid out.”
• “Salaries are OK. Just like any PE-owned business, right after they finalize the acquisition, they start cutting and taking away things little by little. Bonuses are less than before, they cut cost reimbursement for phone, gym, etc.”

Career Development

• “The team is very supportive and willing to mentor. Partners care about my career development and provide me with many opportunities to push myself outside of my comfort zone. On the other hand, firm trainings do not cater to our specific technical area. Our individual team does have a training team that puts on great trainings, but sometimes it feels like people are not able to attend the trainings because of project work.”
• “The firm puts a lot of effort into career development opportunities. There are lots of trainings available for all employees. For new senior associates, there is an opportunity to participant in a New Senior Experience (NSE) with various sessions to attend both virtually with the group and individual programs. There are optional activities to complete with the program that are a little tedious, and most people do not do them due to time constraints and not being mandatory.”
• “The Directors, MDs, and principals above still take a large part of their day to train me. They are patient as I work through complex engagements and encourage my growth, even when I may not be as confident. I come from the heritage Moss Adams firm. Prior to the merger, I’ve had clarity on promotion timeline and goals. After the merger, I have felt some downgrades. Promotions seem to be once a year now and more competitive when the team is smaller (i.e., not part of the greater assurance or tax teams). Before, we were promoted purely based on merit regardless of the team size or other people’s performance, whereas now team size matters. Therefore, if you’re passed up one cycle, you have to wait another year.”
• “Due to the merger there is not a clear career development framework for employees. Expectations for specific roles are different across Moss Adams and Baker Tilly. Combined metrics, goals, and an overall framework for career development have not been shared.”

Inclusion Efforts

• “The firm has multiple business resource groups (women, LGBTQ, Asian, Black, Disability) for folks to connect with other similar people across the firm. Each of these groups has a decent budget for activities and connection. The breadth of opportunity to connect through these various groups is positive. You have to make time to go because most BRG events are during the workday and client work always comes first.”
• “I think the firm still has some work to do in this area; however, they have taken active steps to improve opportunities for women, people of color and LGBTQ+ people; and recent mergers have accelerated representation at the principal level.”
• “Baker Tilly has a number of strong women in places of leadership, some of which are wonderful mentors to me that I look up to. There are a good amount of people of color as well, especially for an accounting firm.”
• “This is a diverse organization with many people of different backgrounds and cultures. I find it very welcoming. In addition, it is very natural as to how the firm accepts people who are different. It’s as though it has always been that way and no one appears to even think of someone as different but instead they treat everyone as part of the team.”

Business Outlook

• “Going through a merger is stressful and scary. It does not feel like everything has been totally transparent. But at a local level I have confidence in local office leadership.”
• “There are a lot of behind-the-scenes changes happening with the Moss Adams and Baker Tilly merger, but employees usually don’t hear about relevant info until decisions are already made and announced suddenly. It would be really helpful to have more transparency throughout the process instead of constant surprises.”
• “I am part of historical Moss Adams which merged with Baker Tilly. I waver between feeling confident and very unsure of how the future will look. I choose to have confidence in our leadership, because this is the firm that I work for and I want the best outcome. There has been a lot of uncertainty since the merger.”
• “Best aspect is the tremendous amount of work opportunities. Worst aspect is improper planning with regard to resource management and process standardization. Big picture the firm tried to implement too many changes at once, with many failed implementations of various new work processes/workpapers, which put an enormous strain on the workforce. While these changes will yield significant long-term efficiencies, the firm under-estimated the short-term impact on our people, where the firm derives much of its value. This strain accelerated departures, and the firm has not only been unable to hire new associates consistent with prior years but also unable to hire experienced team members to replace those who have left the firm.” 

Intern Experience

• “The best aspect of my internship was the real-life experience I received while being a winter intern. When I started, I realized my internship experience was very similar to what it would be like to work in tax regularly.”
• “The best aspects of my internship were the people and culture of the firm. Everyone I worked with was very helpful and easy to communicate with. I learned a great deal in my internship! The downside, due to limited knowledge and capabilities, was sometimes I didn’t get too much work. It was to be expected because certain returns require much higher levels of professional competency. All in all, it was a great experience and made staff training a breeze since you’re more like reviewing what you’ve learned a year prior.”
• “The best part of my internship was I was given staff-level responsibilities and gained a lot of experience across a number of financial statement areas. I also was given not only audit testing responsibilities but also the ability to prepare complete sets of financial statements. I was given great guidance during my internship as well. The one downside was that my team was relatively small during my internship, so I was the only intern on my team.”
• “There were a lot of activities for interns to get to know each other outside of a work setting. We worked on a summer-long project and got to present in front of senior managers and principals.”

Hiring Process

• “Campus hire recruiting and internships are incredibly competitive. We are viewed as an employer of choice and the volume of applicants reflects that. I believe our ideal candidate has an impeccable work ethic, is coachable, and is a good person. We focus more on cultural fit and potential than technical skills.”
• “We interview quickly and call back quickly, sometimes within the day of the interview. We look for people who want to learn and want to work. Technical skills are important but it’s hard to train soft skills; therefore, someone who demonstrates passion, determination, and resilience is highly valued.”
• “Two interviews, one with more formal questions and another that was just a conversation. I liked that format. I think I got a callback a week later with an offer. It was an easy process overall. The firm is looking for someone with accounting knowledge but also someone who wants to build a career in public accounting and can communicate well, take instruction, and contribute positively to the firm’s culture.”
• “I think the ideal candidate is driven, a team player, wants to learn new things, and understands the importance of relationships and client service. Good communication skills are also important.”

Interview Questions

• “Interviews are focused on sharing examples of experiences that demonstrate key skills that will be helpful for the job. I find the interviews are generally conversational.”
• “More casual and conversational. I was asked about my strengths and weaknesses and questions about problem solving.”
• “How would you define high quality customer service? If you could have your dream day at work, what would it look like? What do you consider a weakness in your abilities?”
• “How do you handle constantly changing priorities of tasks? Can you describe a moment when you faced adversity or a difficult situation at school or work, how you handled it, and what you learned from it? Tell me about a time you had a difficult time with a customer and how did you handle it.”

UPPERS

• “Great culture and great group of people, from top to bottom.”
• “Flexibility and remote work (part of the week).”
• “Career development and growth opportunities.”

DOWNERS

• “The changes and unpredictability of a significant merger.”
• “Busy season hours.”
• “Promotion path is vague.”