Vault’s Verdict

Withum is looking for hardworking, responsible, outgoing, curious organized, self-sufficient team players who are eager to learn and have strong communication skills. The firm’s valuable internship program provides students with meaningful hands-on experience. Interns are treated like full-time staff and get a clear look at what a full-time role with the firm is like. For its full-time staff, Withum offers extensive growth opportunities, including mentoring, open-door policies, internal mobility options, clear promotion paths, and more.

Busy seasons mean long hours and high stress, and thus a difficult work/life balance. However, outside the busy periods a healthy work/life balance is easily achieved. The firm offers remote work options, a lot of schedule flexibility, and a generous PTO policy, including Open Time Off for Seniors and above, all of which go a long way toward improving quality of life. Meanwhile, compensation and benefits are competitive, with wellness benefits getting extremely strong reviews. The firm offers fitness and gym reimbursements, wellness webinars for dealing with stress, meditation through the Journey Live app, counseling, and more.

Diversity and inclusion is another strong suit of Withum’s. The firm is inclusive and very diverse at the staff level, but is still not that diverse at the senior levels. As for the firm’s business outlook, it is strong. Withum has been rapidly growing and, despite some staffing shortages, is very well poised to continue to expand and succeed.

Hiring Process

“The interviewing process is handled very well. Two levels of staff interview candidates and provide feedback on personality, professionalism, cultural fit, experience. The ideal candidate would be someone who would fit the culture, be a team player, responsible, organized, and self-sufficient, and shows a willingness to learn and progress in their career.”

“I think they had a good interview process. The interviews had a more conversational feel to them than typical interviews. And they want to get a feel for your personality fit in addition to skillset, which I liked, and it wasn't intimidating at all. Yet I know that Withum hires competitively and doesn't let just anyone in the door.”

“I believe Withum looks for people who are outgoing and curious about the people around them. You should have a good work ethic, and be able to communicate effectively and take ownership of your work and take pride in it.”

“We have a good team handling recruiting. We want people who love learning and know how to provide excellent client service.”

Interview Questions

“How do you define success? Do you want to be a CPA? What steered you to accounting in school? What motivates you? How are you in team environments? What are some fun things you do outside of accounting?”

“We ask the candidate for specific examples of times when they demonstrated your company values: ‘Tell me about a time when you took ownership of a project from start to finish.’ We also ask about their motivations in their work, what excites them, what worries them, how they work best, etc. And we let the candidate know what they should expect next in the process.”

“Tell me about yourself. Tell me about your favorite accounting classes/internship. Why did you choose accounting? Why did you choose tax?”

“How do you stay organized? Give me a time when you were a leader. Give me a time when you faced a challenge and how you overcame it.”

Internship Experience

“My internship was a great experience and provided valuable experience to begin my career. I had the opportunity to take on meaningful tasks and assist teams complete client engagements. These tasks were relevant tasks that represented the duties that full-time employees would be responsible for. Withum also allowed me to assist in many different tasks across tax, audit, and advisory services during my internship, which gave me the opportunity to see many of the services the firm offers.”

“Withum offered exposure to both tax and audit experience. Everyone I worked with was extremely helpful and personable and made the internship a great experience.”

“Great team and culture who wanted me to learn. Staff and managers were more than willing to assist if I had any questions. I had a very hands-on experience. As a tax season intern, my experience was mostly limited to tax work. It would have been nice to have some audit experience but overall it was a great experience.”

“The best aspect of my internship was the learning opportunities. I never felt like I was treated like an intern but felt like I was a part of the team. The hardest part was balancing a heavy workload between work, school, and college athletics.”

Career Development

“It's easy to move up very quickly in the firm, which is great. ‘Not easy’ as in they will not promote just anyone, but if you put in the work, work hard, and work above your level, the promotion is yours. And it's nice to see people move up quickly if they're already acting as a manager at a senior level, then they get the promotion each year until they become a manager because they deserve it. Some say we need more seniors so they should have kept the rule of being a senior for two years instead of one, but I say if they deserve it, they should be able to move up to match the level they perform well at.”

“Amazing career development coaching is available in which I have seen the benefits already. Standardized feedback processes on quarterly basis are also extremely beneficial.”

“Excellent transferability to many diverse business areas within the firm. Open-door policy with every level of the firm, especially C suite. Promotion process has become more bureaucratic.”

“If you can think it and put an action plan to it, you will be supported. That is huge in terms of being seen and heard. We also have a robust coaching program. The mentorship that is built into the firm's policies tries to address many of the pitfalls of anyone regardless of title, background, or aspiration level. Unless you have an outgoing personality, it can be rather challenging to understand all of the nuances of being promoted after reaching supervisor.”

Quality of Life

“I really appreciate the efforts that are made to ensure we are not overworked during busy season. I have heard how employees are treated at other firms during busy season, and I'm so glad to work at a company that doesn't expect or want their staff to run themselves into the ground during tax season.”

“We are accountants, we (should) know that we signed up for a busy season. While we all agree taking PTO during the busy season is a ‘no,’ the firm urges us to utilize our PTO accordingly in our off-season, and the process is easy. The work/life balance is fair, considering it's the busy season. In the off-season, work/life balance is very easy to maintain.”

“The 1800 billable hour requirement is the hardest aspect of the firm's overall quality of life, but my team has been more than understanding of many situations that I have come across, such as getting sick, doctors appointment, etc. They make sure that there is a balance between work and life. I am thankful to have a considerate team.”

“No issues with quality of life. I put in the hours because I want to climb high. No issues with using vacation or taking time off. Staff are encouraged to use their time off so that they don't burnout. Most challenging aspect is the condensed deliverable period that causes night and weekend work. If there was somehow a way to get everything done between normal business hours, we would see a lot more auditing candidates.”

Salary and Benefits

“The benefits are great. The firm encourages you to be healthy and reimburses you for fitness expenses. They also provide equipment to make your workspace easy to work in and comfortable. And they encourage employee gatherings to promote team building and camaraderie. Salary could be a little higher, especially given the hours.”

“I love that they reimburse staff for travel to company events and have snacks in the office. I also love how they offer technology reimbursements for office equipment as it makes it easy to make a purchase. Salary is standard, but inflation is making wage increases look like we are earning significantly less than what we should. “

“The best aspect is the ability to work remotely full-time. That in itself has a high value. That is followed by the Shadow stock program 401(k) matching, open time off, child care reimbursement, fitness and tech reimbursements, health care ... the list goes on! I also think compensation is fair in general, but I do think it should continue to be evaluated a couple of times per year, by geography. There are large market differences between locations in/around an urban city compared to locations in lower cost areas.”

“We have fantastic benefits for team members in different stages of life. Pet care insurance for those that have pets, and child care reimbursement for those paying for child care. We have tuition reimbursement, and leave for new parents, etc. I am no longer in that stage of life, so the items that are very important to me are flextime/working from home. And the Firm delivers on those!”

Wellness Efforts

“I think we do an excellent job with these matters. Mental and physical health benefits are offered. We also have gym reimbursements and days off if you qualify by leading a healthy lifestyle.”

“Reimbursement for some fitness expenses, wellness webinars for dealing with stress, they promote meditation and exercise, health insurance provides counseling, etc.”

“Withum has multiple initiatives that show that they are thinking of this. I enjoy the Headspace membership. Meditation is amazing for controlling anxiety. The yearly fitness reimbursement is also great. The fitness challenge is a fun way to think about fitness and connect with others even at a distance. Now I just need to find the time to actually exercise …”:

“Withum's wellness program is very generous. Access to onsite gyms at some offices. Great food at lunches and gatherings. Incentive to see your doctor and get a wellness checkup. Withum will cover the cost of your insurance premium for one month and give you an additional day off.”

Diversity, Philanthropy, and Green Initiatives

“Withum is the most diverse accounting firm I have ever seen/heard of/experienced. As a Black person, I finally feel seen, being that there are Black and other people of color holding various positions in the firm. I actually did my honors thesis on Black and female representation in the accounting profession and the results were astounding how the lack of representation was, especially in higher up positions like manager and partner. Female representation was more common, but racial diversity not as much. So, when I came to Withum, it was a breath of fresh air. Withum has Team Member Resource Groups (TMRGs) such as for its Black community, Latino community, Asian community, LGBTQ+ community, disabled community, veterans, women, and now parents. Team members are encouraged to participate in these groups and have as a resource of like team members to talk to. Withum also encourages participation in community service and volunteer activities. We have our Withum Week of Caring during the week of Thanksgiving where we make sure to take time to give back to the community. And there are other volunteer events we can do throughout the year.”

“We have numerous ways of giving back to the community, which are easy to find and receive emails about. The highest people on the chain of command (CEO and partner's in charge of each office) aren't very diverse, but this is made up for by the fact that there are a grand number of females and diverse individuals in higher level positions (partners, senior managers, and managers). I am unaware of if there are many LGBTQ+ individuals in my firm, but I do know there is no discrimination against them, and there is even a group dedicated to raising awareness for the community.”

“We have Withum's week of Caring, where we go out in teams to different charities, as well as paid time off to volunteer at charities. We are a very diverse group. I am a woman with a disability and have never found anything except complete acceptance from the team and leadership. Not only do we have diversity, but we have Employee Relations Groups for numerous groups, which work to spread the message and educate other team members about issues.”

“As with many accounting firms, current partners and leaders tend to be white men, and I hope the trends continue to change. I have seen some turnover of diversity leaving the firm. There is more female leadership here than I have seen at other firms in the past, so I am excited about that.”

Business Outlook

“Our firm’s business outlook seems very positive. Our growth is constantly backed by a team that wants to go above and beyond the projected numbers. The entire firm constantly pushes one another in positive ways to get us working and improving the firm so that we in turn can help and improve our clients around the world.”

“I think Withum is doing a good job in growing/expanding the business. We have more clients than ever and have double in size the last few years. I think the weaknesses are retaining good talent. I feel as though the talent pool hasn't replaced what was here, and it has been a struggle or maybe a byproduct of quick growth.”

“The best aspect is that Withum is growing rapidly, and this creates many opportunities to move up the firm. The downside is because the firm is growing so quickly there are many demands on our time for work, which makes it harder to adequately train lower staff.”

“I think Withum is a company that will continue its strong growth. Hopefully it won't grow too fast because it might create a kind of environment that favors speed over quality. I think we have a good thing going and many people care about the culture on a personal level.”