Vault’s Verdict

Friedman LLP is looking for bright, energetic candidates with strong technical and teamwork skills. For students, the firm runs an internship program that offers interns the ability to network with other employees and a lot of one-on-one help. Friedman offers a lot of career development support. Insiders particularly appreciate the fair promotion policies, and mentorship and “buddy” programs.

Hours can be long during the busy season, but the firm is focused on helping employees achieve a healthy work/balance. Friedman offers flexible schedules and work-from-home options, and is understanding of personal commitments outside of work. Salaries, benefits, and perks are competitive. Insiders rave about summer Fridays, and are very appreciative of the extensive wellness reimbursement programs that cover the costs of gym memberships and fitness classes.

The firm is very involved in the community and promotes charity events, while some insiders say the firm needs to improve when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Meanwhile, the firm’s business outlook is bright. The firm’s leadership team is transparent and continues to win new business. Friedman is growing organically. And employee morale is strong.

Hiring Process

• “Interview and callback process is very organized and professional. The ideal candidate varies based on the position. However, we typically look for bright, energetic individuals with a passion for what they do and strong records—good grades for a first year or good references for experienced professionals.”
• “The ideal candidate is someone who’s knowledgeable across multiple facets of tax, as many people work in both business returns and then do the subsequent individual returns. The person must be willing to learn as a staff or willing to teach as a mentor. Must have a teamwork mentality and not have an ego. Simply should be someone you want to sit next to everyday and work with. Firm culture is extremely important, so they should be knowledgeable about that and be able to show commitment to those values.”
• “Each group and department has different hiring needs and standards. For example, the international tax services group looks for candidates with a high intellectual capacity and great communication skills. Higher-level technical tax candidates can be asked very technical on-the-spot questions within their specialized fields.”
• “The firm is looking for strong technical people. We’ve made numerous hires in the last year. There is a series of interviews performed and then we take a few days to decide.”

Interview Questions

• “Please describe a time when you felt overly stressed with workload and the steps you took to overcome it. What was your favorite or least favorite aspect of previous school/work experience?”
• “Give me an example of how you handled multiple tasks in a tight deadline. Give us an example where you had to go the extra mile for a client.”
• “Currently popular questions include: What has been the biggest challenge for you in the fully remote environment? What experiences can you share that had an impact on how you adapted to the virtual environment?”
• “What is your view on working in teams? How would you describe your leadership style? How have you mentored staff at your previous role? How have you committed to learning at your last firm? Additionally, there are questions regarding background and work experience that are specific to each candidate.’

Internship Experience

• “One of the best aspects of my internship was the one-on-one help I was receiving when I did not understand something.”
• “Learning curve on how to do the work was steep. Coworkers were always around to help if I needed.”
• “The best aspects were the work events that allowed me to network with other employees and get to learn more about the job. The worst aspect was the lack of work during summer time.”
• “Managers walked through what I needed to do. I didn’t feel pressure to get it right the first time since I was just an intern. I got my own desk, and I was able to work around my school schedule.”

Career Development

• “Friedman is committed to the development and advancement of its personnel. Management believes in ensuring that everyone is properly trained, both formally and informally, to best serve our clients. Numerous resources are dedicated to fulfilling this goal.”
• “Everyone seems to get promoted when they are ready. People are not blocked because there are too many people at that position. Promotions seems to be merit-based.”
• “Everyone is encouraged to be the best they can be. In addition to numerous continuing education opportunities, the firm offers a culture that encourages everyone to get involved in outside activities. From a career development standpoint, we have mentorship programs, programs geared specifically toward women, minority initiatives, and a whole host of other programs designed to help everyone be the best they can be.”
• “We have a mentorship program and buddy program that allows us to network within our company. These buddies and mentors are great in helping us improve in our career. Since I have started during the time of Covid, I wish that there was more video communication.”

Quality of Life

• “It’s just the nature of our industry that you’re unable to take vacation certain times of the year, but if you do need to take off or travel, even during busy season, they usually are accommodating.”
• “I think the firm tries to promote quality of life. In general, the working hours here are better than other firms from what I hear.”
• “We are treated like professionals. There’s no micromanaging. We’re trusted to get the work done. They’re open to WFH and extremely supportive of all levels of staff, accommodating for family needs, etc. The most challenging aspect is not firm-related but industry-related: hours during tax time are always difficult.”
• “It is obvious that FLLP cares about the quality of life of its employees. We have many policies from alternative hours, work from home, etc., that allow us to do what we need to do in our home lives when necessary. They make it clear that they believe this is important so we can focus entirely on our clients and our work. The firm openly communicates and encourages use of these policies.”

Salary and Benefits

• “The firm pays fair value market compensation. Benefits include medical reimbursements, 401(k), summer Fridays, and casual dress.”
• “Friedman has a casual dress policy, and we can wear jeans anytime unless we have formal client meetings. We are also offered Fridays off in the summer, which is a fantastic benefit. Friedman has a great vacation policy, which I believe to be one of the best benefits offered by the firm.”
• “The best aspect of benefits at Friedman is that the company offers educational reimbursements. I wanted to study for my CPA exam and purchase a Surgent CPA Package. The firm covered 100 percent of the cost.”
• “Given the impact Covid has on the world, the firm was generous in providing raises and bonuses. There were no pay cuts, only deferral of raises/bonuses by three months. Summer Fridays are always an awesome perk, and I hope to continue to enjoy even more perks after the quarantine/staying-at-home time period ends.”

Wellness Efforts

• “Huge buy-in for wellness. The tools are there if you have the need or want.”
• “The firm has great wellness incentives! I have experienced this when I was in-person at Friedman LLP as well as virtual. While in-person, the firm had classes, massages, and doctors (free check-ups) in the office. While virtual, the firm offers wellness reimbursement programs that cover costs of equipment, gym memberships, weight training, and specialized classes.”
• “Friedman encourages employees to be healthy. They have a gym reimbursement program, which is great. Pre-Covid, they had fresh fruits available during busy season. They also introduced Seamless for busy season meals this year, which I appreciate because I can order a healthier dinner than may have been provided in previous years.”
• “We have yoga classes in the morning that are obviously optional. When I was working at their office in New York before the pandemic, there was a room you could reserve to relax in if you needed it. They always had healthy snacks that were readily available in the morning, like fruit and granola bars. The water machine and coffee machines on both sides of the floors are nice touches, too. Also, we were treated very nicely during busy season—pizza Fridays, happy hours once a month, a charity event that everyone was invited to, and counseling (though I never went) was readily available.”

Diversity, Philanthropy, and Green Initiatives

• “The firm is constantly involved in the community and promoting events. The firm also allows employees to promote their own charitable endeavors via work email—which is awesome.”
• “The firm is very supportive of philanthropic endeavors and supports a variety of charitable undertakings. Hiring policies are such that we do not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, etc. We also promote the hiring of veterans.”
• “I would like to see more diversity within the firm, all around. In every aspect the firm can improve on their diversity: race, LGBTQ+ individuals, individuals with disabilities, and military veterans.”
• “The firm is not diverse when it comes to race and needs to do better to promote diversity.”

Response to Anti-Racist Protests and BLM Movement

• “Happy that it was mentioned during our town hall and not just ignored.”
• “The firm made numerous comments in a town hall meeting about recent current events, Black Lives Matters, etc. They have also started some new programs to address what is going on in the world.”
• “The firm implemented additional diversity and inclusion initiatives, including unconscious bias training.”
• “I’m not aware of my company’s response to the BLM, other than a class we all took online to promote racial awareness (which is a good thing and prompted a deeper consideration of walking in someone else’s shoes). They always hire the best people regardless of race, sex, etc. I’ve never been made aware of or felt even the slightest sense of inequity among employees.”

Response to Covid-19

• “Our two managing partners of the firm held public forum style Zooms where they allowed any questions to come in and answered them in front of the whole firm. I think everyone appreciated their level-headed and calm response.”
• “They allow people to work from home or in the office. They have made sure that anyone working in the office is socially distanced. They are always cleaning the offices.”
• “The firm took action immediately and followed the advice of institutional professionals. Couldn’t have asked for a better response. Coupled with the work/life balance policies and technology we already had, the only thing really different was that we couldn’t go to the office for months.”
• “The firm is focused on our safety and is flexible with us continuing to work from home. For those that prefer to go into office, safety measures are put into place.”

Business Outlook

• “The partners here are constantly seeking and winning new work. The wins have been getting larger and more complex, resulting in a very strong outlook. We receive emails everyday listing the proposals and wins. Partners are very transparent in letting us know. They also encourage us to improve business development.”
• “We believe 2021 will be an outstanding year. We took the opportunity in 2020 to make some very fine lateral partner transfers into the firm, and we will obtain the benefit of those transfers in 2021 and beyond.”
• “We have co-managing partners who are very entrepreneurial and are very good business managers. We are cautiously optimistic about 2021 depending upon how the coronavirus is brought under control. Employee morale is great. We are extremely competitive with other professional services firms.”
• “The best aspect of Friedman’s business outlook is that our firm has a high-retention rate and we are gaining more clients each day. Also, Friedman is growing at a natural and organic rate. There are no weaknesses that I can see.”