Vault’s Verdict

RSM US LLP is ideally looking for smart, positive, outgoing, curious, adaptable, eager-to-learn candidates with strong communication, time management, and leadership skills. The firm’s internship program offers students significant hands-on, real-world experience while working with actual clients alongside full-time members of the RSM team. For its full-time people, RSM offers many development opportunities, including good formal and informal training, a very valuable mentoring program (where junior staff get help with daily work as well as career goals), and the ability to move within various areas of the firm.

Although busy season hours can be long, and it can be challenging to take PTO during busy season, outside that season, it’s easy to achieve a healthy work/life balance—RSM is very good at promoting time off and physical and mental well-being. In addition, the firm is very understanding of outside personal and family commitments, and a lot of schedule flexibility is offered, including hybrid/remote-work arrangements. While benefits and perks are generous—insiders especially appreciate the firm’s wellness benefits—the firm’s salaries could be better and more in line with peers.

The firm is said to have a strong commitment to an inclusive culture. The firm has many active and valuable resource groups (while open to all people, groups focus on different communities such as veterans, Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans, and LGBTQ+ individuals), and RSM’s culture is very inclusive. As for the firm’s business outlook, RSM has been growing rapidly and making many internal changes. While some insiders say those changes haven’t always been communicated clearly, others believe that once the changes have been implemented, the firm will be well positioned to continue to succeed.

EMPLOYEE REVIEWS

Hiring Process

“Interview process includes a series of interviews with managers and partners, after which we deliberate and determine if we should extend an offer. Ideal candidate is one who can portray willingness to learn and is able to maintain a conversation. Soft skills like communication and effort are higher on the list of priorities than past achievements (although past achievements are not unimportant).”

“Interview and callback process is robust. We are interviewing throughout the year for intern and new hires. We even interview for interns at the sophomore level. We are seeking strong candidates who possess a positive attitude and good communication, time management, and leadership skills. We are also seeking those who are curious and can adapt quickly and apply what they are learning.”

“During the interview process, candidates get to meet multiple people within the office to get insight into the culture. Ideal candidate would be knowledgeable and eager to learn and enjoys being involved in office activities.”

“The firm has made decent improvements in the interview and callback process to lock-in ideal candidates. Ideally, we look for smart, driven, curious and inclusive candidates to be a part of our firm.”

Interview Questions

“Please tell me about a time that you failed at something—what was the outcome and what did you learn from it? Please explain how you manage school, work, and other activities to ensure all responsibilities are met. What are your hobbies?”

“What is your greatest strength/weakness? Give me a situation where you had to work in a group, and how did it go? Describe a time you had to adapt, whether on a team or school project or at work, or in your personal life. How do you determine your priorities? Tell me about a tough decision you had to make and how you arrived at that decision.”

“What motivates you? Do you prefer audit, tax, or consulting, or are you not sure yet? Do you like to travel? Do you anticipate taking the CPA exams? Will you have 150 credit hours when you graduate?”

“What do you expect from a public accounting firm? What are your career aspirations? How did you come to find out about RSM and what makes the firm separate itself from others?”

Internship Experience

“Internship was very hands-on and allowed me to get real-world experience working on actual clients with actual members of my team.”

“I had a great variety of programming, giving me exposure to different lines of business. I got some client experience but not as much as I hoped for. This is understandable, though, as summertime is a slower time of year for tax work.”

“Experiencing the firm’s culture and seeing a variety of industries were the best aspects. Idle time was the worst aspect.”

“I was exposed to a large variety of clients and industries, and also built and established relationships with firm employees, who provided personal testimonies and helped me successfully transition from student to a working, licensed CPA. The less successful aspect was the brevity (summer internship) of the experience, but this is something that isn’t firm-specific.”

Career Development

“There are many opportunities available to you—almost endless. There are structured programs/trainings, but it’s also up to you to engage the resources and grow from them.”

“The company provides you with a career advisor (who helps with your career path) as well as a navigator (who helps with day-to-day questions), thus you always have formally assigned experienced staff to assist you with questions about your development. Some advisors are less involved than others, which can make the development process inconsistent depending on who staff get assigned. However, that does not impact progress or opportunities, which rely solely on people’s performance.”

“There are multiple paths upward that are available, depending on employee preference. You don’t have to stay in the same ‘bucket’ for your entire career if you aren't fulfilled. However, promotion policies are not always clear and aren't always consistent.”

“Good mentoring and a lot of opportunities to switch between departments—there are so many opportunities for internal mobility. I personally have changed roles three times, with three different flexible work arrangements. Promotions at the higher levels can take longer than expected and are not that transparent, especially after recent announcements with new roles that people do not understand.”

Quality of Life

“Public accounting has long hours, but the firm provides many mental health and other similar benefits to support employees. Vacation time is encouraged. I’ve never had a time off request denied and have actually been encouraged to take more.”

With any public accounting role, there is a period of time in busy season where hours are long and work/life balance is minimized. However, outside of that season (January to April), RSM is very good at promoting time off and re-energizing ourselves, physically and mentally. I am able to attend my son’s events, even in busy season, which is important to me as a parent—we need to be present in our kids’ lives. I take about seven weeks off in total, from PTO and paid holiday time collectively. That is nearly two times more than any firm in industry.”

“The firm provides flexibility as long as you meet the chargeable hours goals. The firm has become stricter with its policies to ensure efficiencies. Added administrative tasks have increased the burden on professionals—people now have to juggle administrative work, client work and their personal lives.”

“I have a very flexible schedule that allows me to take off when I want, as long as work is being completed in a timely manner. As with any public accounting firm, there are times of the year that are much busier than others. However, the flexibility of the job outweighs the long hours.”

Salary and Benefits

“I think base salary is fair and comparable to other similar-sized firms. The non-monetary perks of a remote work environment and flexible schedule are incredible. The bonus program is fine, and probably consistent with other similar-sized firms, but there isn’t much difference between an employee who is not that great and one who is very good at their job, which doesn’t provide for incentive for ‘additional effort’ outside of base salary.”

“I am happy with the benefits offered by RSM, especially the flexible work environment in terms of when you work and where you work. But I feel like RSM is likely behind compensation-wise compared to other firms.”

“Compensation and benefits are generally fair but not outstanding. Local leadership frequently seems obsessed with saving nickels and dimes on things like in-office snacks and other minor expenses. The firm also provides certain benefits, like 12 weeks of paternity leave, which work great for those who receive them.”

“All in all, we have a great benefits package, from compensation to bonus opportunities to discounts on third party products and much more. Health insurance costs have increased significantly across the industry, so that is a pain point. RSM is a national firm, yet it is more cost-effective for my family to be on my wife’s health insurance plan than my RSM plan. Her company is a smaller regional company, so how RSM doesn’t have better purchasing power than a regional company is difficult for me to understand.”

Wellness Efforts

“The firm provides free coaching and therapy sessions through Modern Health to all employees. They also run exercise programs virtually (e.g., virtual yoga sessions), and some offices have gyms employees can use. Meals are provided during busy season (typically, both lunch and dinner, but sometimes also breakfast).”

“My firm provides programs for all levels of wellness, including mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing, and others. There are constant reminders of the firm’s tools that can be used to enhance one’s wellbeing if someone chooses to use it. Also, there are many tools for families of children and pets.”

“There has been a lot of focus on mental health recently with free counseling sessions available and webcasts about mental health coming out all the time. The culture here is very accepting of mental health awareness. There are weekly virtual yoga sessions during busy season as well.”

“Eight free mental health counseling sessions per year, onsite gym, meditation, dependent care, virtual medical visits, Modern Health, Virgin Pulse, etc.”

Diversity, Philanthropy, and Green Initiatives

“I think RSM does this better than any other firm. I have been an Inclusion leader of a local office and have attended conferences held to promote inclusion in the workplace and am amazed at the time, effort and resources spent on putting together these conferences. I believe RSM’s Inclusion, green and philanthropic efforts are top tier.”

“We have over 10 various Employee Resource Groups that all staff are welcome to join, which include working parents, women, veterans, Hispanics, Asians, African-Americana, LGBTQ+ individuals, etc. Each group is run by the members, and they determine any philanthropic or event activities to promote throughout the year.”

“As an LGBTQ+ individual, I have been impressed with the firm’s consistent and strong support of the community and providing opportunities and initiatives, including a strong national PRIDE chapter. This indicates the firm’s acknowledgement of the importance of identifying what makes us unique and different and why.”

“To its credit, RSM is primarily a meritocratic organization, as it should be. In my many years with the firm, I have never witnessed anyone being excluded or treated differently because of personal characteristics. We should emphasize that we are a meritocracy. If you can do the work, you will be welcome and appreciated.”

Business Outlook

“Continued growth as the No. 1 leader and accounting firm in the middle market sector. We are also rapidly growing our technology to incorporate AI into our daily work to make audits more efficient. Employee morale seems to be strong. Although there were a lot of changes made during 2023, which did incur some grumbling, the end-result once all changes have been adjusted to will be great.”

“I feel like they move very quickly and make many changes without fully explaining or introducing those changes. Changes are not always handled well, and it leads to some chaos. Morale with the people I work with has been low lately due to all the changes and admin tasks that are being pushed out to the management level. A number of people in our office have quit this summer, and the many changes are largely why. I believe the firm is doing well and is strong in the marketplace, but I think all the changes are affecting morale.”

“The firm has been consistently growing. Some of the leadership team is new (but has an enthusiastic vision), so I’m excited about where they will take us.”

“We are in a period of vast change, some of it badly needed. However, the communication of vision, the execution of things like the workday transition, and other things are lacking. I am hopeful we will learn from these issues and that senior leadership will do a better job of communicating and engaging with the team to help protect the outstanding culture I have historically enjoyed at RSM.”