Vault’s Verdict

NOTE: WilkinGuttenplan did not participate in our most recent Accounting Survey; data here is from our 2019 survey.

WilkinGuttenplan is looking for confident and positive candidates with excellent communication skills and strong accounting backgrounds. Having a personality that fits with the firm’s collaborative culture is also key. The firm provides a very good internship program for students, staffing them on meaningful projects, and exposing them to both tax and audit as well as all levels of staff—from entry levels to partners. For its full-time team members, WilkinGuttenplan offers extensive training in technical areas as well as on soft skills. In addition, the firm provides its staff with a highly regarded coaching/mentorship program in which all staff members are assigned to a manager or partner to assist them with achieving their career goals. With respect to the quality of life at the firm, insiders say the firm is extremely flexible when it comes to work schedules, allowing its staff to take full ownership of their schedules from day one at the firm.  Insiders add that as long as you get your work done, it generally doesn’t matter where or when you work. As for salaries and benefits, they are competitive with other firms, and insiders particularly appreciate the unlimited PTO policy. Meanwhile, female diversity at the firm is a strong suit, with many women in partner and shareholder positions. As for WilkinGuttenplan’s business outlook, the future is very bright. Management is very transparent, and the firm is always looking for ways to improve and stay ahead of its competitors.

Hiring Process

• “Interviewing for interns and full time, especially for experienced hires, is very competitive. Typically our candidates go through at least two rounds of interviews with multiple levels of staff. Even for internship positions, the candidates typically meet on campus with a representative, as well as in the office with at least three staff members. We are always looking for talented individuals with great personalities and a great work ethic. We are looking for stars in their own ways.”

• “The firm has a less formal callback process than other firms. Some candidates are told on the spot of their employment offer, others are not told for several weeks. The ideal candidate would be someone who is friendly and professional, seeks a mid-size firm experience, thrives in an open environment, takes initiative, and wants to be a team-player.”

• “We are always seeking candidates that are strong in many aspects, both professionally and personally. I think the ideal candidate has confidence, excellent communication skills, and a strong accounting background. It's most important the candidate fits our culture. The rest is trainable.”

• “I think that the firm's interviewing process is rather robust. We recruit at quite a few schools in the area and are constantly getting students from schools nearby where we do not actively recruit. At WG, we do not expect our potential interns to have much technical knowledge of accounting; we train them on everything they will need to know. I think an ideal candidate is someone who is happy to learn new things, has a positive attitude, and whose personality would be a good fit with the firm culture—someone who we can see interacting well with current employees and clients.”

Interview Questions

• “What are you passionate about in your career? Was there ever a situation where you were asked to do something you didn't think was right? How did you handle it? What is the most challenging work situation you ever faced? How did you persevere to complete the task? Why did you select your college/university? What steps did you take in making that decision? Tell me about a situation that wasn't going very well. How did you handle it?

• “Mostly personality-based questions: When was the last time you were in a team project and which part did you play and why? When was the last time you reached a personal or academic goal and how did you achieve it? Where do you see yourself in five years? What was a negative situation you found yourself in and how did you deal with it?”

• “Biggest strengths, biggest weaknesses. Explain a difficult situation and how you handled it. Explain an accounting topic (such as depreciation). If you were interviewing someone for this position, what traits would you look for?”

• “I was only interviewed for my internship. The interviews I had were more conversational than question and answer. People really just seemed to want to get to know me. I remember being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up when I was little.”

Internship Experience

• “All employees were friendly and very helpful. As an intern, I was able to take part in various audit and tax client work. As an intern at W&G, you feel like a valued member of the team. The program was eight weeks of fun and learning about what the accounting world is like.”

• “My internship experience was great and well rounded. I was exposed to both tax and audit clients, which allowed me to get a better understanding of the accounting profession and areas I could work in in the future.”

• “I was completely blown away by the internship program at WG. I was exposed to all sorts of accounting work—audit, different types of tax, assisting with litigation support, etc. Not only was the depth of experience very rich but I was also able to work with all levels of staff—from entry levels to partners. As an intern, you're expected to have a lot of questions, as everything is so new. But I was amazed that no matter how many questions I had, there was always someone willing to come by and help, even if the time commitment was for an hour or more. Something really special about the internship program is that you get the experience of an entry-level staff and your opinions/ideas are valued to the same extent a regular employee's would be.”

• “My internship is what lead me to WG. I could not pass up on opportunity or environment like WG. All the staff treated me with respect while working. I was given meaningful projects, which directly impacted WG clients. The support from all staff of all levels is nothing like what I have experienced at other firms.”

Career Development

• “When I first started at WilkinGuttenplan, I was torn between pursing a career in tax vs. audit. At my prior employer, I was not able to work in both. WilkinGuttenplan allowed me to work within both areas until I developed an interest and expertise to be able to specialize in one of them. They really allow you to be in control of your own career path and do not force you into any certain type of client work based on their needs.”

• “There is extensive training on all technical areas, as well as soft skills, which is extremely important in staff career development. Additionally, we have a great coaching program in which staff are assigned to a manager or partner to assist with career goals. I think the greatest aspect, though, is that you have the ability to drive your career and the firm supports you.”

• “The firm is highly focused on career development. We have a Professional Growth Academy focused on development. There are tons of CPE opportunities to continue career development. There is always hands-on training and mentoring. We have a coaches program where a coach is assigned to each staff person and they meet, at a minimum, quarterly to be sure we are developing professionally.”

• “The best aspect of my firm's career development opportunities is the coaching program. All entry-level staff receive a coach that helps mentor and guide them through their career and assists them in professional development. Staff set goals with their coach and prepare plans to achieve such goals, as well as planning marketing initiatives. It is beneficial to have a partner or manager provide insight on career development. The worst aspect of my firm's career development opportunities is the planning. There are a lot of forms needed to plan goals and marketing initiatives and time budgets. It can be a lot of work and planning, so this is simply a downside to the upside of having a coach.”

Quality of Life

• “The firm puts their employees first, so there is a high value in quality of life. Even during tax season I am still able to make some time to unwind and relax. They provide us with resources during busy season and outside of busy season, including happy hours, events, and food. I never dread going to work in the morning.”

• “To be honest, the actual work itself is probably very similar from firm to firm within our state. The industries and type of assurance work that you work with will probably have some level of consistency from firm to firm. The thing that sets WilkinGuttenplan apart is the culture. It is different from any other firm that I have encountered. They are extremely flexible with your work schedule and allow you to take full ownership of your calendar/schedule from day one of your career. As long as you are getting your work done, they are extremely flexible with where and how you do it.”

• “The best aspect of the firm's quality of life is the flexible work/life balance culture. My firm heavily promotes work/life balance and allows for unlimited PTO. We are required to communicate our time off to our in-charges we are working with so it is not difficult to take time off. Our firm also established a culture committee that runs a variety of events/activities throughout the year, such as a Winter Olympics or firm-wide happy hours. This promotes teamwork and gives everyone a small break from sitting at their desks. The worst aspect of the firm's quality of life is the expectations. As an entry-level staff, I want to do the best I can do, and my firm holds high expectations when it comes to quality so I may find myself working a bit longer to make the audit the best it can be. This could require longer hours. However, we are compensated nicely with unlimited PTO and summer Fridays.”

• “There is a culture committee that is dedicated to creating a fun, exciting culture. We do different events almost weekly and more often in busy season. We have unlimited PTO, work from home almost anytime you want/need, and Fridays off all summer.”

Salary and Benefits

• “The best aspect of my firm's overall salary, benefits, and perks is that the firm is generous and truly cares about the employees. My firm takes every employee's suggestion into careful consideration and tries its best to accommodate all staff. I enjoy the flexible hours, 401(k) matching policy, free food/beverage, unlimited PTO policy, summer Fridays, and casual dress code. The work aspect of my firm's salary, benefits, and perks is the food is not always that healthy. It can be hard to eat in the office if you are trying to diet or maintain a healthy lifestyle while still enjoying the free food at work.”

• “Salaries seem to be competitive with other firms. Best aspect is being rewarded for hard work and effort. Worst part is not knowing where you stand in terms of your peers and if your raise/bonus is comparative, better, or worse than others at the same level, since you don't know what is possible to earn (i.e. range of bonuses/raises).”

• “The firm is best at flexible working and telecommuting. They understand that you don't need to be in your seat 9 to 5 to get the job done. It's invaluable to me that I'm able to work anytime, anywhere. The worst part is that there is no maternity leave policy.”

• “We have unlimited PTO, which is great, and the flexible hours throughout the year are really great as well. I think the salary and the bonus combined are adequate, but I think the salary itself should be a bit higher. We always have a kitchen stocked with food and drinks, and outside food and drinks are often brought in. Management is also into investigating all perks we can be offering. The first answer is never ‘No’ and always ‘We will look into it and get back to you.’ We even had a survey that requested our feedback of other perks we would like to see.”

Diversity, Philanthropy, and Green Initiatives

• “WG does an excellent job mitigating bias, which is not easy considering that it’s such a large problem in today's society. Everyone is treated equally and everyone has equal opportunity here.”

•  “The firm holds meetings regarding ways the firm can improve, and this includes diversity. The firm wants to be more diverse and has grown more diverse in recent years. I think the firm is open to any candidate that fits our culture.”

• “In terms of women, I think our firm is very diverse. The firm is very close to 50/50 male to female, and there are countless women in partner and shareholder positions. In terms of racial and LGBT diversity, I think the firm needs to focus on improving this area. We have lots of groups within the firm that focus on charity and other philanthropic/green initiatives.”

• “WG performs community services acts, fundraisers, and food drives throughout the entire year. We are always involved with veterans, those with disabilities, active military drives, food banks/lower income area support as well as many other charities and organizations. I love getting involved with my firm and helping to better someone else's life.”

Business Outlook

• “Ed Guttenplan always does the ‘state of the firm’ every year to recap everything we were able to accomplish in the year. Management is very transparent as to the strengths and areas of improvement as well as where the firm is heading.”

• “The firm is constantly looking for ways to improve and be ahead of the industry. We have several different groups and committees that meet regularly to work on ways to better our future.”

• “A new position, COO, was recently created, and staff are very pleased with the choice—it was an internal promotion. One weakness is bringing in new industries from our already established client base.” 

• “I feel that the firm is growing and doing incredible things. I trust the firm's leadership and am excited to see what my future holds at the firm, as well as what the future has in store for the firm. I think that many great things are on the horizon, and I'm excited to be a part of it.”