Pros
Huge resources. People available to do or assist in all areas - technical and administrative. Nice building. Free fruit and coffee. Generally a pleasant atmosphere and increasingly inclusive. A good place for the shrinking few who can make it to partner or for senior staff with no ambition who want a so so salary and an easy, cosseted life. Good training support for junior staff.
Cons
Much diminished pay and opportunities for senior staff - increasingly exploitative attitude to senior staff. Partner incomes have grown massively - 20%+ per annum recently whilst staff income have shrunk continuously in real terms over the last 10 years - e.g. 1% standard increase last year. Little loyalty to staff when it comes to progression - more interested in continually bringing in people from outside - generally on much better packages. Increasingly corporate culture. Large numbers of people not productively occupied. A general sense partners are making too much money too easily now to have any real interest in staff or in investing in their development. An increasingly difficult firm to go out to sell in the market place because there’s a growing perception in other professional firms that BDO are overpriced and are too often churning mediocre work. Quite openly benchmarking and seeking to be just like the Big 4 now. However, without Big 4 benefits or e.g. retirement of partners at 55 to make way for the next generation. Too many ageing and disengaged partners hanging around now to milk their equity earnings. An accelerating hollowing out of expertise as more directors go off to be partners in other firms and partners churn more work through inexperienced junior staff.