BDO reviews

- We get blamed for everything we do, even on the grammar we use on our emails (makes pressing the "Send" button on emails mentally tiring). Our English often gets criticised, saying is hard to understand and we need to improve on it but generally most people can understand (fact: I have been using the same English standard for the past 3 years without any issue). - Superiors are not that helpful. They say we can ask questions if need any clarification but always end up wasting time having long winded discussions in meetings and ending without conclusions. - Having lots of workload that are different in nature ongoing concurrently. In addition, you might also get dragged into organising "team engagement" stuff that takes up even more time that you don't have much of (P.S. you would still get blamed if superiors find it no fun). - Every day at work is just thinking of how to avoid getting blamed instead of actually doing the work properly. - You still need to do admin stuff like raising invoice to clients (which is a very tedious process).

- You are regularly guilted into working long hours and sometimes asked not to claim overtime due to project recovery, they sometimes act like they're a charity - Pay is much less than industry, I believe grads start on around £29k, £750 pay rise after 1 year, £3k pay rise after 2 years, then pay rise on qualification of ACA and 3 years which takes pay to around £47k, the jump to assistant manager is about £1.5k pay rise (for a lot more work), I think new managers get around £55k+small bonus. Baring in mind partners get paid around £700k average and in industry new qualified pay is around £55-60k+bonus. No bonuses regularly paid at BDO, apart from qualification bonus on passing ACA (£3.5k you pass all first time, £3k if just passing), other bonuses sometime paid are usually around £100 pre-tax. - Grads are put onto an apprenticeship scheme (usually without being told), means BDO pays less tax and you have to do lots of extra work like essays etc, means you don't have to pay for retakes and can leave the firm within 1 year of qualifying w/o paying back fees - They've hire lots of people who work remotely from abroad so the social aspect isn't as good anymore, they've gotten rid of the big audit Christmas party and many other perks and socials have gone since COVID. - Work-life balance is pretty rubbish, usually have to work evenings and weekends and busy season basically lasts all year now - Laptops are terrible and usually crash, poor spec - Mental health is a big issue at BDO, many people struggle due to the hard working environment - High turnover, lack of practical training, many incompetent staff, lots of last minute struggles on audits due to incompetence - They've taken on too many clients and don't have the staff or competence to deal with it so all the remaining competent people are having to do everything and are quickly leaving BDO - Emails and messages are regularly ignored by managers and partners - BDO are getting terrible ratings in audit reviews, I think we came joint bottom last time