Vault’s Verdict

RSM is ideally seeking candidates who are hardworking, curious, team-oriented, and personable, and who embody the firm’s core values and communicate well. Insiders say technical skills can be taught; what really is essential and stands out are integrity, critical thinking, and a genuine desire to learn. For students, RSM runs a valuable internship program, offering interns hands-on, real-life experience and good networking opportunities; while the learning curve can be steep, the work is rewarding.

Meanwhile, working as a full-time staff at RSM offers the experience of a large national firm with the feel of a closely connected local office. Employees call the culture very collaborative, noting that colleagues are approachable, mentorship happens organically, and teams are invested in each other’s growth. 

Quality of life depends heavily on the season. Outside of busy season, expectations generally hover around 40 hours per week, with flexibility, reduced schedules, and unlimited PTO helping employees manage family and personal commitments. During the busy season, however, hours are longer, sometimes significantly longer (70 to 80 hours per week). The pace of busy season can be intense, and recent return-to-office pushes have added commuting strain for some employees, particularly in high-cost cities.

Compensation is described as competitive but not market-leading. While base salaries and market adjustments are generally viewed as fair, some employees say bonuses and high-performer incentives lag behind boutique competitors. The best aspects of the career development offerings are the structured advisors and accessible mentors; on the other hand, promotion processes can be more transparent.

Inclusion is a clear priority, with active employee network groups and diverse leadership representation fostering an environment where employees feel respected and valued. As for the firm’s business outlook, some insiders note that morale is down and  leaders are out of touch with employees, with others say that RSM is no better or worse off than many other firms, given the uncertain economic climate and geopolitical tensions.

EMPLOYEE REVIEWS

Quality of Life

• “RSM promotes work-life balance; I have rarely or never had an issue attending to my personal life while also handling my work responsibilities, which is important raising a special needs child.”
• “The push for return to office is making the work-life balance more difficult. With the current state of the economy and cost of living, it is too expensive to live near the offices. They are all in large cities, which are always expensive to live in. I live 45 minutes from my local office because it was the only place we could afford to buy a house, so adding traffic that’s an hour commute to work. Then add childcare drop-off/pick-ups, it’s close to three hours of my day I’m spending just to go into the office to work. I am not the only one dealing with this, and the biggest reason is because it is simply too expensive to live close enough to where the commute isn’t time consuming. The best aspect is the ability to work at a reduced schedule so I can still run my home/family while working.”
• “The ‘how many hours do you work per week on average’ should be separated into busy season and non-busy season. During non-busy season, the firm does a good job in maintaining the expectation of only 40 hours a week. There are probably only four weeks outside of busy season where I work close to 50 hours. During busy season, I tend to work 70- to 80-hour weeks, with a few 90- to 100-hour weeks. Outside of busy season, the firm is very flexible with time off which helps quality of life.”
• “Best aspects: Unlimited PTO (just have to use it in non-busy season), food perks (although could be increased during busy season), and good technology. Worst: Hour requirements and pace of the job (very fast at times).”

Compensation

• “Salaries and benefits are average. Not the best and not the worst.”
• “Salary remains competitive with other firms in the industry and level. Bonus percentages were decreased and are often based on achieving lofty goals that can sometimes feel unattainable for the market conditions.”
• “I have always felt that I am well paid and pay increases are well explained. Market adjustments take place as needed. I do think they could do more outreach on benefits to understand what we really want.”
• “The firm compensation strategy feels like it is falling behind as we are losing talent to boutique firms offering both higher base compensation and incentive bonus plans. The lack of variability in bonuses for high performing individuals with significant experience is also a major issue.”

Career Development

• “As I have developed and been promoted, my formal advisor has changed to be a deliberate individual that can take me to the next level. As I started, I was advised by an experienced manager, and upon promotions I was moved to be advised by a partner. There are formal feedback processes for year-end and an informational mid-year evaluation, but otherwise the check-in process is not formalized beyond what the advisor or advisee sets the relationship to be.”
• “Best is you can naturally gravitate towards a mentor and have them be your performance advisor and vouch for you. Worst is that promotion process is kind of shrouded and not very open.”
• “All levels of audit are invested in each other’s growth and are willing to answer questions and provide mentorship. It makes career development feel easy and accessible! However, overall trainings are very generic and can be difficult to translate to real situations. This isn’t a fault of the company, but due to the fact we have to train so many people with the necessary information for a variety of industries.”
• “We seem to still be trying to find the best approach to training post-Covid, but I appreciate the initiative and understanding that we are working with many generations and learning styles.”

Inclusion Efforts

• “RSM works hard to be inclusive. They have different employee groups to assist with this and they also have put diverse individuals into leadership roles to open more conversations, which is great.”
• “I have felt RSM has performed very well in having an inclusive culture. I have not seen instances of discrimination, and I appreciate and respect the continued commitment to inclusivity in the face of the increase in bigotry in today’s culture.”
• “The firm has strong inclusion efforts with recruitment and the employee network groups (ENGs) that they have. Everyone, no matter their gender, race, ethnicity, disability status, military status, or sexual orientation, has high quality work and promotion opportunities.”
• “I think especially in the NYC office, we have a strong mix of genders, races, and cultures. Most of the teams I work on are typically diverse.”

Business Outlook

• “Our firm is currently being led by a consultant. This has resulted in every conversation revolving around the bottom line and we have lost focus of our people. Lower levels do not feel valued or appreciated. Upper local levels have tried to communicate this to national over and over again but they don’t want to listen.”
• “Morale is down and leadership seems to be growing in number. There are many levels between the field and the top. Leadership seems a little out of touch with the field. There is a strong feeling of we are changing ‘or else’ and the change we are making doesn’t seem really clear at all times.”
• “For firm leadership I want to preface it by saying I rate a 4 for national leadership, but I would rate a 10 for confidence in my local office leadership. As for business outlook, I think employee morale due to lackluster raises and bonuses, increased outsourcing to India when the work produced by them is sub-par causing more hours for us to fix it, and increased layoffs have decreased the business outlook.”
• “I believe it is an uncertain time currently for all industries and companies. With geopolitical tensions, tariffs, layoffs, and economic downturn, besides AI impact and competition for acquiring skilled labor and customers/clients, it is a bit of a challenging scenario. However, the firm is doing the right things to sustain the business. Employee morale has been impacted a lot worldwide—not only at RSM but also at many firms and entities.”

Intern Experience

• “Great hands-on learning. I was able to apply concepts beyond the classroom and gain real-world exposure, which helped me understand how the work is actually done day-to-day. Learning curve was steep. Some tasks required knowledge I was still building, which was challenging but ultimately beneficial for my growth.”
• “Excellent opportunities to understand how public accounting firms work and build connections to the office/firm. Summer internships have less opportunity for client work.”
• “Good networking and exposure, accurate to what the actual job is like, but not much work to do in the summer.”
• “I had a great experience and was able to work on clients as a new hire would.”

Hiring Process

• “Interviews are first set up by campus recruiters who screen for capable candidates and utilize junior staff for recruiting. Interviews are set up with two to three members of the team being interviewed and discuss together the strengths and weaknesses of candidates to decide whom to extend offers. Offers go out promptly; non-offers are also described promptly. The ideal campus candidate is interested in learning, and no preference is made for prior experience in the field.”
• “The firm has gotten more competitive since I've joined. When I joined, the attitude during internships was you had to really do something wrong to not get a full-time offer. Now, it has flipped where there are fewer associate spots (despite there always being a shortage of people), causing interns to have to specifically prove themselves to get an offer. Ideal candidate in my opinion is someone who is hardworking and is a  critical thinker. Everything else can be taught.”
• “You speak with the recruiter, then chat with multiple individuals of different levels (manager/senior manager and director/partner). You get a callback from a partner who extends the offer. Ideal candidates live the firm’s core values and explain them as part of the interview process in their examples and are well-rounded individuals in their work and good stewards in their communities as well.”
• “I believe we’re seeking qualified individuals who are more than just their GPAs. Rather, we look for smart individuals who can excel working in teams and are sociable to be around, adding to the workplace culture.”

Interview Questions

• “What interested you in accounting? What made you choose tax over audit (or vice versa)? What are some things you like to do outside of school?”
• “There are no technical questions expected, only conversational interviews to learn about a candidate’s background, gauging their ability to show their professionalism and desire to learn.”
• “Tell me something about yourself. Describe your aspirations and why you’re selecting RSM as a prospective employer. How do you deal with conflicts and multiple priorities? What you can bring to the table at RSM? What are your strengths and weaknesses.”
• “We have a case study for staff-level positions. Interviews are generally about your background but we really want to understand 1) who you are as a person, 2) if you’re a hard worker, and 3) would we want to work with you day to day.”

UPPERS

• “The culture—I love going to work every day and connecting with my co-workers.”
• “Big firm with a lot of resources.”
• “Challenging work, good clients.”

DOWNERS

• “The hours.”
• “Compensation.”
• “Certain leaders and new policies implemented”