Vault’s Verdict

Eide Bailly is ideally seeking professional, curious, hardworking team players who communicate well and are willing to learn. For students, the firm runs a very valuable internship program, offering interns real-world hands-on experience and a lot of support from senior staff. Interns report improving their technical skills and abilities during their internships and very much appreciating the collegial culture. For its full-time staff, Eide Bailly offers numerous growth opportunities, including strong formal training and mentoring, a lot of on-the-job learning, access to a wide range of technical resources, and leaders who are approachable and invested in helping staff grow. One drawback, according to some insiders, is the lack of transparency around promotion decisions.

A healthy work-life balance can be achieved at Eide Bailly, as insiders say the firm is very focused on quality of life and offers many work-life initiatives, including flexible work options, generous PTO, and paid-for meals. Also, the firm’s supportive culture that genuinely cares about staff goes a long way toward improving quality of life. Of course, the busy seasons can still mean long hours and a lot of stress, but Eide Bailly insiders say the firm overall does a great job of promoting a healthy balance and providing a good quality of life. Meanwhile, compensation, perks, and benefits are competitive, with benefits getting excellent reviews and compensation getting slightly cooler reviews—some insiders say salaries could be a bit more competitive.

However, it’s nearly unanimous that Eide Bailly is very strong when it comes to inclusion. Insiders say the firm’s many active employee resource groups underscore the fact that the firm takes inclusion seriously, giving professionals across the firm equal access to interesting, high-quality work, and promotion opportunities. They also note that the firm’s culture is built around fairness, support, and inclusivity.

Eide Bailly’s business outlook gets just as rave reviews. The firm’s insiders say that Eide Bailly is currently in a great position, noting that the firm has a plan in place to reach $1 billion in annual revenue by 2030, has maintained its independence and not taking a private equity investment like many of its competitors (which helps to retain the firm’s great culture), and keeps investing in its employees, resulting in high employee morale.

EMPLOYEE REVIEWS

Quality of Life

• “The firm focuses a great deal on our quality of life and work-life balance. The firm provides opportunities to volunteer, supports having extra-curricular activities, and offers flexible working hours. The firm recognizes that every person has different needs and wants to ensure our people are as taken care of as possible.”
• “My experience with the firm has been really positive in this area. The people I work with genuinely care about maintaining a good work-life balance and are very supportive and mindful of workloads and personal commitments. Like any public accounting firm, there is a busy season that can be more demanding and require longer hours, but overall, I feel the firm does a great job of promoting a healthy balance and providing a good quality of life.”
• “I’m in tax, so the worst part is just the sheer number of hours we have to work during busy season, but our hour requirements are in the average for the industry. The best part is the flexibility of the firm when it comes to working from home or blocking off your calendar for an appointment and making up the hour you were gone by working late.”
• “My firm does an excellent job prioritizing quality of life, especially when it comes to family. I’ve had a couple of emergencies, and the firm has always been incredibly supportive and understanding, allowing me to take the time I needed. That flexibility has meant a lot. As you stay with the firm longer, the workload naturally increases. Busy periods can feel overwhelming because of the number of hours and volume of tasks. However, this is typical in public accounting, and not necessarily unique to the firm.”

Compensation

• “Best aspects: The firm offers a solid benefits package, including comprehensive health insurance, retirement plans, flexible work arrangements, generous PTO, and strong support for professional development (CPA support, training, etc.). The benefits reflect a genuine investment in employee wellbeing and long-term growth. Areas for improvement: While the benefits are strong, salary competitiveness can vary depending on location and specialty area. Rising healthcare premiums and out-of-pocket costs—especially for family coverage—can also place a strain on employees. Additional enhancements such as extended parental leave, more affordable family medical plans, or market adjustments to compensation would further strengthen the overall package.”
• “The benefits offered are top quality. Eide Bailly pays more than the employees do for their health and dental benefits. They have office lunches and activities regularly and other lifestyle spending payouts. They promote community service and give employees paid time off for community service as well as donation matches to charities.”
• “Our salary, perks, and benefits are generally excellent. The PTO is generous, and the firm provides great perks like catered or paid-for meals. We also have access to strong resources such as CPA study materials, which are a huge help. The 401(k) isn’t the absolute best on the market, but it’s better than many employers because we receive a profit-sharing contribution rather than a traditional match, which I really appreciate. The biggest downside is the health insurance. Whether you choose the HDHP or the PPO plan, the premiums are extremely high for everyone (single employees, married employees, and especially families). This is the one area where the benefits package consistently feels lacking.”
• “As a first-year staff, I would say the compensation is fair; however, I think it could be more competitive with other firms. As a first year and an associate, we do not receive bonuses, instead we receive recognition bonuses based on how managers deem our performance to be. I would say we receive great benefits to keep us incentivized.”

Career Development

• “I really think Eide Bailly does a great job helping staff grow. Everyone gets a career advisor who meets with them at least twice a year, and you can schedule more meetings anytime if you want extra support or mentoring. Your advisor is your advocate during evaluations and roundtables, and they give you feedback and guidance to help you reach your goals. Overall, I feel the firm truly invests in providing great opportunities for career growth.”
• “The firm provides strong overall career development opportunities. The support, mentorship, and long-term growth paths are excellent, and I’ve always felt there are clear ways to advance and improve. The initial training period can feel overwhelming because there’s a lot of information to absorb at once. I don’t necessarily view this as the firm’s fault, due to accounting being pretty complex, but the volume upfront can be a lot for new hires.”
• “Best aspects: Eide Bailly provides strong career development support through mentorship, on-the-job learning, and access to a wide range of technical resources. Leaders are approachable and genuinely invested in helping staff grow. There are many opportunities to take on responsibility early, gain exposure to diverse clients, and develop both technical and soft skills. Training programs continue to improve each year, and the firm’s emphasis on feedback and people development has strengthened. Areas for improvement: While opportunities exist, workloads during peak seasons can make it difficult for staff to fully take advantage of development programs. Career paths and expectations can sometimes feel unclear or vary by office or team. More structured, consistent guidance—including clearer promotion criteria, more protected time for professional development, and added resources during busy seasons—would help staff engage more fully in their growth.”
• “We are assigned a ‘career advisor’ that helps mentor the staff into more senior roles by developing technical skills and offering career advice. There are generally weekly meetings to discuss workloads and address and questions/concerns that come up throughout the week. The ‘career advisors’ also administer the performance reviews twice a year. I would consider these to be the best aspects of the development process. The worst would probably be the lack of details into what the firms is looking for when it comes to promotions and advancements.”

Inclusion Efforts

• “I feel like the firm cares deeply about inclusion. We have several employee resource groups which present during the year on their activities and what they have learned. The firm supports these platforms and takes a thoughtful approach at mentoring, hiring, and promotion for inclusion. The office I work out of supports alternative work arrangements as part of our own inclusion efforts, which I have been extremely grateful for during my career.”
• “Let me preface this by saying that I am not a person of color, LGBTQ+, or disabled, so I would not have experienced anything negative toward those groups. But the firm has Employee Resource groups for women, POC, LGBTQ+, individuals with disabilities, and veterans, and I have never noticed discrimination of any kind. I think having resource groups that people can join to grow community or reach out to if they experience discrimination is a great sign.”
• “I think Eide Bailly does a fantastic job with inclusion. We have a very diverse workforce, and the firm actively supports belonging through multiple Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), including groups focused on accessibility, people of color, LGBTQIA+ professionals, veterans, women, and more. These ERGs are open to all employees, allowing anyone to join even if they do not identify with the specific ERG and just simply would like to be an ally. Based on my experience, I do feel that professionals across the firm have equal access to interesting, high-quality work, and promotion opportunities. The culture is built around fairness, support, and inclusivity, and the internal structures help ensure everyone feels part of the firm and has opportunities to grow.”
• “As a member of the LGBTQ community who lives out and proudly, I was concerned when I first entered public accounting that I would be treated differently. So I’m very pleased with the fact that here I’ve been evaluated and given opportunities based on my work ethic, efficiency, and professionalism.”

Business Outlook

• “The firm’s outlook is strong, driven by a clear growth strategy, diversified services, and tech-forward initiatives. Employee development programs also boost morale. The main challenges are competitive pressure from larger firms, internal process inefficiencies stemming from technology, and talent shortages. Additionally, the growing presence of private equity firms in the market raise concerns for employees who might not see the benefits to these partnerships. Overall, the firm is well-positioned but must keep innovating and streamlining operations to maintain momentum.”
• “Overall, business outlook appears to be high. Employees appreciate that the firm has not moved to private equity ownership as they feel the current ownership model is structured well. It appears the firm is taking strong actions to secure work for the future and expand in new ways. Employee morale within the office is strong due largely to effective leadership and leaders that communicate openly, clearly, and regularly with staff.”
• “The firm has a long-term goal of achieving $1 billion in annual revenue by 2030. With this vision, the firm is investing in leadership development, delivering superior client experiences, giving back to communities, and driving firmwide efficiencies.”
• “I have always loved the Eide Bailly culture. It has made a larger firm feel like a small firm, which I think many of us stick around for. With Eide Bailly’s Vision 2030 push, I wonder if we will start to have a cultural shift closer to the top firms that would not necessarily be well received, but only time will tell if the work-life balance and employee appreciation that so many of us came here for will remain. So far, so good.”

Intern Experience

• “The best part of my internship was the people and the emphasis my firm/office puts on developing new staff. I always felt supported and was able to ask questions whenever I needed to. The most challenging part of my internship was that you kind of just get thrown into the actual work. Busy season is fast-paced, and it’s a lot of learning by doing—which is a little overwhelming early on. But like I said, the office was very supportive, and very encouraging of asking questions or for help walking through something.”
• “As an intern I felt very supporting in my learning and work. I asked a lot of questions and had help improving my technical skill and abilities. The hardest part of the internship was handling the vast amount of information to learn. School helped teach me the basics of accounting, but most of information needed for the work was learned on the job.”
• “The internship program provides an array of experiences in different industries. It was a full-time internship in place of a school semester so it allowed me to fully experience a busy season as a staff in the department. There were ample training opportunities during the internship and I made valuable connections.”
• “The best aspect of my internship experience was how quickly they allowed me to get involved in the audit. With other internship experiences I had the attitude was very much ‘Well, you’re just an intern, so there’s only so much we can have you do.’ But at Eide Bailly from day one it was ‘Here's the areas you’re assigned, here’s some training videos and a mentor to help you complete those areas, let us know if you have any questions,’ which I appreciated, as it gave me a much better idea of what my career would look like. The hardest part of the internship isn’t unique to Eide Bailly and that’s the flood of information as you transition from being a student to a full-time employee. Luckily, Eide Bailly does a good job of helping you manage this flood of information with good training modules, organizational tools, and mentors.”

Hiring Process

• “Our interview process is pretty smooth, scheduling is easy, the team syncs right after, and feedback happens quickly, which I appreciate. Callbacks and next steps usually move fast too. Overall, we look for people who communicate well, work hard, and are willing to learn and able to work well with others in a collaborative environment. Someone who’s professional, curious, and easy to work with tends to do really well here.”
• “Very organized and standardized process. We look for individuals that fit the Eide Bailly culture and have strong soft skills as well as critical thinking skills.”
• “Eide Bailly has a Summer Leadership Program where they invite 10 to 20 students around Colorado or other states to come in for two days to meet people from different positions and experience the firm culture. These two days is basically a more intense interview process and callbacks were within the next couple of weeks. I did not have a traditional interview process and appreciated this program so I could get a sneak peek of the culture Eide Bailly had to offer.”
• “I believe the ideal candidate depends on the location in which the firm is seeking to fill positions. Candidates have opportunities to network during college, attend student leadership events, and work an internship. Interviews and callbacks are expedited for candidates who have attended a leadership event or worked as an intern.”

Interview Questions

• “Follow-up questions about past roles and responsibilities, and questions regarding the core competencies at EB, including teamwork, communication, etc. This includes questions such as: Describe a team experience you found rewarding. Provide an example of a time when you were a part of a struggling team. Tell us about a time when you failed to communicate effectively. What does a successful meeting look like to you?”
• “What are your hobbies? Do you see yourself working in tax or audit? What has been your greatest struggle in school and how did you overcome it?”
• “Tell us of a situation when you needed to learn a new task or skill in a short time frame. What did you do to learn the skill and what did you do to retain the knowledge you gained.”
• “What made Eide Bailly stand out to you? What interested you in audit/tax/etc.? What would you say is your best trait? What is a situation you learned something valuable from? How do you do in stressful situations? How do you balance work and life? Do you have experience in Excel?”

UPPERS

• “Culture and people—I’ve made lifelong friendships working at Eide Bailly and have worked with nothing but good people.”
• “I really enjoy the size of my firm—small enough to feel valued and connected to your coworkers and large enough to have a lot of resources and huge variety of clients.”
• “Strong career development support, including career advisors, solid training opportunities, and programs like the EB Xchange that let people explore different path”

DOWNERS

• “Busy season can be overwhelming.”
• “Slightly below-average financial compensation.”
• “Need more transparency for how promotions/compensation decisions are made.”