Vault’s Verdict

Schellman is ideally looking for driven, well-rounded, eager-to-learn candidates. Those hired by Schellman will receive extensive career development opportunities, including strong training programs, solid mentorship, the ability to create their own career paths, and clearly outlined promotion paths. Culture is another strong suit. Schellman has a highly inclusive culture, with active employee resource groups and a merit-based promotion philosophy that many employees say makes people feel very well respected regardless of background.

Yet another positive is the good work-life balance provided. Employees rave about the generous amount of PTO, firm holidays, volunteer days, and companywide shutdowns during the week of the Fourth of July and the year-end holidays. In addition, compensation and benefits are said to be top-notch, with insiders especially appreciating the fully covered healthcare, 10 percent 401(k) match, and generous parental leave. However, employees also note that workloads can be heavy, particularly when client delays cause projects to stack, leading to weeks longer than 40 hours.

With respect to business outlook, the firm is in a period of rapid expansion, entering new markets, and building infrastructure to support growth. Leadership is transparent when it comes to communicating performance and strategy, but at the same time some insiders say that private equity ownership is creating some uncertainty about the company’s long-term direction. That said, in general, Schellman insiders are bullish about the future of the firm despite some growing pains.

EMPLOYEE REVIEWS

Quality of Life

• “Schellman really does care about its employees, which is apparent when looking at their benefit offerings. Some benefit highlights that most positively impact quality of life are the firm closures the week of July 4th and at the end of the year, the generous PTO policy, summer Fridays, allotted sick leave that doesn’t impact your PTO balance, and their newly improved parental leave policy. With any public accounting firm, busy times fluctuate throughout the year depending on client demand, and your hours can depend on your clients and their ability to provide evidence timely/their availability.”
• “Best is the holiday shutdowns. The whole company closes for two weeks over the year-end holidays and also during the summer for the week of Independence Day. It is ‘forced’ PTO where we are truly offline. Worst is workload is sometimes dependent on client delays, which can compound over time (‘project stack’).”
• “The best aspects of our firm’s quality of life are the teams and people that work at Schellman. Everyone is so wonderful to work with and you get so much support from your team members. The worst aspect is the work-life balance. Over the years, workloads have continued to grow and individuals are being spread thinner. Everyone works much more that 40-hour weeks.”
• “Nearly eight weeks of time off per year accounting for PTO, firm holidays, and volunteer days off. On the other hand, projects are fast-paced and can stack very quickly, leading to a lot of work on the back-end of engagements.”

Compensation

• “Schellman’s salary and benefits are top-notch. Some highlights are paid parental leave, yearly company Reboot, and covered insurance premiums for some of the offered plans. Recently, they changed the bonuses from quarterly to annual.”
• “Best-in-class pay and benefits. 10 percent 401(k) match is unparalleled in the market. Healthcare fully covered for employees. Every year the compensation of each level at the firm is compared with industry and merit increases are decided based on comparative levels in the market. Countless benefits and perks, including very generous PTO and holidays.”
• “The best part of our compensation package is our benefits—we have wonderful benefits (401(k) match, PTO, firm closures, parental leave, etc.). The worst aspects of our compensation package is the salary increase for promotion. Promotion salary increases have been less than 8 percent in the last few years, which for a promotion is very low compared to the market.”
• “We have generous family leave (paternity/maternity/adoption), which is fantastic and something I’m proud of at Schellman. The flip side is that we struggle to balance workload when team members are out on family leave. The result is that team members that never/rarely take family leave are unfairly burdened with a higher workload to ensure work and tasks stay on track. We are lacking any sort of benefit for team members who do not take family leave and continuously take on additional workload, which increases firm revenue and profits.”

Career Development

• “We take the training for new and experienced personnel very seriously. When I first started with the firm, there was an employee onboarding at the corporate HQ in Tampa, followed by a four- to six-week ‘shadow’ period before I began to officially work on client engagements. Now we have a six-month new associate training (currently on hold) that provides extensive training for associates just graduating from college with little to no experience. As for the promotion policies, I do believe they are a little outdated.”
• “You can create your own path and management supports your goals. It is very upon you to achieve the career path you want. The not-so-good aspect is that there are specific targets for promotion that tend to change each year and often there is not enough bandwidth to achieve the promotion requirements. Essentially you have to work extra hours to meet the promotion requirements and no time is given.”
• “The promotion path is clearly outlined for all employees at the firm and the leaders are very focused on understanding the career path desires for all of their direct reports. Team members are comfortable going to their managers and highlighting what they want from their career. With the rapid growth of the firm, there are some new positions and paths being developed and, at times, the job responsibilities for those new paths may be confusing.”
• “The best aspect of career development is the mentorship that Schellman provides. Knowledge is always passed down to the next level, and it helps you understand what expectations are.”

Inclusion Efforts

• “This is hands-down the most inclusive organization I have ever been a part of. I is refreshing to see all the different cultures and lifestyles of the people within the firm.”
• “I think when you look at inclusion, a company is successful when you don’t feel gender, race, disability, etc. are a metric they are trying to meet to check a box. It is really wonderful to be thought of as a person/employee no matter what race/gender/or sexual orientation. Schellman does a great job of promoting based on merit.”
• “The firm makes an effort to have employee resource groups for people of color, LGBTQIA+, veterans, families, etc., and these groups are led by amazing team members who are important to the company and have done amazing things within.”
• “As a woman and member of the LGBTQ+ community, I feel very welcome and respected.”

Business Outlook

• “It is a very exciting time here at Schellman, as we are in a period of rapid growth. Over the past couple years, the firm has focused on laying the foundational infrastructure to support continued rapid growth. As with every growing firm, there is a bit of a learning curve with new processes and systems, but once established, each team member is able to realize benefits and efficiencies.”
• “The best is that we seem to be growing and infiltrating new markets. Our leadership is very open about the business prospects and our performance throughout the year, and they are making changes and seem excited for our future. The worst is the uncertainty. There are rumors we are selling again and we are unsure of what our future looks like in that case.”
• “PE ownership creates some ambiguity over what the future looks like, but financial performance is stronger than previous year. There is a strong future outlook, especially if a PE sale can be facilitated in the near future.”
• “As we are controlled by private equity, there is more of a focus on doing things ‘now’ even if they may not be the best long-term solution.”

Hiring Process

• “Our firm is seeking driven individuals who have well-rounded lives. We want to make sure work is getting done but acknowledge that we are people who like to have fun when appropriate.”
• “We are now back to hiring only experienced personnel. We have a number of associates from the ‘fresh-out-of-college’ hiring we did for a couple of years, and we are allowing them the room to grow before we have another class of new hires.”
• “From my experience, our interview process is pretty stringent and the candidates that we look for have incredibly specific skillsets. A lot of the time we interview referrals.”
• “Seeking someone who is open to learn and driven.”

Interview Questions

• “Situational questions around audit and compliance (How would you audit XYZ?). Questions related to client communications and communication skills.”
• “What makes you interested in IT audit? What do you do in your pastime?”
• “Outlining a situation with a client or a project and having them walk through how they would handle it.”
• “At my level, they are more situational and how you’ve achieved particular goals, led a team, etc.”

UPPERS

• “The culture and the incredible colleagues and leadership.”
• “Good work-life balance.”
• “Growth potential and world-leading clients.”

DOWNERS

• “Busy season hours.”
• “Demanding clients and tight deadlines.”
• “Constant changes due to growth.”